Calm and a serene presentation Anna. I have a humble suggestion: After having tuned the Tambura, you could have switched off the reference shruti so that ears like mine could easily grasp things like "When perfectly tuned Tambura's Mandara is plucked, we can hear other three strings vibrating".
Hi Sribooshan! Thank you for that suggestion. Since the entire video was recorded with natural live sound, I could not edit out the reference later which perhaps hampered that portion of the video alone. Will keep that in mind
excellent way of teaching ... fantastic .... very understandable... in my view ... ever best video about Tanbura ..even i know little bit of connected with Carnatic and veena baratham.. am so
Superb video thank you so much for your great work. I am a musician and music producer from London. I wanted to have a Tambura to play on my records but it will take a long time to learn so instead I am using my skills to record samples of people playing the Tambura and I am using those sound recordings of the Tambura to create my own synthesizer instrument with the most authentic sound that I can record. So I will be able to have a tambura sound in my music which i am extremely happy about! But even so, one day in the future I will definitely get my own Tambura and to learn to play it myself! Please keep up the great work with your videos, they are superb!
Very useful video. It would be great if the 101 series could address the question of how the frequency for the Sa or C is fixed, and then how the other notes are derived therefrom. The Ga and the Ri that are heard as overtones do not work well with an even-tempered scale system that seems to have been taken as unquestionably fixed. South Indian music, with its 'awkward' Ri's, Ga's and Ma's, Da's and Ni's, especially in ragas like Varali, for example, always reminds us of how indifferent the present tuning systems are to the experiential and physical actualities of tonal harmonics. Why does a Veena Dhanammal recording sound so odd to us now? How have tuning practices transformed the ways in which what we perceive as tuneful and harmonious have been fixed in advance for us?
Hi Vichar. Thank you for your question. Answered the first part of your question in an earlier comment. With respect to your second question, it is not as simple as that. I want to first point out that the Svaras you perceive as 'awkward' is actually a very fixed range of oscillation that is unique to each raga, that becomes more familiar and clear with engagement and understanding. The harmonics heard from the Tambura are not limited to just the Chatushruti Rishabha or the Antara Gandhara, and cannot be quantified based on the raga that is sung. The harmonics and overtones always complement the music. There are numerous examples of this phenomenon in so many other instruments. Indian Classical Music especially, is a moving form, not entirely based on fixed notes, and thus looking at it through the prism of an even-tempered "scale" is possibly where the issue lies. I guess it is all perception, because I wouldn't say that a Veena Dhanammal recording seems odd to me either! Hope this helps!
@@rithvikraja I wasn't asking about how the Sa of the musician derives from the Sa of the tanpura and how that in turn is derived from the sruti petti, and so on, but how the very first Sa in this receding series might have gotten fixed. The sruti petti, remember, is of relatively recent origin, so my question really is of how, say, the musicians of the 10th century or thereabouts fixed the universal tonic Sa, which as we know, required and facilitated the entry of an instrument like the tanpura/tambura (the latter spelling is not an insignificant detail, by the way). Once this got fixed, the older system of ragas based on the grama, murchana and jati system got replaced by the system we have now and take for granted. The very existence of madhyama or nishada srutis should itself alert us to the possibility that our sruti system is not quite capable of dealing with our ragas--which in many cases (Punnagavarali, for instance) are older than the tanpura, and older even than our Sa! My hypothesis would be that Indian musicians accepted the tanpura (or the Central Asian Tambur, initially) because their urge towards systematization and the policing of their music (ragas) needed a universal tonic for any breakthrough to happen to their musical theory. The tempering, however, was 'natural', and therefore created problems for any music that wasn't solo. As late as the early 19th century, the French missionary Abbe Dubois could complain about the cacophony produced by Indian musicians. The moment Indians adopted the even tempered scale through their adoption of Western musical instruments--of which the Harmonium is the best (and destructive?) example--their ability to work with different instruments in unison improved, of course. Just listen to what Dikshitar heard when he started composing his 'nottuswara' compositions, and you will see with what alacrity Indian musicians took to the new dispensation. Dikshitar seems to me to be the turning point. My point about Dhanammal was that her veena doesn't seem to have been tuned to the same temper as ours--I'm guessing it may have been tuned much the same way as Dikshitar's little veena. Consequently, her ragas too sounded different. If you want to hear the Ri of Sowrashtram, or its Ga, or its Ni, your/our even-tempered ears are not going to have much luck, are they? The 'awkwardness' that I hear is definitely more than just a matter of 'engagement and understanding', I would say. It is the result of a wilful alienation from the music of my/our land, no less. A Dhrupad musician often waits to discover what his tanpuras are telling him (never a her, by the way, especially in the old family traditions!) to sing that day, even in a public concert. I have heard that Balamuralikrishna often functioned that way too, to the chagrin of those giving him vocal support in his later years! My question is this: if our Ma values, if our Ga values, our Ni values, if our 'scale' or gamut values have changed, have we already lost our ability to hear (or, I fear, produce) the elusive Ekasruti Rishabham, the Chyutamadhyama Gandhara, and the Chyutashadja Nishadam in the "Pavamaana" that we hear at the end of our concerts? This last song in particular makes me aware of what we may have already lost forever. Thanks for the reply.
Hi Robin. Thanks for this question. Both methods mentioned below were used. At times, even the accompanying instrument determined the main pitch when tuning other instruments were a lot more difficult. But it has always been based on the pitch that is comfortable for the musicians, going by the 'sound' of what they felt worked. Quite a nuanced idea
Fascinating (not least because I used harmonics a lot when doing electro-acoustic music with my voice). But is the "sound source" on all the time? It seems to be. If so, for me it detracts from the detail of the sounds you are demonstrating. (Or is it actually your instrument that just keeps resonating all the time?) Nevertheless, thank you for such a detailed explanation of a beautiful instrument.
Namaskar Sir 🙏 My Taanpura's kaan is very tight I am naive about tuning it. So I am afraid to forcibly turn the kaan.Kindly tell me the correct way of turning the kaan🙏🙏
Hi , new subscriber and constantly watching your videos the last couple of weeks. Love the channel but please help what is a good source for tuning Tanpura as a beginner.thanks in advance
It would have been apt if you could demonstrate the overtones and the sympathetic vibration of the other strings after switching off the electronic tambura that is playing in the background as it is drowning the sound of the tambura.
Zabardast cheers from Toronto.....lots of confusion....which is the 1st and 4th string? Is the 1st string facing you or the Floor. As in the Guitar the 1st string is facing the floor and is the thinnest, and, the 6th string is facing the player and is the thickest?
Hi. Does anyone know, if you can use any kind of pearl, with a hole in it, as a tuning bead. I'm asking because i've lost one of my beads, for my 4 string tanpura and thinking about a substitute, but with what? 🙂 Hope someone can help 🙏
Sir, does the length of the tambura (Dandi) play any role in the pitch of the tambura... or tambura with any length can be tuned for any sruthi??? Thanks in advance🙏🙏🙏
It may not play an obvious role in the pitch itself, which is more determined by the thickness of the string and the tension placed on it by the pegs. But the length of a balanced Dandi, proportionate to the base, is extremely crucial in determining the tonal richness and sound quality of the instrument.
Yes the pitch and the length are inversely proportional to each other . Lower the swara greater the length of tambura . Thats why ladies tanpura is comparatively smaller in size than male tanpura . Even the D#Tanpura is smaller in size than bigger C# tanpura
Thank you so much sir. actually sir i want to buy a miraj tanpura like your because your tanpura,s sound qulity is so nice. Sir can you help me. I am from Bangladesh 🙏🙏
