Dr. Vidyadhar Oke’s blog on 22 shrutis

All life is made of 3 basic elements namely Matter, Energy, and Time. Not much of a surprise, these are represented in Music as Words (Matter), Musical notes (Energy), and the Rhythm (Time)!

Its no wonder therefore that Music is a wonderful representative of Life’s basic elements and is therefore one of Nature’s greatest gift to mankind (and maybe all life).

We humans also have or contain these 3 basic elements “inside” us as the body (Matter), the soul (Energy), and the mind (Time) which organizes all data with respect to time so we can understand it.

What music does is, it makes a melodic fusion of these basic elements in us with the basic elements of Life, and leads to a divine feeling of calmness or Nirvana on listening to the Indian (Hindustani) Classical Music. (It is quite possible that this might happen through Western Classical Music too, maybe someone amongst you could comment on that?)

Anyway, lets continue, the human brain has 2 parts, the left and the right hemisphere (part). The left part gives us ‘Reasoning’ or ‘Logical’ skill and the right part provides us ‘Feelings’ or ‘Emotions’. We therefore call the left brain as the ‘Rational’ brain and the right brain as the ‘Emotional’ brain.

When we learn a new thing, for e.g. play or listen to say, Indian (Hindustani) Classical Music, there is utilization of the physical skills in us controlled intelligently by the left brain, and the right brain provides the accompanying emotions when music gets created.

Music has therefore been utilized in all cultures of the world to express and  communicate human feelings and emotions “outwardly”.

In fact, Indian (Hindustani) Classical Music encompasses 9 types of Feelings or 9 ‘Rasas’ namely:

1. Shringara (Love),
2. Haasya (Humor),
3. Karuna (Compassion),
4. Raudra (Anger),
5. Veera (Valour),
6. Bhayanaka (Fear),
7. Beebhatsa (Disgust),
8. Adbhuta (Wonder) and
9. Shaanta (Calmness).

We find songs and dances in India communicating these feelings. Indian (Hindustani) Classical Music therefore has been in use to transmit thoughts and feelings beyond words and notes. The Ragas (or ragaas) in Indian (Hindustani) Classical Music are an arrangement of purposely selected Musical notes for written Words which help to evoke a particular mood or emotion.

The Rhythms in Indian (Hindustani) Classical Music can depict slow and echoing patterns arousing Divinity, as well as fast and intricate patterns creating Wonder.

The Words and Notes in Indian (Hindustani) Classical Music comprising of thousands of Khayals, Dhrupads, Chaturangs, Bandishes have communicated every human emotion possible through Music.

Music can therefore be a medium of whichever emotion we wish to express. When words fall short, there are musical notes, and when these 2 are combined with rhythm, Music with unlimited communication channels can be created.

When we learn, play or listen to the Indian (Hindustani) Classical Music for generations, it (naturally) becomes a part of our genetic “make-up” and even gets transmitted to the next generation.

It is also believed in India people who learn and play Indian (Hindustani) Classical Music make their musical progress with every birth cycle, their musical qualities progressively refine and eventually a “gifted” musical maestro is born!

Hence, it is not odd that we say, “Great Musicians are born, not trained!”

Anyway, what do YOU think then? I welcome your comments, add them below.

Till the next post,

Dr. Oke

Gatra means ‘human body’, hence ‘Gatra Veena’ in simple terms means ‘the body used as Veena’.

In Music of the Vedic times, the human body was used to denote the musical notes while singing Samaved. The palm of the hand was used to indicate the swara (musical note) which was to be sung by every student.

The swara indicated used to be touched by the thumb while singing which ensured that everyone was on the same musical note thus avoiding chaos. This also ensured that without taking the ‘real’ veena (as the availability of Veena at all times and at all places was not practical), the Swaras could be sung consistently in a group, and could be taught without change from generation to generation.

Even today, some old pandits are seen singing and simultaneously indicating the sung note by following palm-signs !

Till the next post…

Dr. Oke

Life started on our Earth with ‘light’ and ‘sound’. The earth consisted of soil, warm environment water, and air and these elements provided the ‘basics’ of life.

As life evolved, human beings were found inhabiting lands separated by thousands of miles of oceans. Besides other things, one characteristic was unique to humans and which differentiated them from animals was their capacity to understand ‘Music’. They noticed that the wind blowing across a group of tall trees such as bamboos made a natural whistle. They also heard the whisper of leaves, the thunder of clouds, the nonstop rumbling of ocean waves, and the roar of waterfalls.

The birds were found singing too, and soon, humans realized a tremendous gift of Mother Nature to them… speech. The words and languages were created and with them, music evolved.

Humans quickly understood that when one thing is banged against another, a ‘sound’ is produced. They found that they could clap with both hands. They could not only ‘speak’, but also ‘shout’ or ‘grunt’ or ‘cough’ and thus, sounds could be ‘softer’ or ‘louder’. Some sounds were more musical than others e.g. a clap on an empty earthen pot gave a pleasing musical sound than say 2 logs of wood were banged against each other!

It was found that a piece of leather tightly stretched across an empty pot could give different musical sounds, and  lo, the drum was born. Drums were probably the world’s earliest musical instruments. Their sound could reach a distance of several miles and initially they were used as a communicating medium.

A whistle could be made of a folded leaf when air was blown through the same. Thus the flute giving different musical sounds could be prepared by making holes in a bamboo or any empty tube. Neanderthal Mans’ flute (9000 BC) is found to be made in an animal’s bone with holes made similar to the modern flute.

Slowly, humans understood that there are different varieties of natural sounds and started to imitate them by their ‘voice’ and that was the birth of ‘vocal music’. Thereafter, creation of  a musical ‘scale’ was accomplished beginning from a particular note and culminating upwards in a similar sounding note.

What is most surprising is that this scale was divided into ‘same’ 7 basic notes across all continents! These notes could also be produced by a single vibrating string stretched over two ends.

Music was not only born, but it evolved at a tremendous rate across different cultures in diverse ways and unprecedented  heights.

After the string sounds were observed, the genius of human brain found various other techniques and tools, which produced music. These were the early musical instruments similar to today’s Flute, Sarod, Drums, etc.

Today we have reached a world of modern electronic instruments and softwares such as the Electronic Synthesizer, Accordion, Octopad, Handsonic, Samplers, Nueondo’s and Pro Tools and what nots!

There is one thing which has not changed however, in the last 10,000 years. And that is the ‘Natural Musical Notes’ or ‘Shrutis’ or ‘Srutis’, which please the ear and calm the mind.

We shall later see in our blog, what exactly are these notes and how and why I call them “natural”.

Till the next post…

Dr. Oke

Hi,

This is Dr. Vidyadhar Oke, welcoming you all Music Lovers, Music Students, Music Listeners and Music Teachers to my Blog.

Through this Indian Music blog, we will journey through various aspects of Indian Classical Music,  also called Hindustani Music, and even Western Classical Music! I also promise to regularly update this Indian Music blog with new information, videos and audio clips.

Together we will trace the roots of our Indian Music to their true and genuine musical notes which were documented few thousand years ago by our great musical scholars like Bharatmuni, as Shruti, Shrutis or Srutis.

You see music was known to man on earth since ages when man realized that there is a neat system provided by Mother Nature to create sounds which are pleasing to the ear and calming to the soul.

I have been exploring these roots of our music and their links to Physics and Mathematics, and have discovered various amazing new areas about Indian Music. Note that this natural music I am going to talk about is truly ‘universal’, as the human ear anywhere on the globe is made up of the same cells, tissues, organs, and sound-perception mechanisms!

The similarity between the natural notes (Shrutis or Srutis) discovered and standardized today, and those which existed in different cultures and traditions across continents separated by oceans for thousands of years, is stunning.  How could people with so many diversities in terms of time, places and cultures create and appreciate the ‘same’ basic musical notes ?

Some other questions that I used to ponder over were:

• What are the real roots of Indian Classical Music?
• How is a musical note created ‘naturally’, in nature?
• How is a “musical sound” measured?
• What are the scientific principles of producing musical notes on a string?
• What are the qualities of sound produced by voice and different musical instruments?
• How was the Indian Musical ‘Raga’ or ‘Raaga’ created in the first place?
• How and why does a particular Raga communicate a particular emotion?
• Why do some musical notes agree/disagree (consonance) with others?

These are just some of the areas we would have discussions on…

I sincerely hope that you will find this blog informative, enjoyable and that YOU will participate and communicate with me and other like-minded music freaks through your comments, opinions and suggestions…

Please register yourself through the RSS feed above to stay updated with new posts…

Till the next post…

Dr. Oke