Free leasons

When I first got my Sarode from India, and wanted to tune and play it, I found that there were people around where ever I was, who would teach me for free. Well at least not paying directly.
Even travelling to India and living with Dr Moni Das in Delhi, who, had two young daughters and depended on the handouts from benefactors, never asked for money.
It's not that charging a fair price for leasons is bad, it's that so many people were willing to give their knowledge so freely. As a consequence of that I never charge when I give leasons, but like my teachers, I expect my students to practice.
This is the sign of respect and worthiness, and that is usually enough. Start with 20 minutes a day, then practice should be 1 hour per day. If you want to really exell, then 2 to 3 hours per day will increase your abilities quite quickly. If you are in the position to practice up to 6 hours a day and practice the correct things. You would be amazed at how much proficiency can be gained in one year.
Remember 10,000 hours is what you need, that's 8 hours a day for 5 years, just like a trade apprenticeship.

Sarode has haunting sound

That is the reason I started to learn the Sarode. Of the four playing strings, ( there are 25 strings on the Sarode) the second is tuned to G and holds some of the most beautiful tones around the A and Bb. The ability to glide over an octave by using ones fingernail also presents some wonderful possibilities that other instruments can never reach. The limitations are that it can only tune between C and Bb, this really cramps it's ability to play in other keys. But the Sarode was designed for Indian Classical Music and has it's own vast repertoire to draw upon.

Old Video

I found some old 8mm videos of my Sarode playing back in 1995, pretty much the same but I noticed some growth, and some stuff I will avoid now I see it. As Robby Burns said" A gift t'gee us, t'see a'selves as others see us. Well we can with the help of video, and yes I quess it's a gift.
Sometimes I'm amazed at the old git on the screen. Oh! thats me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHqktb5aEYE

How a Sarode is born

In the river Ganges in India, you might find logs of teak,mahogany,tunwood, etc buried in the mud. These may have been there for up to fifty years, curing and waiting to be turned into musical instruments. The Sarode starts it's life like this.
It is then cut into blocks that the instrument maker can hand carve into Sarodes, Sarangies, and Tabla's. The Sitar is made from a gord and the neck from smaller pieces of wood.
At Mr Hemen's shop in Calcutta, this old man hand carves the most beautiful Sarodes in India, the Stradivarius of Sarodes. All other's pale in comparison. I own one of these, given to me by my Sarode teacher in 1979, after ten years of practice on an old Hemen Sarode. The best ones are carved from one piece of wood but his Sarodes are all great, it's the playing of them that takes so much time. I have watched him in his shop carving away, while an assistant drills hole by hand for the pegs. The skin is from baby goats sacrificed at the Kali temple.

Left hand of Sarode

The left hand is used on the Sarode like the guitar, but with some key differences.
The fingernails are used as frets. So pressing the fingers on to the strings requires strong nails and a position that differs from the guitar. Also sliding the notes is achieved this way, so getting the position right requires person to person lessons. (or you tube). Like all other endeavors it takes the average human ten thousand hours to master anything on the Sarode. Or, five years at eight hours a day, or, as is more the case, twenty years at two hours a day. Start practicing!!!

More Sarode rhythm.

Just to recap, a bol is the movement of the right hand on the Sarode. See the previous blog for that.
Carrying on from the drd,drd,dr theme: now we use gaps to create a new feel. By the way this pattern is in nearly all popular music. If you count to any pop song, there's the 3,3,2.
OK so drd,drd,dr, or 123,123,12, is an structure of eight strokes.
Now try : d-r,d-r,dr, still the same rhythm with gaps.
Take the same idea in drd,drd,drd,drd,drdr, or 3,3,3,3,4, and try d-r,d-r,d-r,d-r,drdr,.
So this is just a small peak at the Sarodes right hand form.
Next I'll talk about the left hand.

A drum with strings

That is one description of the Sarode that I think is accurate. Only when you are confronted with the complex right hand picking will you understand this.
Da is the down stroke.
Ra the up stroke.
Diri the down up stroke .
Chickari strings fill in the gaps.
How could this be complex? well using d for da and r for ra, not using the diri yet, try this.
drd,drd,dr, repeat 4 times.
drd,dr,drd,repeat 4 times.
dr,drd,drd,repeat 4 times.
Now string these together as: drd,drd,dr, drd,dr,drd, dr,drd,drd, drd,dr,drd. and your done.

Update on sticky picks

The beeswax coating on the end of the guitar pick works really well. I find that I can play fast melodies and the ol' pick stays right where it's 'posed to.
Just heat some wax and dip the grip part of the pick in it and it's great.

Sticky pick

Do any other guitar players have the problem of picks flying out of their hands? Or maybe just moving around so that you lose a good grip? Well, the Sarode player in me knows that Sarode picks are made of coconut shell and need to have a piece of linen wrapped around the end that is dipped in beeswax. Otherwise the pick will fall out of a relaxed hand. So I am going to dip my picks in beeswax and see if there is an improvement.

Camera and music

I have been thinking about making some you tube video's of me playing the Sarode and perhaps doing a little demo also.
Most musicians are not that familiar with the Sarode or how it's played or what kind of music is played on it.
Since video's can only give a snippet of anything I attempt to keep them to the point and interesting.

Guitar or Sarode

That's my daily decision, which to pick up. The Sarode is a jealous mistress, but the guitar just tolerates whatever I do to it. I love the guitar for that, once familiar with it, it yields all kinds of fun and wonder. The Sarode is an altogether different experience, it needs time and a settled state of mind to find the deep beauty that lives within. Listen and you will understand.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iElMWziZ62A&feature=PlayList&p=EB6319BEE3F8F65D&index=47 Enjoy.

Sarode made difficult

That's the story of my sarode studies. Travelling around the planet, being waved off by great players who, I found out much later only cared about their own career. Not my minuscule meanderings of an instrument nobody has heard of and even if they did, don't understand it. The Sarode can be so beautiful but can also be annoying, boring and a great tool for the egoist to expound endlessly at everybody else's expense. But music, like art is populated with ego centric people but in amongst them are the occasional gem.

Fusion notes

I was sitting in a restaurant today with hip hop droneing on in the background and I thought would it not be a great idea if we could mix the poetic qualities of some hip hop with the Indian singing style. Particularly cruising through the notes instead of staying on a very limited melodic pattern, as they do now. Yes it would take some skill, but it could be done, I've heard something similar with Tabla.

Ali Akbar Khan

This is a beautiful Raag. Almost 28 years ago Hummmm.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzDx7vgluq0&feature=PlayList&p=EB6319BEE3F8F65D&index=8

Sa Re Ga

The sound spectrum is a natural phenomenon, like the light spectrum I suppose. In India the notes are 7 as in the rest of the world. Some people get confused into thinking the micro tones are actually the notes of the scale. Usually they are ornaments play around a note.
SA RE GA MA PA DHA NI SA The flats are indicated by lower case letters. That's all today.

Sarode

Played with the fingernails of the left hand and a cocoanut pick (jaba) with the right hand.
No frets makes the sarode a challenge, but also is it's magic. Tuned to C I wish I had one that tuned up to D.

Tonic for a confused world

The tonic for the Sarode is called Sa. Short for Sadja, if you google that you might end up with my first CD in 1974 with the German Jazz/rock group Embryo. A acoustic endeavor with Marimba, Sarode, Saz, Oude, Bass. It was an exciting time, anyone got the tape?.