Raag Darbari (Mishr) - Simar Mana Raam Naam Chitare

it took several mistakes before it started flowing ..

Tune for the Shabad: SIMAR MANA RAAM NAAM CHITARE
often heard sung by Bhai Niranjan Singh Jawaddi Kalan Wale .

Mishr Darbari
14 beat




-
good Practice

Bhoopali at a World Music Festival

Ajarn* Maiya Singh Ji was invited to play at the "Rhythm of the Earth" world music festival - at Central World , Bangkok - May 2008.

Satpal Singh Ji (Ustadji's nephew) is on Tabla.
the Thai word for "Teacher"/"Ustad" is Ajarn - pronounced aa-charn

Raag Bhoopali - Tintaal

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Kindly excuse my playing - looking back at the video: I think my playing took more away from the music than it did add ... oh well - we had zero practice as a group before the event, so I shouldn't beat myself up about it too much eh?
Ustadji and Satpal Singh were awesome though!
We were initially given 1 hour stage time and were planning to play Raag Yaman. On the day, we were requested to cut it down to 20 mins due to various time constraints. Ustadji wanted to switch to Bhoopali, thinking that it would be easier for an audience unaccustomed to Classical Indian Music to digest and enjoy. my opinion: Good Decision !

Tanti Saaz workshop in Birmingham, UK

I wish I could be there to join in the fun :)

Announcement:

Ustaad Surjeet Singh (student of the world famous Pt Ram Narayan) and grand-teacher of the Gurmat Sangeet Academy is leading a one day intensive strings workshop in Birmingham on Sunday 1st of June.
If you would like to improve your Taus/ Dilruba/ Esraaj or Sarangi skills, then this is the workshop to attend. All abilities will be catered for.

The workshop will run from 10am to 4pm and will cater for all abilities. The fee for the day will be £10 (£6 for concs.).

For more details, email info@gurmatsangeet.org

Dhol Experiment

IF
* You play tabla reasonably well
* You have a dhol handy - preferably one with a Plastic/Synthetic Skin on the Bass side.

Experiment:
* Put some Atta on the Bass Side - you'll have to experiment with quantity of Atta vs resulting tonal quality.

* try playing with your hands - Phakawaj style
* If you know Khuley Bol - Perfect ! if not .. check out some videos on youtube and pretend ! :)
* also pls try playing some basic thekas - tintal , kaherva , rupak , dadra etc.


The thing is - I KNOW that it will sound good .. but am unable experiment for myself due to no-dhol-at-home syndrome.
About a year ago, I had to play dholki for one of my sister's wedding functions - It sounded horrible. I put a fistful of atta on the bass side, and the moisture sort of crept in and caused the skin to loosen, wrinkle up and sound like a wet blanket when hit.
I then cleaned off the Atta, wiped the skin thoroughly and waited 10 mins for it to dry. Once it was back to normal, I put a tiny bit of atta back on it. (the circle was about as big as the tip of my thumb - yep that's it .. very small.) Worked great !


So kindly try it out, and post some videos :)

Thank you.