Mini size mridangam for kids

Music · Post by **Music** » 16 Oct 2006, 06:51

Does anybody know where I can buy a mini size mridangam for kids. I know you get them in Chennai, but not easy for me. Are they available in Hyderabad or the US? I am trying to get one for my 3 year-old son who loves to play it. I am not able stand him using pots and pans as drums whenever he listens to any song.

sankirnam · Post by **sankirnam** » 18 Oct 2006, 09:08

Generally, mrudangams are not available outside of India, unless you can find someone who is willing to sell you one of theirs. They should be available in Hyderbad, but I am not sure of any shops. Maybe someone who lives there can help you out.

meena · Post by **meena** » 18 Oct 2006, 09:35

contact DELETED

meena · Post by **meena** » 23 Nov 2006, 05:02

which artist plays this mridangam ?

DELETED

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 24 Nov 2006, 22:00

Youngster, comes from USA ....can't bring the name to mind.

Mind you, there are a lot of two-headed, variously fixed drums which dealers call mridangams (and may well genuinely be called mridangams in different parts of India) that are not our own instrument.

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 25 Nov 2006, 06:07

Rohan Krishnamurthy has created a mrudangam like this. You can read about it at http://www.rohanrhythm.com/downloads/Pe ... eNotes.pdf

meena · Post by **meena** » 25 Nov 2006, 07:48

thanks nick/mohan

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 25 Nov 2006, 20:16

Rohan Krishnamurthy --- indeed. Sorry Rohan, about the memory-cell failure.

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 25 Nov 2006, 20:20

I thought you were testing us, Meena

sankirnam · Post by **sankirnam** » 25 Nov 2006, 22:36

Actually, the mrudangam that Meena linked is a standard "nut-bolt" mrudangam. This design has been around for a while, in fact, I was able to get one of these recently in Chennai. Rohan's design is just a variation on this, substituting nylon for the metal struts.

meena · Post by **meena** » 25 Nov 2006, 23:35

apart from rohan, any other artist u all know who plays this 'nut-bolt mrudangam'?

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 26 Nov 2006, 09:56

Sankirnam... yes you are right, Rohan uses nylon with his fixings.

Meena, you are going to have to deduct my points!

chalanata · Post by **chalanata** » 26 Nov 2006, 19:17

nick H,
where were you missing all these days?

sankirnam · Post by **sankirnam** » 26 Nov 2006, 22:18

Hmm... the only artist I can think of who uses this "nut-bolt" mrudangam is B. Ganapathiraman. I remember attending a concert by Unnikrishnan at the Saidapet temple in August, and he used that nut-bolt mrudangam there. He also used the nut-bolt mrudangam a week later when he played for Sowmya at KGS.
It is interesting, really, as a mrudangist, I can tell the difference in the nadham between a regular leather vaaru mrudangam, a mrudangam with nylon vaaru, and this metallic one, and I feel that the traditional design is the best. Of course, for those living abroad, without ready access to mrudangam artisans, a more flexible design like Rohan's or the metallic one, is good becuase then basically all sruthi ranges will be covered.

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 30 Nov 2006, 19:44

Chalanata... I'm here, but I'm afraid laziness, fever and a new house have been keeping me from concerts and having much to say recently

Sankirnam... very interesting that you can hear the difference between vaar, nylon and metal! Fascinating. Most of us can tell a kutchi mridangam from a kaapi (spelling of both words?) --- but wouldn't claim any more than that.

Speaking for my now-london-based guruji, he uses nylon or polyester because it is not so affected by temperature and humidity changes. It is also more easily reusable. His interest in metal fixings is in the considerably reduced time to fit a replacement head: several hours work before he can even tell if it is a good head. I don't think he would try to change the tuning by more than one or two notes, though, whatever the attachment .

You are right, there are no mridangam repairers in London! Another London-based player tried to bring one from Chennai a few years ago, but finding documentation to support the visa application was a big problem.

Suji Ram · Post by **Suji Ram** » 15 Dec 2006, 02:34

Anyone in Mysore/Bangalore who would know of a music shop which has 18 " Fiberglass Mridangam?

meena · Post by **meena** » 15 Dec 2006, 04:53

suji

contact TAS Mani.

Suji Ram · Post by **Suji Ram** » 15 Dec 2006, 04:58

meena wrote:suji

contact TAS Mani.

Thanks Meena

cpiasminc · Post by **cpiasminc** » 14 Mar 2007, 05:40

It is interesting, really, as a mrudangist, I can tell the difference in the nadham between a regular leather vaaru mrudangam, a mrudangam with nylon vaaru, and this metallic one, and I feel that the traditional design is the best. Of course, for those living abroad, without ready access to mrudangam artisans, a more flexible design like Rohan's or the metallic one, is good becuase then basically all sruthi ranges will be covered.

Acoustically speaking there are a few fundamental things that make sense about this --
The vaaru will vibrate with the body of the instrument very slightly, and leather will go at a lower frequency, which is subject to some degree of psychoacoustic masking (i.e. your brain filters it out, but those like yourself who are mridangists might have just been conditioned to hear it). Nylon straps will vibrate at a higher frequency which may not necessarily be in the same critical band and therefore not masked. The people in the crowd will probably not hear this at all because it's too low energy for typical room acoustics to support it even if the same people could otherwise tell the difference listening up close. However, because of the critical band separation, it's likely that a compression schema like MP3 off of a mic'ed recording will exaggerate this sound. Someone who knows more about materials might be able to say whether or not the braided nature of nylon straps makes any difference to the overtone series.

Technically, it is possible to defeat this with wider vaaru when they're made of nylon, but I can't say I've ever thought of how practical that might be. Other materials have some potential to perform closer to leather straps (e.g. vinyl), but I don't know enough about the array of textile materials to know what is strong enough.

The nut/bolt type presents a much more obvious source of acoustic difference -- the body material which may end up either being alternative to the standard jackfruit wood or more heavily treated wood. Same way a bamboo tube and a steel tube of the same diameter will produce a different sound, the fact that a bolt design needs a more rigid material because of the fixed attachment points which can be under some pretty hefty loads. Rohan's, FWICT, seemed to have a starting point of a standard mridangam body, and since he uses such short straps, most differences we (as listeners) are likely to hear are probably psychological -- result of being preconditioned -- unless I'm missing something about that design. It's very easy to hear the differences if you're expecting them.

sankirnam · Post by **sankirnam** » 15 Mar 2007, 00:18

Wow that is very interesting... thanks

sankirnam · Post by **sankirnam** » 15 Mar 2007, 00:22

And yes, when any other material, including nylon webbing, is substituted for the leather vaaru, it will have to be the same width, so as to fit through the holes in the circumference on both sides, that is to say, 3/8", if i recall correctly.

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 15 Mar 2007, 13:02

Well, the lacing is made first and the holes are made by pushing the vaar/rope through, so there is no set size really.

Physically, though, this is much easier with flat vaar than with round rope. the strands of the lacing, by its nature, lie parallel and close to each other.

Whilst the 'rope' is usually referred to as 'nylon' it is not necessarily so. It could be nylon, but the braided lines made for boats are more likely to be polyester.

The relevance of this is the different amount of stretch in the different materials, perhaps best illustrated in the sea-going picture...

The line connecting a boat to its anchor should have some springiness, some stretch, so that each time the boat is blown back from the anchor it does not snatch. A chain gives this efffect by virtue of its weight. Think of it like one of those devices that prevents a door from slamming.

The lines used to hoist and adjust sails should have no, or low, stretch --- otherwise the poor sailor is for ever having to work to try to keep them tight.

The sailor is likely to use nylon for mooring his boat and polyester for controlling his sails (or more more modern materials that are so absurdly expensive they would be off the scale of the richest mridangist!)

Now... the point of all this for mridangists...

The less stretch, the easier it is to set up the mridangam tight.

The less stretch, the harder it is to ensure that the pressure on each of the 16 attachment points is even.

The less stretch, the more effect on sruthi will be felt from the expansion and contraction of the mridangam body itself.

... and probably more!

ragapriya · Post by **ragapriya** » 22 Mar 2008, 18:54

Hi
Iam wondering if you can tell me the right age for kids to start learning veena and mridangam? My son is 4years old and has a keen ear for CM and sings simple songs just by listening. We live in northeast of Chicago (close to wisconsin) and I would also like to know whether there are any mridangam and veena teachers nearby.

Thanks in advance for your help.
Ragapriya

VK RAMAN · Post by **VK RAMAN** » 22 Mar 2008, 22:28

The saying goes like this " kids will learn as many things as you take the time to teach them ". This is true. I believe there is no right age.

ragapriya · Post by **ragapriya** » 24 Mar 2008, 19:09

Thank you sir. I too believe in what you have said and thats why am seeking good teachers for my son. A vocal music teacher when approached asked me to wait until he is 6years old to begin classes. Hence my earlier query.

sankirnam · Post by **sankirnam** » 25 Mar 2008, 09:48

Yes, best to wait until 6 years old, starting earlier tends to be fruitless as the kid is too young to be able to pay attention or practice for any extended period of time.

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 25 Mar 2008, 10:05

There is an age before which it is just not physically possible to play properly due to the size of hands and fingers, but even if mastery of the instrument must wait a year or two, it is never too early to start learning the lessons.

I've taught some very small children. Learning and saying these lessons can be a lot of fun for them. When I first started taking that class of beginners for my teacher I was most worried by how I would handle the little ones. They turned out to be the most enjoyable of all!

ragapriya · Post by **ragapriya** » 27 Mar 2008, 23:05

nick H, thanks for your encouraging views..

Sankirnam, I guess we cant generalise it to all kids of that age..for I have seen kids just 7 or 8yrs (Abhilash, Erode Anantharaman to name a couple) old perform concerts like a pro in chennai! That just goes to show that kids who are truly interested in Cm at an early age do involve themselves in learning/practising like any other older kid or adult.

Not that my son is like them, but I know he truly loves cm and can be made to practise what he learns at his age.

rangankv · Post by **rangankv** » 13 Nov 2016, 22:45

We make synthetic Mridangams with fibreglass shell and synthetic drum heads. Male, female pitch Mridangams are currently available and shortly we are going to releaase an 18" mridangam sutable for kids. This mridangam will be in the Female Pitch (F-A).Please check our website http://www.karunyamusicals.com. For details mail me at kvrangan@karunyamusicals.com.

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Mini size mridangam for kids

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