NISHADHAM In sruthi boxes

[CHELLAM]

I SEE 3 DIFFERENT NOTES ON THE ELECTRONIC SRUTHI BOX
pa , ma, ni
pa is for panchamam or regular sruthi
ma is for madhyama sruthi

now nishadham - when to use ?
is this used along with other notes in the sruthi ?
do hindustani singers use this more?
when do carntic singers use this "ni" setting ?

if someone can explain this i would appreciate it

thanks in advance

[arunk]

nishadam - I believe is used in Hindustani music only

Arun

[ramakriya]

nishadam - I believe is used in Hindustani music only

Arun

Generally true.

If you are singing a pratimadhyama rAga without panchama, but one which has kAkali niSHAda, we could use it too, I guess.

I have seen people use it for hamsanandi and sunAdavinOdini.

-Ramakriya

[srikant1987]

It seems Pt Bhimsen Joshi once tuned his shruti to shuddha madhyama and kAkali niShAda (shuddh niShAdh) for mAlkaus (hindOLam's equivalent in hm). So the "notes in the raga" logic is probably not a universally applicable one.

[uday_shankar]

It seems Pt Bhimsen Joshi once tuned his shruti to shuddha madhyama and kAkali niShAda (shuddh niShAdh) for mAlkaus (hindOLam's equivalent in hm). So the "notes in the raga" logic is probably not a universally applicable one.

Srikanth, this cannot be true. Kakali nishada vibrating in the background while singing Malkauns will strike a very discordant note and I can't imagine anybody, leave alone Bhimsen Joshi sing to it ! In fact, I have never heard any Hindustani musician tune the tampura to any note that's not part of the rAga. Hence the logic in muting the panchama for panchama varjya raga and including nishada for nishandtya ragas (or at least where nishada is a dominant note) like Yaman.

Generally speaking in HM:

1. Never use panchama shruti for panchama varjya ragas such as Malkauns (hindolam) or Sohoni (Hamsasandi), etc..
2. For panchama varjya ragas with a dominant shuddha madhyama, sometimes a shuddha madyama is added to the shruti. Example Malkauns
3. For panchama varjya ragas with a dominant kakali nishada, sometimes a kakali nishada is added to the shruti. Example, Sohoni.
4. For sampurna rAgas that are kakali nishadantya (i.e., begin/end arohana from/at kakali nishada), sometimes a kakali nishada is thrown into the shruti in addition to S and P. Example Yaman
5 Kaishiki nishada and prati madhyama are never in the shruti mix in any raga.
6. The concept of "madhyama shruti" of Carnatic music, i.e., where the tonic is shifted to madhyama for certain songs/ragas, does not exist in HM. In HM the tonic is always the same throughout the concert for all ragas.

[sr_iyer]

Saw a similar mention to what has been indicated by Srikant at:

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.musi ... 43e4?hl=en

[uday_shankar]

Saw a similar mention to what has been indicated by Srikant at:

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.musi ... 43e4?hl=en

Hmmm...not the first time I was wrong and Srikant was right .



I found this audio in youtube - Bhimsen Joshi and Pandit Jasraj singing Malkauns. The tampura is tuned to shadja-only as should be the case in my opinion - even a loud madhayama would seem an unnecessary distraction.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIQ8gQIb9pc

On the other hand, in this recording below of Darbari Kanada (a raga which only uses Kaishiki nishada), a very faint kakali nishada can be heard (most discernible in the first 6 seconds when we hear only the tampuras). I think one string in one of the two tampuras have been tuned to a kakali nishada. The sound of the kakali nishada is absorbed in the overall shadja effect created by the two tampuras and actually creates a pleasant effect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_L4fiy1 ... re=related

[ragam-talam]

While on this topic, would it be kosher to set the note to the nyaasa swara (resting note) of a raga? This seems a logical thing to do?

[Radhika-Rajnarayan]

Dear members,
May I voice my opinion on the topic of nishada in a tambura (acoustic / digital).
Firstly, both versions , when made and tuned correctly, also generate harmonics - that is why you can hear the antara gaandhaaram when the mandaram is plucked, the chatursruti rishabham when the panchmam is plucked, and in addition, one can hear the kakali nishadam, chatursruti dhaivatam and shuddha madhyamam, AS HARMONICS even when none of the strings are tuned to these notes. These notes will be heard in varying degrees of faintness / loudness. In the case of the recording above, the kakali nishadam is clearly a harmoonic caused by the perfectly tuned tamburas.
It is also a fact that the generation of these harmonics is purely a function of how perfectly the instrument has been tuned, and has nothing to do with the 'hollowing out' of the wood, the quality of wood, etc. These harmonics can be created even with the note generated in any form, even in a laboratory, not necessarily by the pluck of a string.
Coming to the use of nishada in the digital tamburas (commonly but erroneously referred to as 'electronic sruti box' by many), the kakali nishada has been provided in these for use where the nishada in the raga itself is an amsa or nyasa swara , or ads beauty to the raga. For example, even Carnatic musicians can use the kakali nishada in ragas like Hamsanandi, Sunadavinodini, etc.
In some Radel models an additional 5th 'string' or note is provided. This gives you an additional option of tuning the tambura to various combinations of notes, say 'ga-pa-sa-sa-sa' or 'ma-dha-sa-sa-sa' etc, to enhance the mood created by the raga. This 5th note can be tuned to any desired note (kaisiki nishada, suddha dhaivata - anything). So you can set the pa/ma/ ni selection to pa and tune the 5th note and get various combinations, you can select it to 'ma' and tune the 5th note and get entirely different conmbinations, then you can set it to 'ni' and again tune the 5th note to get still further varieties of combinations.
Please see this video demonstration of how to use the 5th note in a Radel digital tanpura:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AL8Fw-w2NCs