Aesthetics in Shruti alignment

[msakella]

Today I have uploaded to youtube a Video of my Lec-dem made on 20160413 on Shruti alignment in our music-institute, Swara-bhangima’ at Secunderabad. The respective url is https://youtu.be/NFdzGOVxDhg?list=PLtlk ... gRDmIMym5X and the interested can go through it. amsharma

[msakella]

Having the Antara-gandhara emanating from the Mandra-shadja-string as Svayambhoo-swara the present Tambura has its own restrictions like the dissonant effect against the Ragas having the Sadharana-gandhara. To avoid this, nearly more than 30 years back, I have designed an Electronic-automatic-shruti-instrument and since been using it regularly.

In this instrument three Tamburas for each of the three octaves each with the choice of Panchama or Shuddha-madhya or Upper-shadja (avoiding both Panchama and Suddha-madhyama) and the Shruti-box along with a choice of 4 octaves of Shadjas, 2 octaves of Panchamas or Madhyamas, 2 octaves of both the Gandharas and 2 octaves of both the Dhaivatas are provided. Nearly more than 20 years back, I have again brought out some folders carrying the respective audio-files of different consonant combinations of notes of this instrument for all the 12 notes to suit the needs of the artist and some of my disciples and friends are also using them regularly.

Now, I hereunder furnish the url of the folder of 1-Shruti (C) consisting 10 such audio-files. The list of notes of the respective audio-file is also furnished in the title of the audio-file itself. While utilising them I have loaded them into two mobile-telephones and select files are played simultaneously to get the consonant effect of the respective Ragas as furnished hereunder.

1.0: https://www.mediafire.com/folder/bn0irw5ysftpf/1.0

1 + 1 - For the Ragas Todi, Dhanyasi, Bhairavi etc.,; 1 + 1 or 2 or 3 - Mohana, Bilahari, Shankarabharana, Kalyani etc.,; 4 + 4 or 5 or 7 - Hamsanandi etc.,; 6 + 6 - Udayaravichandrika, Ranjani etc.,; 6 + 7 - Shubhaali etc.,; 7 + 7 - Ranjani etc.,; 7 + 9 or 10 - Shreeranjani, Abhogi etc.

Persons having more Shruti-sense only can utilise and enjoy them as per their own choice. amsharma

(I request the moderators to shift this sub-thread to the relevant main-thread Beginners Q & A. amsharma)

[shankarank]

Sri Sarma, Would it be possible for you to do the same lecture in English again when another opportunity arises and upload as well?

Many Thanks!

[msakella]

shankarank

That video was taken on 13-04-2016 at our music institute, Swarabhangima at Secunderabad along with the inmates of it. I wanted to demonstrate the Shruti intricacies to our kids as small kids are more receptive and not deceptive. I don’t like to reform our music-teachers as most of them think that they are more knowledgeable than all others and don’t listen to others.

Whatever I write is always the truth and this bitter-truth I always write only to make our kids knowledgeable but not for teachers. Moreover I always enjoy speaking to these innocent and honest kids who very sincerely follow and do things as I say.

Later, from May 9th I was fully bed-ridden due to severe ill-health for 4 months swallowing four 6-hourly intravenous injections daily for the very heavy infection attacked my spine. Since last two months I have been able to recover gradually day by day.

Moreover I did it in Telugu, my mother-tongue and, as I am not much educated like you people, I can never do it that affectively in English. Due to my ill-health I don't think that I can do it again.

However, if you happen to visit Hyderabad before I leave this world I certainly demonstrate it again for you. amsharma.

[varsha]

You can Do it !!!
For years I have saved this clip as an endearing image of the way our Music is handed over .
That was a wonderful day in Nesapakkam !!!

https://archive.org/details/01AMSVideo

[msakella]

Chi. Sow. Varsha dear,

Very nice of you, dear. This video was taken at Neyveli Santanam Sir’s house in 2009 when I have conducted a work-shop there for his students for two days. (http://rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8651) I held this work-whop for Swarakalpana and then I did not demonstrate this Shruti-allignments at all.

As you wrote in which way we hand-over the intricacies of Swarakalpana of our music to our kids we must hand-over the intricacies of Shruti-allignments also to prove that our kids can very well sing any Raga with full consonant effect very efficiently. For this purpose only I have started this thread for the benefit of our kids. amsharma

[shankarank]

Moreover I did it in Telugu, my mother-tongue and, as I am not much educated like you people, I can never do it that effectively in English.

You - not educated not like me - wah-re-wah! I liked your erudition here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NXpHQUsm6I and had a good laugh!!

Being a geek with my naivete - I will add some fundamental theorems of CM to celebrate your spirit!

[shankarank]

What you described here : https://youtu.be/8NXpHQUsm6I?t=888 is the what is called scale transformation (like for e.g: maps are to scale) in formal Math - basically the geometric sense!

Before that - I was witness to a Dhruva tALa Alankara lesson. Since you mentioned Odd and Even - the child was too young for Dhruva tALa - the teacher made her do just evenly spaced taps only first to learn it. When the student sang the mEl Kala which will accomodate two Alankara passages in one Avarta - the second passage begins atIta ( to a tap in the evenly spaced taps) and the student hesitated and couldn't keep just the tapping! Finally the student got it.

Essentially I thought that is the basic theorem of Arithmetic which is: Sum of two Odd numbers = Even! But still as simple as that is - it demonstrates a basic case of stress Shift!

And finally what we call sarva laghu is Algebra - but learning only Algebra without Geometry is being deficient in Math and may be also in music?!

[msakella]

Chi. ShankaranK dear,

You must understand my difficulty in speaking the foreign language, English. While dealing with my mother-tongue, Telugu the suitable word automatically comes out of my mouth to speak simultaneously with my expression. But, while dealing with the foreign language, English I must search for a suitable word to bring out my feelings and then only I can speak it out. You people do not have this problem as you always do all the things in English from dusk to dawn.

In our system we never directly teach any item to the kid. At the first instance, we shall stabilise the rhythmical abilities of the kid to enable him/her proceed further and further and, later, initiate the kid move further on his/her own with the item just like the teacher, sitting on the pillion, initiates the student drive the motor-cycle.

In singing an Alankara there are four implications and they are, 1.Uniform-rhythmical-balance 2.Rendering the Kriyas correctly 3.Pronouncing the Swara-syllables correctly 4.Singing the Swara-syllable in the correct Swara. At this tender age it is not that easy to manage with all these four implications. After many extensive experiments on these kids I have minimised them to two implications only and they are, 1.Uniform-rhythmical-balance 2.Pronouncing the Jati-syllables only. More over, at the first instance, we always initiate the kid render the Chaturashra-beats with both the hands one after the other with equal interval while pronouncing the Jati-syllables that too starting with the Eka-tala Jati-alankara but not Swara-alankara.

What many people are blindly calling ‘Sarva-laghu’ is not Sarva-laghu at all but ‘Sama-laghu’. While in’Sarva-laghu’ no long-letter or dual-letter (Janta-swara) should be pronounced these things can very well be pronounced as many times as the singer requires in ‘Sama-laghu’. But, very sadly, many are not aware of this. We can’t help! amsharma

[shankarank]

What you described here : https://youtu.be/8NXpHQUsm6I?t=888 is the what is called scale transformation (like for e.g: maps are to scale) in formal Math - basically the geometric sense!

More Math insights on Stress Shift!

What TNS describes here: https://youtu.be/Lwjrp4k_7Xs?t=5553 as to how triSram (or tiSram) was generally taught - similar to the 3 X 4 that you mention. He is not in agreement with the 4 X 3 method - in the sense of triSram having a smooth transition in the order of: 1 X 4, 2 X 4, 3 X 4. His contention is this is more a natural progression from caturaSram.

3 X 4 does not hug the beat like 4 X 3 , but demonstrates shifting of stress or syncopation just like adding two Odds = Even in the case of Dhruva tALa alankAra in higher kalam.

In that sense even though the Math relation is commutative, the musical effect created is non - commutative. i.e 3 X 4 is NOT EQUAL TO 4 X 3. The stress shift does not port over.

This is also very similar to the inverse naDai variation ( inverse transformation in formal Math) of triSram - which is caturASra triSram has stress shift. I.E. reversing triSram - where tAla beats are in triSra naDai to the jati syllables has stress shift. Whereas in trISra naDai there is no stress shift unless you go 4 syllables at a time in that naDai.

[msakella]

Chi. ShankaranK,

Whatever you wrote is for grown-ups only but not for little kids.

Having had many failures in my teaching life which very badly affected many poor students I am fed up with the present suicidal, traditional and quantitative system of teaching our music. I very extensively worked hard on these methods in learning our music (not teaching but cheating methods) and, only by the grace of the Almighty, I could ultimately found out a very logical method of learning our music by which I need not sing even for a single minute in any of the classes but my students work hard and learn the basics of our music very quickly and efficiently. Presently nearly 200 school-going kids and their parents are abundantly benefited by all this.

In our old traditional system of teaching music while a number of items only are taught for years without grammar, in this novel system, the kid is properly equipped with the needed grammar of music to perform the forth coming journey of music independently. For this purpose, the teacher must initiate the kid learn the grammar containing four very important points and they are 1.how to follow a written notation and pre-recorded CD to sing the contents 2.how to write the song in notation 3.rhythmical-intricacies and 4.oscillational-intricacies of the notes. At the first instance, if the instinctive rhythmical abilities of the kid in dealing with both the even (Chaturashra) and odd (Trisra) gatis are properly stabilised he/she can move further and further in his/her journey on his/her own independently just like a kid who has a motor-cycle and can drive it efficiently. Later, to give the aspirant the knowledge of oscillations the notations, audio and video-files up to select Varnas are given and basing upon them the kid can move further and learn things on his/her own with the minimum guidance of the teacher. This is the final outcome of my extensive experiments minimising the role of the teacher and maximising the role of the student in doing things independently making the process of learning very strictly ‘time-bound and result-oriented’ unlike other teachers.

Thus, my long cherished desire is fulfilled and, at this juncture and at this old age, I need not, cannot and do not try to understand and digest what all you wrote as I always bother about the positive end-results only but not to explain the complex implications to these little kids.

To tell the fact, umpteen times it has un-doubtedly been proved that the present quantitative method is absolutely suicidal to the aspirant wasting the invaluable time, energy and money of the aspirant. Even if I very severely condemn the old system in this manner each and every music-teacher remains tight-lipped as it is far more beneficial to the teacher not only in elongating the process of teaching for many years but also in squeezing money as much as he/she can. That is why the efficient and honest teachers only are following this novel system. amsharma

[shankarank]

Sri Sarma, I just found your statement that swara should be learnt through laya interesting - and made some observations on few things - my intention was not to comment on your methods otherwise. But it is very heartening to note that lot of students are benefiting from your approach!

It would be interesting know though, what their inclination/reaction would be in/after listening to various CM artistes from different era - after they reached a certain level of creative sangeetham I mean. So you see where I am going - I am more interested in more listeners as well!

[msakella]

Chi. ShankaranK dear,

Though logical, I do not remember in which context I have stated that swara should be learnt through laya.

I heartily welcome constructive comments to enrich this novel system in helping our poor aspirants more and more. However, due to my old age I would like to conserve my energy by simplifying my posts.

If the teacher properly and logically imitates the aspirants equip and reach a certain level of creative Sangeetham they will continue the same logic and develop themselves in a disciplined manner. Presently, the entire system of teaching is full of logicalities and indiscipline unnecessarily elongating the process of learning for many years and making them dependents upon these so-called teachers (cheaters). I am also one of these victims for many years. But, when, only by God’s grace, I did nothing but made it very strictly logical their invaluable time, energy and money are saved and they are abundantly benefited for the first time in the history. What more is needed?

I am more interested in making the aspirants fully independent in the process of learning basing upon their individual abilities and later, things follow accordingly. amsharma