Guitar in Carnatic Music

kaumaaram · Post by **kaumaaram** » 25 Nov 2005, 16:07

Dear all,

Obviously, many of you would know that the person who pioneered the use of Guitar in Carnatic Music was Mr Sukumar Prasad. The mission is now being continued by Prasanna.

I would like you to share with us any of the concerts of Mr Sukumar Prasad.

Kaumaaram Sivakumar T

abadri · Post by **abadri** » 06 Dec 2005, 01:09

[post deleted]

Ananth · Post by **Ananth** » 28 Feb 2006, 10:46

When I started listening to Carnatic music in the 80's, Prasad was one of the first artists that caught my attention. I had one commercial tape - Begada varnam, Vatapi, Brova barama etc. He was accompanied by his sister on guitar, plus mridangam and tabla too, if I remember right.
It was music that was very pleasant on the ears for me at that stage, and I am sure it was of very high standard too, because, as my tastes naturally grew,
I stopped listening much to Kunnakkudi and the like, but not that single tape of Sukumar Prasad, which must have done 1000 rounds in my tape deck.
I'd dearly love to listen to more music of Sukumar.

abadri, would you be kind enough to oblige?

I live in South Chennai. Pls do reply me at [email protected]

chalanata · Post by **chalanata** » 27 Oct 2006, 21:05

i can never forget the brova barama by prasad. it is the next best to MSG's. in an instrument where gamakas are very laboured sukumar broght the most scintillating alapana, song and kalpanaswara.
where is he now and is his music available anywhere?

kaumaaram · Post by **kaumaaram** » 01 Nov 2006, 15:56

chalanata wrote:where is he now and is his music available anywhere?

I am unable to locate. I have listened to his concerts on AIR but did not have the opportunity to record them. We must only hunt for it.

Kaumaaram

sid12321 · Post by **sid12321** » 02 Dec 2006, 09:56

Sukumar Prasad is my relative. I keep listening to the cassette 100s of times and even started playing the guitar. I would definitely appreciate any recordings. One video cassette which had the recording of one of his concerts went bad a few years back.

chalanata · Post by **chalanata** » 02 Dec 2006, 16:08

sid12321,
where is prasad now? is he giving concerts? is it possible for you to upload any of his songs?

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 02 Dec 2006, 18:12

Sukumar Prasad toured Australia also in the late 1980s. He was the nephew of (violin) M. Chandrasekhar. For the Australian tour Srimushnam Raja Rao played mrudangam and his sister and brother accompanied him on the violin and mrudangam. I understand Sukumar Prasad quit the music field. The family was quite involved with some swamiji -Adigar or someone like that.

chalanata · Post by **chalanata** » 02 Dec 2006, 22:13

what a great loss to CM world!

kaumaaram · Post by **kaumaaram** » 04 Dec 2006, 09:35

I am trying to get hold of some of his recordings. Let me try my best. But I am told that his entire family had strong leanings towards CM.

chalanata · Post by **chalanata** » 15 Dec 2006, 21:28

kaumaaram,
it is quite some time since you assured us of the clips. could you make any progress?

kaumaaram · Post by **kaumaaram** » 17 Dec 2006, 11:38

Not yet. Please wait for some more time.

Suji Ram · Post by **Suji Ram** » 05 Jan 2007, 01:49

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu ... d=99235795

Some audio and video clips of Prasanna.

Is raghunatha in the album "peaceful" in kadanakuthuhalam?
you can hear it in the above site.

ramakriya · Post by **ramakriya** » 05 Jan 2007, 02:59

IIRC raghunAtha nannu is in rAga sura ranjani

S G3 P R2 M1 D2 S
S N3 D2 P M1 G3 R2 S

-Ramakriya

Suji Ram · Post by **Suji Ram** » 05 Jan 2007, 03:18

Thanks ramakriya
The tune reminded me of DRS Kantaswara- which has SGPNRMDS in Aro..

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 17 Jan 2007, 10:02

http://download.yousendit.com/9A2E4F6155BF6E8E

Prasanna---vintage clip

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 17 Jan 2007, 14:15

There are quite a few clips of Prasanna on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_q ... a+carnatic

arunk · Post by **arunk** » 17 Jan 2007, 18:31

thanks mohan. I am a huge fan of prasannna although i agree with one of the comments (on youtube) that the tone of his guitar could have been tone down for a better effect. It looks like he has gone for a more rock like tone.

I have pre-recorderd cd of his (with janini ninuvina, RTP in madyamavati) - the guitar tone there is so soothing.

But the guy is just amazingly talented and IMO he brings the CM touch quite effectively on an equi-tempered instrument. I also bought his ragamorphism DVD and it is quite informative (although very technical, which can be very dry if one doesnt know the details. All the jazz stuff were all bouncers over my head

). This DVD has the best explanation (i.e. with a demo) that I have come across that shows the difference between a scale (like the western major scale) and the equiv raga (Sankarabharanam).

Arun

chalanata · Post by **chalanata** » 17 Jan 2007, 21:07

prasadin vasippukku prasannavin vasippu urai podak kanadhu!

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 17 Jan 2007, 21:31

arunk wrote:thanks mohan. I am a huge fan of prasannna although i agree with one of the comments (on youtube) that the tone of his guitar could have been tone down for a better effect. It looks like he has gone for a more rock like tone.

Arun
I recently heard one and only one guitar prasanna concert which I posted. Perhaps I am little excessively extrapolative in making the below statements.

1.What I found was there was just too much of amplifiers/sound equipments used making it more like a rock concert. Infact because of sound adjustment there was a delay of 45 minutes.

2. Also in his concert all the time , all 3 percussionist(s) were playing. In my concert there was prapancham ravindran in mridangam, ghatam karthik and bsp in kanjira and there was excessive percussion .

But the best experience there is just lot of purity in rAgas that prasanna takes, certainly no loss of classicism at all. Hope he does some remedy for 1 and 2.

arunk · Post by **arunk** » 17 Jan 2007, 21:37

chalanata,

perhaps. But having not heard Sukumar Prasad, my lone frame of reference is prasanna (+ my miserable attempts at playing CM on the guitar!). I would love to hear some recordings of Sukumar Prasad, but i guess they are very hard to come by.

Arun

arunk · Post by **arunk** » 17 Jan 2007, 21:40

rajesh,

i have not attended any of his concerts. But that hemavati one, i agree seems quite loud (guitar and the percussion). Also, it gets a bit too jazzy at the end. Not a crime - i think based on his wide exposure to different music, he likes to explore new arenas. But more often than not, i prefer a more classical approach.

As far as tonal quality, I thought in that CD, he was going more towards the vINa feel and I think that works a lot better (atleast for me).

Arun

kaumaaram · Post by **kaumaaram** » 24 Jan 2007, 10:58

http://www.geetham.net/forums/showthread.php?t=21512

chalanata · Post by **chalanata** » 26 Jan 2007, 17:33

sir,

i am not able to download it.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 26 Jan 2007, 17:34

The geetham site is for streaming music usually...

Rigapada · Post by **Rigapada** » 27 Jan 2007, 12:36

Dear chalanata,
Both the links given in the thread are still live and can be downloaded. Only you have to be registered and logged in to Geetham.
Dear rshanker,
There is no streaming music on Geetham. All the uploads and inhouse music is downloadable.

--Rigapada

kaumaaram · Post by **kaumaaram** » 29 Jan 2007, 15:32

Sorry, gentlemen, in my hurry to give you the link (and to just keep up with my promise that I had made earlier) I did not give you the guidelines for logging into Geetham. Now that Shri Rigapada has done that, I would request your comments.

Kaumaaram

chalanata · Post by **chalanata** » 01 Feb 2007, 13:20

dear kaumaaram,

till today i'm unable to open despite having becoming a member. the same thing gets repeated and is becoming like the 'vazhapazha joke' of senthil. if it is possible you may post a slice of prasad's in rogepost or elsewhere.
thanks

chalanata · Post by **chalanata** » 01 Feb 2007, 13:20

not withstanding i've no doubts how it will be. it will be par excellence. notes of brova barama are still ringing in my ears.

kaumaaram · Post by **kaumaaram** » 09 Feb 2007, 14:24

Dear chalanata

I am sure that you will succeed. Currently I do not have a broadband connection to upload it somewhere. Please bear with me.

If you had already registered - just to guide you: - go to main menu under carnatic music - instrumental downloads - guitar in carnatic music.

Where do you stay BTW? If you are in Chennai I can meet with you and handover a CD.

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 09 Feb 2007, 15:04

Where do you stay BTW? If you are in Chennai I can meet with you

Joke of 2007

I have been trying to meet Kaumaram for the past 14 months and have succeeded only in meeting his Delivery Boys !!

kaumaram.
I have been trying to reach you for the FEB 15th meet.Please do call me.I have misplaced your numbers.

chalanata · Post by **chalanata** » 09 Feb 2007, 18:39

dear kaumaaram,
i will make an attempt again and come back to you. thanks.

chalanata · Post by **chalanata** » 12 Feb 2007, 18:52

i managed to download but the clips are not playing. my system is not Dice VQF savvy. despite my downloading the playing device.can some tech savvy people help? thanks.

meena · Post by **meena** » 12 Feb 2007, 23:52

winamp media player supports VQF files, all u have to do is d/l the VQF plug-ins that is available @ their site.

kaumaaram · Post by **kaumaaram** » 14 Feb 2007, 15:25

coolkarni wrote:
Where do you stay BTW? If you are in Chennai I can meet with you
Joke of 2007

I have been trying to meet Kaumaram for the past 14 months and have succeeded only in meeting his Delivery Boys !!

kaumaram.
I have been trying to reach you for the FEB 15th meet.Please do call me.I have misplaced your numbers.

Cool,

Nice dig loaded with lot of sarcasm that I enjoyed. I have been travelling for some time. I will call you right away.

For chalanata, I met the same methodology however!

Kaumaaram

thamizhisai_paithiyam · Post by **thamizhisai_paithiyam** » 23 Apr 2007, 07:41

chalanata wrote:i can never forget the brova barama by prasad. it is the next best to MSG's. in an instrument where gamakas are very laboured sukumar broght the most scintillating alapana, song and kalpanaswara.
where is he now and is his music available anywhere?

ditto on that brovabarama. still have the tape. just beautiful stuff. on my last trip to india three years ago, doordarshan was playing some old concerts and i got to watch him from a concert many years ago. it's such a pity he quit CM. very gifted artiste.

Im A Skal Man · Post by **Im A Skal Man** » 12 May 2007, 23:27

Is anybody aware of the use of slide guitar in Carnatic music?

Of course there is Ravikiran on chitravina.

HM has Debahish Bhattacharya, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Barun Kumar Pal & Brij Bushan Kabra playing their own modified guitars.

It seems like the warm tone and gliding between notes would suit the vocal quality of CM very well, much like violin. Any practitioners out there?

puru00047 · Post by **puru00047** » 10 Mar 2008, 12:46

any body who can play carnatic on guitar pl contact me: [email protected]
also anybody interested in prasanna and guitar
pl do contact me

prasanna fan
puru

Sobers · Post by **Sobers** » 14 May 2008, 00:03

Friends,
I've seen one live video of Sri Sukumar prasad in doordarshan.
I was astouned by the beautiful sound he created. He is simply great.
He is the one who started Carnatic music on Guitar.
If anybody have some information about him please share it with me.

Sobers

rajesh_rs · Post by **rajesh_rs** » 29 Jul 2008, 01:04

I've been learning guitar and playing for a year now, and since I have been listening to Carnatic music for the past several years, I try to play carnatic music on the guitar. Most of my experiments with carnatic so far have been with Melakarta ragas and occasionally I experiment with guitar styles other than Carnatic which bear a close resemblance to Carnatic. Because I never underwent any formal training in Carnatic music, I found myself learning guitar through painful experimentation.

Guitar Prasanna, sundry Youtube videos by rank amateurs like myself, (most often better than me) and my sister (who's trained in Carnatic, vocal) were all inspirations over the last one year. I have a blog of musical experiments at http://musicalexperiments.blogspot.com that I started recently. Please pay a visit when possible, I would love to receive tips and suggestions on how to improve my playing. (My other blog where I have a few posts on music and more recently carnatic music, is http://philramble.wordpress.com.)

Thanks!

mojolang · Post by **mojolang** » 05 Mar 2011, 10:17

Anybody who has any info on Sukumar Prasad, please contact me at mojolang (then the at symbol) gmail.

You can download an entire concert of his here

http://rapidlibrary.com/index.php?q=sukumar+prasad

I'd very much like to get any others and especially that video performance.

Regards,

JL

Musicranga · Post by **Musicranga** » 13 Mar 2011, 11:47

Hi
Is there anybody teaching carnatic music on guitar at Mumbai - Mulund/Thane/Bandup area.
Regards,

S.Ranganathan, Dammam

rasikas.org

Guitar in Carnatic Music

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