Adaptation of guitar to Indian Music

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Barnali

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Posted: 18 years ago

ADAPTATION OF GUITAR TO INDIAN CLASSICAL MUSIC

BY : DR. KAMALA SHANKAR

MIGRATION OF GUITAR TO INDIA

Guitar is a Western Musical Instrument, very popular and common in Western Countries, but now acquiring it's position and popularity in Indian Classical Music also.

The Migration of Guitar to India took place through the coastal areas like Goa, West Bengal, Bombay, by the Portugese and the Britishers and gradually spread over to many parts of the country.

Two varieties of acoustic Guitar are there :

(1) SPANISH GUITAR &

(2) HAWAIIAN GUITAR

SPANISH GUITAR is very popular in Western Countries & India. It is widely used as an accompanying musical instrument for light music such as - Ghazals, Geet, Bhajans & Film Music in India.

HAWAIIAN GUITAR is named as per it's origin from HAWAII-ISLAND, situated in the Pacific Ocean near Honululu in the territory of U.S.A. It is equally popular like Spanish and is adapted through Indian Film Music and Ravindra Sangeet, about a century back.

Regarding the structure, there is no marked difference between Spanish and Hawaiian Guitar, except the style of playing and the strings are slightly elevated with the help of a metal plate in Hawaiian Guitar.

While playing Spanish Guitar, a stricker is used by the right hand for strokes and the fingers of the left hand slide over the strings, to produce sound (Swaras). It is hanged on the shoulder with the help of a belt, usually in standing posture. Hawaiian Guitar is played by keeping it on the lap. The strokes are produced by the right hand with the help of two finger picks and one thumb pick. The Swaras are produced by sliding the steel-rod over the strings by left hand simultaneously.

The style of playing Hawaiian Guitar may be compared with that of Vichitra-Veena of our Indian Instruments. The only difference is, that in place of the Steel rod, a solid glass sphere (like a paper weight) is used in Vichitra-Veena.

There is another variety of Guitar i.e. Electric Guitar, where the sound is amplified by the electric media, may be Hawaiian or Spanish electric Guitar.

As far as the Adaptation of Hawaiian Guitar into Hindustani Classical Music is concerned, the credit goes to Sri (late) Nalin Mazumdar of Allahabad

(Guru of my Basic Guitar Teacher - Dr. Shivanath Bhattacharya of Varanasi), who was the disciple of Late Baba Allauddin Khan Saheb (of Maihar Gharana). Sri Nalin Mazumdar, for the first time, played Hindusthani Classical Music on Hawaiian Guitar about Fifty years back.

It was really a difficult task for him, and he had to face lot of problems before the audience who were not at all interested to listen classical music on Hawaiian Guitar. He tried his level best to popularise Hindustani classical music on this instrument.

He achieved a great success in getting the Hawaiian Guitar included in the Syllabus of String Instruments of Hindustani Classical Music of Prayag Sangeet Samiti, Allahabad.

Late Dr. Lalmani Misra ji (Veena Maestro & Ex- Dean of Faculty of Performing Arts, Banaras Hindu University) did a great effort and was successful in getting the Hawaiian Guitar included in the competitive test of String Instruments, organised by U. P. Sangeet Natak Akademi, Lucknow in 1976.

With the great effort by my Guru, the renowned Veena & Sitar Vidwan Late Dr. Gopal Shankar Misra ji ( Ex- Reader in Sitar, Faculty of Performing Arts B.H.U., Son & Disciple of Late Dr. Lalmani Misra ji), the Hawaiian Guitar was included in the "Doctorate" Course (D. Mus.) of Faculty of Performing Arts, B.H.U. in 1995. I feel myself lucky to join the First batch.

The credit goes to Pt. Brij Bhushan Kabra ji, for making the Hawaiian Guitar very popular in the Galaxy of Indian Classical Music. who for the first time modified this instrument by adding 'Chikari", Tarabs and using "Mizrab" in place of "Picks".

Thereafter Pt. Vishwamohan Bhatt ji, Sri Debashish Bhattacharya (Calcutta), Sri Barun Pal (Calcutta) and Sri Krishna Kumar (Delhi) and few others have given respectable height to Hawaiian Guitar like other Indian stringed Instruments.

Ever since the establishment of Hawaiian Guitar is made, in the armamentrium of Indian classical music, efforts are being made to modify this instrument on individual experimental basis e.g. adding extra strings in the forms of "Chikari" & "Tarabs", using "Flat Rod" and "Mizrab" in place of cylindrical Rod & Picks etc.

Pt. Vishwamohan Bhatt ji has modified the Hawaiian Guitar and named it "Mohan Veena:"

Hawaiian Guitar can afford pure classical abstractions as beautifully as any other plucked instrument of Indigenous origin which is now enjoying pride of place in the Galaxy of India's concert instrument today.

We can proudly say that the adaptation of Guitar to Indian Classical Music will play a great role in "Universal Cultural Integration" of EAST & WEST.

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Bob Chowdhury

@Qwest

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Posted: 18 years ago

The Indian Origin of the Guitar

Contributed by: Thakur Chakrapan

The guitar is one of the most dominant instruments in the realm of instrumental music covering tunes of light music, western, Indian or classical music. Its melody and extraordinary range of variations keep the people spell bound the world over. We Indians feel our senses purified and dance mesmerizingly at the tunes of the guitar.

Most of the music exponents attribute the guitar as a western instrument but quite a few know that guitar was played in the ancient days in India during the Vedic period; the form of music was Samgan. The kachhapi veena was used in this period for solo performances and also as an accompanying instrument. This instrument later on is believed to have migrated to different parts of the world and acquired different names while it vanished from India. The kachhapi veena was one of the famous instruments of that period. The birth of the guitar can be linked to kachhapi veena which was used for Samgan (Geet) thus got its name as guitar.

The mystery of the origin of the guitar probably is hidden in its name. The western name 'guitar' is derived from the syllogism. If we write guitar as Geetar, Geet + Tar means an instrument with tar or strings that can be played for any geet or song. The word 'Geet' is an Indian name for song in Sanskrit.

Classical music has been been played on guitar from a very long time. It is probably known to very few people that the late Shri Gopal Singh son of the late Shri Parvat Singh, a well known family in music, used to perform in All India Radio (A.I.R.) in the 1950s. He was taught guitar from Ustad Haafiz Ali Khan Sahib and there was Chikari and Tarab usage in his playing. But nobody proclaimed the guitar being any type or model of veena, but rather it was adapted as Indian classical guitar for further modifications to take this instrument to its highest peak.

The instrument eventually became popular as the performers experimented with the guitar by adding 19, 22, 25 extra strings to it and gave it a personalized name, which is quite ridiculous. The Hawaiian slide guitar in India as an instrument was used for playing Indian light popular songs. But the performing artists who desired to play Indian Classical Ragas on guitar started making certain improvisations as per their own fascinations to classicize the instrument. At first, each of the artists playing guitar started making alterations, as per his own mode or style as were done with sitar, sarod, sarangi, esraj, veena etc., the Indian Classical instruments in vogue.

The alteration in Hawaiian guitar was done with the 6th number string and it was replaced with 0 or 00 number string or by replacing the guitar's 1st number string and was used for producing Chikari sound. Again by fixing an extra small wooden piece with 2-4 keys on the left side of the guitar fret board, the Chikari was shifted and the instrument was being played on. Then again seven strings as Tarab were put under the guitar's main strings which had promising effect and thus the number of strings rose to 12 for Tarab for the beautiful tone of the instrument. The fret board of guitar was broadened too, like veena, and keeping it hollow, the artists played on it. The artists began playing on this modified guitar by placing Tarab under main strings, some placed on left and a few on the right of the fret board. Some of them fixed the Tarab and Chikari on the both the sides of guitar. Because Indian classical music is being played on this instrument and it was a reproduction of a famous Indian classical instrument, the veena, the most ancient Indian stringed instrument, artists named it after veena of various modes, or gave different names. In this way the artists playing Indian classical guitars have differences in their instruments from each other.

The guitar of Thakur Chakrapani Singh, which is his own modification, is quite distinct and complete. It has 32 strings besides Chikari and Tarab being used on both the sides in its whole, as if the tune or the melody of veena, sarod, sitar, sarangi, violin and flute is entwined or incorporated in it. It is in its full form and quite different instrument from any of the Indian guitar player's instrument or so called guitar modified versions (veena). The instrument accommodates tuning arrangements of the Indian classical guitar in expressing the nuances of classical ragas. The entire techniques of vocal and instrumental classical music have been adopted in this modification of the guitar. As the modifications are being carried and personalized names are being announced, Shri Singh after an extensive research on series of ancient and modern Indian stringed instruments has named it kachhapi veena. The Kachhapi veena was an ancient Indian classical Instrument as explorations reveal.

Edited by Qwest - 18 years ago

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Adaptation of guitar to Indian Music

ADAPTATION OF GUITAR TO INDIAN CLASSICAL MUSIC

BY : DR. KAMALA SHANKAR

MIGRATION OF GUITAR TO INDIA

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