[Stealthtastic]

Honestly, it didnt really sound too indian, at times it did but other than that, it sounded very different.

[Suho]

Yeah, sometimes it sounded more Middle-Eastern, too.

Basically, to those who are really trained in Indian music (I am not claiming to be one of them) you and I and a lot of other guitarists who play scales that are perhaps Indian or Middle Eastern (not trying to generalize them as the same) sounding, its not really Indian music. It is something along the lines of "inspired by ..."

I first got into Indian music by listening to my father's vinyl copy of Ravi Shankar's "Portrait of Genius" album when I was a kid. The whole second side is Raga Multani, which is to this day one of my favorite such recordings ever. It runs about 19+ minutes.

I have started playing with a tabla player, and researching ragas, etc. Perhaps you are refering to Raga Asavari? There are some good books out there, and a lot of music to listen to. Finding an instructor is a little more difficult to do, but necessary if you really want to play Indian music, and not just Indian-sounding music.

According to my tabla player (who is Indian), if the books written on ragas contained too much specific information on how to play them the authors would have been more-or-less shunned within the musical community, because such information was always passed from teacher to student directly. That is changing a little though.

As a guitarist, you might be interested in picking up a Godin Glisentar. I bought one right after I started jamming with the tabla player. It is based on the Middle-Eastern Oud, a fretless lute type instrument. It has a great sound and sounds much better with the tabla. It is a fretless 11-string nylon string 'guitar.' Somewhere I have some of the recordings we made of the practice jams. It is all free form imrov, but quite fun and relaxing.

Keep doing what you are doing. It doesn't have to be strictly Indian music, as long as it inspires you to play and express yourself.

[Trespass]

My exotic style copies a lot of the phrasing, scales, motifs, rhythm and vibrato from middle eastern music. This was my first day studying Indian music for about 2 hours. I wanted something to compare against when I do another one.

I read a lot into the traditional instruments, and listen to such artists as Dhaffer Youseff (oud player and overtone singer).

My middle eastern influences may have crept a bit too much into this one, but I have 3 main world styles I would like to develop using my guitar, and that is Middle Eastern, Asiatic (Japanese/Chinese), and Indian.

Thank you for all your support. I am not claiming to play Indian music, nearly to imitate it . I do not play on playing strictly Indian music, but I think it is great for exploring phrasing and for challenging myself to do something new.

Thanks for all the support!

[rahul_mukerji]

Okay: 2 cents and I'm not trained at all. I just read about these thigns since I'm interested

Its pretty hard to play indian classical (hindustani or carnatic) on tempered instruments. The essence of the music is in the microtones which are pretty hard to get on fretted instruments. Thats one. But most people are not interested in playing Ragas on guitar. Most artists want to use the concept of Raga in their improv (Prasanna, Shawn Lane, McLaughlin, Amit Chatterjee [Zawinul]).

Two: Ragas are pretty strict in their structure. You may not use certain notes in a Raga and then again in some ragas your ascending structure may be different from your descending (as in you have to use a minor while going up, but dorian while coming down). Also, your key notes may not be root notes.

A good book for guitarists looking to just study Indian Music in basic form is Guitar Atlas: India (cover shown below: comes with CD)



The book goes over common ragas and rules. And its not hardcore about it. For $15, it'll give you an insight into the type of playing on a guitar.

A very good listen of Raga improv used in Jazz context can be found in Prasanna's CD (entire CD has this) Be the Change. You can really hear the Carnatic sounds over Jazz backings (by some very famous artists).

Personally, I go for the sound. I try not to micmic a raga, but try to get the essence of the raga by playing the notes and trying like hell to hit microtones. I'm not successful so far, but its about having fun.

[Naren]

Very cool sitar patch. What are you playing it through?

Some people are talking about playing "real Indian music," but I don't think you can play real Indian music on a fretted instrument like a guitar because the Indian scales are not in strict half steps and whole steps.

I thought it sounded pretty good though, but I did hear a few more Middle Eastern sounding sections and one part that sounded East Asian (Chinese/Japanese). I know a lot of Japanese scales on my guitar. I fuck around with them, but I've never actually written a song using them. And, like Indian music, you can't really play "real traditional Japanese music" on a guitar.

[Luan]

Originally Posted by Naren

Some people are talking about playing "real Indian music," but I don't think you can play real Indian music on a fretted instrument like a guitar because the Indian scales are not in strict half steps and whole steps.

Only the oldest ragas use quarter notes, most of the common ragas use half steps as the minium.

[Naren]

Originally Posted by Luan

Only the oldest ragas use quarter notes, most of the common ragas use half steps as the minium.

And they don't play songs in those older ragas anymore?

[Luan]

Originally Posted by Naren

And they don't play songs in those older ragas anymore?

Raga is not only a scale, but a ""song"", and yes, they play them, but they aren't that common.

[Trespass]

Originally Posted by Naren

Very cool sitar patch. What are you playing it through?

Some people are talking about playing "real Indian music," but I don't think you can play real Indian music on a fretted instrument like a guitar because the Indian scales are not in strict half steps and whole steps.

I thought it sounded pretty good though, but I did hear a few more Middle Eastern sounding sections and one part that sounded East Asian (Chinese/Japanese). I know a lot of Japanese scales on my guitar. I fuck around with them, but I've never actually written a song using them. And, like Indian music, you can't really play "real traditional Japanese music" on a guitar.

I'm quite aware of what all you guys are telling me

As for the "really cool sitar patch" comment Naren...

Thats my fingers. Into the middle single coil, into a practice amp with the bass cut out. Mainly its the phrasing, and I'm not applying as much pressure.


This was the first night after studying the phrasing for 2-3 hours. I just wanted to see what came out, and naturally my strongest influences of arabian and koto style of playing started to pervade as they are the most ingrained.