Tip: Playing with a tanpura box Options

[Monosynapsis]

I am now taking lessons in hindustani classical music and have therefore started to play with a tanpura box (like an automatic sruti box, but playing sampled tanpura sounds instead of the harmonium like ones, playing fundamentals and fifths). The effect on intonation is - of course - very helpful, but there is more to it:

- the physical feeling of the qualities of the intervals is much more enhanced. The tanpura sound is very rich in overtones, and everytime I hit a tone on the string which is present in the harmonic content of the tanpura drone, my Glissentar starts to gently vibrate with it. Even at moderate volume levels this is noticable. It's like my guitar plays the role of sympathetic strings to the digital tanpura. Absolutely amazing for playing in the just intonated system: you get a physical feedback when your on the sweet spot of a right note (or not). Much, much better than a synth pad for example.

- the sound of the tanpura is so beautiful in itself that meditative playing is automatically encouraged for me by it. Long pauses aren't empty anymore, the tanpura sound blends nicely in.


So, the fact that almost every indian musical performance is accompanied by one or two tanpuras makes a lot of sense to me now: it is a very poweful tool to feel the correct tones. I can only warmly recommend it to anyone happy with staying in one key for a while, regardless wether your playing indian music or not.

[Monosynapsis]

Tell us more about the tanpura box, I saw one used recently at a Carnactic music concert, it was the business, but what makes a good one and a bad one? --J

Well, I'm using the Raagini Pro from Ryaz. According to my teacher(s) it is the one almost every musician is using in India, even for concerts.

Its sound is pleasant, although at very low volumes (volume at <1) it is quite noisy (poor quality components). This noise is then well masked at normal levels. You can tune very accurately all fundamentals over one octave. It then plays the fundamental, two times the octave and additionaly either the 4th, the 5th or the 7th (for the rare nishud rags). Only the 7th can then be fine tuned independently. Speed can be varied as well. Ergonomy is good. It has a line out (which is as noisy as a pub in Ireland after hours though).

The only other shruti box I've tried was an old 'Radel' which sounded like the synth pads from a 1990ies Gameboy - or like a modern oscilloscope- so the choice was quickly made.

[jahloon]

The only other shruti box I've tried was an old 'Radel' which sounded like the synth pads from a 1990ies Gameboy - or like a modern oscilloscope- so the choice was quickly made.

That's just the ticket, they are available in the UK for about 145 pounds sterling.
Just one question, "modern oscilloscope" might be a misnomer, I know them as the device that creates an image on screen of an electrical impulse. Never heard one make a noise. Perhaps might be "Signal Generator"? --J

[norumba]

deleted for duplicated reasons, sorry...

[norumba]

the Riyaz are indeed the defacto industry standard it seems....i just orderd mine along with the their electronic tabla equivalent as well.
I just saw a concert where they used both the Riyaz AND a live tanpura; you could defintely tell an aded subtle depth to the room than either of them alone. Must have been amazing to be on the stage in the center of that...

[Guest_Elisabeth_*]

I am now taking lessons in hindustani classical music and have therefore started to play with a tanpura box (like an automatic sruti box, but playing sampled tanpura sounds instead of the harmonium like ones, playing fundamentals and fifths). The effect on intonation is - of course  - very helpful, but there is more to it:

- the physical feeling of the qualities of the intervals is much more enhanced. The tanpura sound is very rich in overtones, and everytime I hit a tone on the string which is present in the harmonic content of the tanpura drone, my Glissentar starts to gently vibrate with it. Even at moderate volume levels this is noticable. It's like my guitar plays the role of sympathetic strings to the digital tanpura. Absolutely amazing for playing in the just intonated system: you get a physical feedback when your on the sweet spot of a right note (or not). Much, much better than a synth pad for example.

- the sound of the tanpura is so beautiful in itself that meditative playing is automatically encouraged for me by it. Long pauses aren't empty anymore, the tanpura sound blends nicely in.



So, the fact that almost every indian musical performance is accompanied by one or two tanpuras makes a lot of sense to me now: it is a very poweful tool to feel the correct tones. I can only warmly recommend it to anyone happy with staying in one key for a while, regardless wether your playing indian music or not.

Hi.....I am wanting to buy a CD of soft tanpura music for my relaxation/meditation class. Can you recommend the best one to me please?
Thankyou.
Elisabeth (UK)

[rob]

The only other shruti box I've tried was an old 'Radel' which sounded like the synth pads from a 1990ies Gameboy - or like a modern oscilloscope- so the choice was quickly made.

That's just the ticket, they are available in the UK for about 145 pounds sterling. ...

145. Ouch. To me, the audio sample on their site, sounded like some basic synthesis (FM?). It should be pretty easy to get this out of your computer. If you are looking at it for practice purposes or you happen to play live with a computer, that is.

Sounds like a great idea for practicing though. Kinda like the tuning the low strings to drones to practice intonation. Except better.

Rob

[jahloon]

Hi.....I am wanting to buy a CD of soft tanpura music for my relaxation/meditation class. Can you recommend the best one to me please?
Thankyou.
Elisabeth (UK)

That's a difficult call as the tanpura is an accompanyment instrument.

You could try calling JAS musical instruments, they carry a good stock of CDs and its run by a nice Indian guy who is very helpful.

0208 574 2686 if you are in the UK.

Southern Indian classical music (Carnactic) might fit the bill, though most Indians will tell you its difficult to comprehend, but I like it.

Jeff

[Kai]

The only other shruti box I've tried was an old 'Radel' which sounded like the synth pads from a 1990ies Gameboy - or like a modern oscilloscope- so the choice was quickly made.

That's just the ticket, they are available in the UK for about 145 pounds sterling. ...

145. Ouch. To me, the audio sample on their site, sounded like some basic synthesis (FM?). It should be pretty easy to get this out of your computer. If you are looking at it for practice purposes or you happen to play live with a computer, that is.

Sounds like a great idea for practicing though. Kinda like the tuning the low strings to drones to practice intonation. Except better.

Rob

One is unlikely to find any recordings of just tanpura, because it's only an accompanying sound, as Jeff says. But for meditative stuff I would recommend bansuri (bamboo flute; Hariprasad Chaurasia or G. Sachdev are the best players) or any bowed instrument: sarangi in the Hindustani (North Indian; Sultan Khan, for instance) tradition, or violin in the Carnatic (L. Subramaniam, for instance), etc. But bansuri is probably the most meditative timbre.

On the subject of electronic versions of the tanpura:

I find the Raagini Pro I recently got (from the Ali Akbar College Store mailorder, ~US$200 plus duty; they had a sale price on it) very useful for intonation guidance. The overtones are indeed very rich. (You heard it on my recent MySpace posts.) It helps me tune up more quickly too, as the lower three strings on my fretlesses correspond to the tanpura pitches. (Octave sa's and the pa.)

Yes, you could get its sound from a (multi-)sample player, but you'd need to tune that to get the just fifths [pa] and fourths [ma], and sometimes the 7th [ni]. The Raagini does more than just drone those notes together; it simulates the way an actual tanpura is plucked (more like stroked - missus! - it's not easy to do well for an half hour or more at a time, as I've experienced when I was asked to fill in for a concert - Shafqat Ali Khan a couple of hours before one of his shows: "Kai, you play tanpura, OK?"), and gives you the the four basic ways it's usually tuned and played: pa, (high) sa, (high) sa, (low) sa; ma, (high) sa, (high) sa, (low) sa; ni (manually tuned by you), (high) sa, (high) sa, (low) sa; and just (high) sa, (high) sa, (low) sa. You also get quick and easy root pitch selection (I use C#, of course), fine tuning (important because A-440 is not all that meaningful a concept in India - my friend Sukhawat Ali Khan's harmonium is about 30 cents sharp), and tempo controls.

Unlike earlier Raagini models, mine has a rechargeable battery compartment (8 AAs) so you can take it out into the wild. ("Run free, little drone, run free!")

[rob]

I love this place. It's a continuous education.

I wasn't thinking of a sampler. I thought that it might be possible to get the harmonic structure out of a careful use of FM synthesis. If it were done in something like csound, you could get past the MIDI limitations.

None of that would help much with the portability issue though.

Probably more effort than it would be worth if there are already good solutions out there. But it would be a good learning experience.

[Kai]

I love this place.  It's a continuous education.

I wasn't thinking of a sampler.  I thought that it might be possible to get the harmonic structure out of a careful use of FM synthesis.  If it were done in something like csound, you could get past the MIDI limitations.

None of that would help much with the portability issue though.

Probably more effort than it would be worth if there are already good solutions out there.  But it would be a good learning experience.

Yeah, Csound would be be perfect for such a project. I fiddled with it a bit (well, it was my Berkeley Comp Sci grad housemate that did the programming; I just came up with the just intonation concepts to be applied: we were trying to accomplish key modulations via interpolation while retaining the just ratios) about ten years ago.

Perhaps the results could be burnt onto an EPROM and incorporated into a stomp box thingie.

It would be fascinating to learn the engineering history behind the Raagini; it handles the transposition and time-stretching aspects better than some two-track editors I've seen.

In other news, there seems to finally be a MIDI-sync-able tabla box:

Taal Mala DG100