How to Play the Sarod A Practical Guide Rahul Bhattacharya www.sarod.com.au 1 Acknowledgements This book is dedicated to my family. I also gratefully acknowledge the teaching and knowledge imparted to me by gurus past and present. Thanks to all visitors to sarod.com.au who provided useful ideas for this book. Rahul Bhattacharya Melbourne, August 2011 © Copyright 2011 Sabyasachi Bhattacharya All rights reserved 1 Copyright © 2011 The Sarod Book 2 CONTENTS Media List ...............................................................................................................................................................5 Introduction............................................................................................................................................................6 Part A - Key Concepts............................................................................................................................................8 The Music oF India ..................................................................................................................................................9 Key concepts in Hindustani Music........................................................................................................................10 BEFORE YOU BEGIN: Prerequisites...................................................................................................................10 Electronic Tanpura.......................................................................................................................................10 Electronic Tabla ...........................................................................................................................................11 The concept oF Sam..........................................................................................................................................15 Notation oF Taal ...............................................................................................................................................15 Exercises...........................................................................................................................................................17 Part B: Introduction to the Sarod .........................................................................................................................18 Tools oF the trade.............................................................................................................................................21 How oFten should you change strings .........................................................................................................23 Nails..................................................................................................................................................................26 Nail Maintenance.........................................................................................................................................28 Use oF the taanpura and Tabla.........................................................................................................................31 Tuning the Taanpura....................................................................................................................................31 Sarod Bols ....................................................................................................................................................33 Fingering and Note Positions ...........................................................................................................................33 Gap Palta......................................................................................................................................................36 Reverse Palta ...............................................................................................................................................36 Palta using Bols............................................................................................................................................36 Ekhara Paltas................................................................................................................................................36 Why Palta practice is so important..............................................................................................................36 2 Embellishment .................................................................................................................................................37 Copyright © 2011 The Sarod Book 3 Meend..........................................................................................................................................................38 Gamak..........................................................................................................................................................38 Sparsh ..........................................................................................................................................................38 Krintan .........................................................................................................................................................38 Other types..................................................................................................................................................38 palta practice with embellishments.............................................................................................................38 Travelling tips...............................................................................................................................................40 Summary ..........................................................................................................................................................40 exercises...........................................................................................................................................................40 Part C: The First Sarod Piece.................................................................................................................................41 Bandish - Instrumental Compositions..........................................................................................................42 The First Raga: Durga ...................................................................................................................................42 Fingering ......................................................................................................................................................44 Using the JOD and Chikari Strings:...............................................................................................................44 Improvisation...............................................................................................................................................44 Tihai .............................................................................................................................................................47 Ending the jhaala – high speed tihai............................................................................................................49 Summary......................................................................................................................................................50 Exercises ......................................................................................................................................................50 Part D: A complete perFormance .....................................................................................................................51 Without Percussion: ....................................................................................................................................52 Alaap (Introduction): ...................................................................................................................................52 Jor ................................................................................................................................................................52 Jhala.............................................................................................................................................................52 Part E: Beyond The Basics ................................................................................................................................55 Playing with Live Tabla.....................................................................................................................................56 Raga Theory .................................................................................................................................................56 3 Copyright © 2011 The Sarod Book 4 Raga ClassiFication .......................................................................................................................................56 Complex Ragas.............................................................................................................................................58 Raga Etiquette .............................................................................................................................................58 Summary......................................................................................................................................................58 Exercises