Mark's Blog

Music

For just over a week, I went to Thranesh every morning at 11pm for a music class. I got a nice enough bamboo flute in D, which was a thrill to get in itself, making for many enjoyable times in the hut blowing the dust off my flute playing by belting out a few tunes.

This is a family of those ubiquitous spider monkeys that decided to surround the music school one day.

Thranesh was so laid back. There was chai and breakfast there most days besides the navigation through those tricky Indian modal scales. Lots of half-holing on the flute for some of the Raags that I learned.

We went through about three Raags altogether. Raag Marcos and Raag Bopali were the best, as I got to play them along with the harmonium or Tablas after I'd learned how to play them. Thranesh was gas. Sometimes he'd be really into it, other times he'd be reading the paper and muttering at me. One morning he just got up and took off on his scooter without saying anything and came back half and hour later, well after the chai that his brother had made, was finished.

It was a good way to start the day though and by the end of it Thranesh was talking about more lessons and my starting to play in concerts locally. 'Tis not to be though as I'll be moving on to other parts of Rajasthan very soon.

Listen to Thranesh and Myself playing Raag Bopali (kinda badly)

Rajathani Ravantha Music

Over at the sunset place, where westerners sip their chai and watch the sun go down, there are groups of musicians who approach and play for you whether you want them to or not. It beats the girls who want to paint your hands or the guys who relentlessly persue you in the attempt to sell drugs. Not the best end of town. Fantastic sunsets though.

I got the chance to play the Saranga though, which is a traditional folk instrument of Rajasthan. It sounds like a gypsy violin played through an effects box (reverb, distortion). It's played with a bow on one string, which you can tighten to get the key you want. Then you just play scales up and down this string Most of the players have these hawk-like fingernails which they use to strike the string in order to get a clean note. There's no fretboard, your fingers are the fretboard. There are also, like the Sitar, lots of extra strings running down the centre of the instrument whose only purpose is to resonate, providing that reverb effect. I love the sound of this. It sounds of the desert and faraway places, colourful and mysterious.

I'll be heading off to meet this man again to learn a few Rajathani folk songs from him. The songs are altogether livlier simpler and less formal than the Raags of Hindi classical music. I got a CD from this man too, which I'll play for those interested on my return.

There was also a concert the other night of Rajasthani folk music and dance. It was great and even featured the Scottish bagpipes, adapted for Rajasthani music, playing along with the harmonium and tablas, making a big racket. There were dances where the women carry flaming jars on their heads and shimmy all over the place while keeping them in balance. Quite a lot of the women's dances involved them balancing things on their heads making it halfway between dance and feats of balance.

Music listening has been a pleasure on the speakers and MP3 jukebox that I brought with me. There's nothing like having all your music with you in a little box and it's kept its charge and given no trouble. I'm going to "rent" some records here on the main bazaar and turn them into MP3's as a way of getting new music. There's a singer called Trilok Gurtu who's recently recorded with Annie Lennox, who fuses Indian devotional singing with Jazz. Very nice.

I've been listening to a lot of Trad, and playing along with Martin Hayes and Denis Cahill. There's an album called "simple things" by a band called "Zero 7" which I can't stop listening to at the moment. It's exquisite and I recommend everyone to treat themselves with this record.

Posted by Mark at February 24, 2004 12:42 PM