Janta swara gamakas on the violin (or vocal)

Ideas and innovations in Indian classical music
Post Reply
violin_balan
Posts: 13
Joined: 22 Feb 2016, 06:16

Janta swara gamakas on the violin (or vocal)

Post by violin_balan »

Hello All,

I'm following Akella Sir's Violin lessons where he talks about the janta swara gamakas being played as slides from the higher note to the lower note in sweeps of two. The very high bpm in the video makes it hard to follow. There is also a mention of an upward glide; not sure where that fits in this technique. Is the direction reversed depending on the arohana or avrohana.

I can usually play by hearing and I have been trying to look for vocal gamakas that illustrate this method but I only find the plain note janta technique. I think it would be more illustrative to see how the janta gamaka technique can be used in simple geethams like 'Vara Veena'. I would appreciate any pointers or tips to set me on the right direction here.

Thank you very much for any answers!

msakella
Posts: 2127
Joined: 30 Sep 2006, 21:16

Re: Janta swara gamakas on the violin (or vocal)

Post by msakella »

violin_balan

It is always desirable to define or narrate or demonstrate such intricate instrumental technicalities face to face in person or by Skype at the least. So, if you come on Skype I shall try to explain to you in more detail. However, now, I shall try to explain to you up to some extent at the least.

In general, the plain-janta-swara in violin must be played any swara twice or thrice or four-times with two fingers jointly keeping one below the other except in case of the pointing finger as no finger follows the pointing finger. This is the plain-janta-swara. But, in gamaka-janta-swara each and every note must be played with a downward-glide. This could be well-defined by a demonstration either by vocal or violin to make it clearer.

Unfortunately, many of the musicians follow the traditional methods only in music in the absence of any logical base. Playing gamaka-janta is purely a logical technique but not traditional technique at all. That is why many violinists cannot follow or even understand it.

Many a time it has been proved beyond any doubt that we can do miracles by following a very strictly logical view and loose many useful things by the conservative view. I do not prefer to discuss several intricate points here but prefer to discuss them face to face. amsharma

Post Reply