The Steel Guitar Forum

Her vibrato rivals Robert Randolph at times!
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_Qk4m1KYfoI

But seriously, is this instrument a kind of steel guitar, or something else entirely?

This is definitely a steel guitar.

And I believe it's a very old Indian instrument that's been around for ages.

And I believe that this is what a young Joseph Kekuku saw played by visiting Indian musicians when he was a young boy in Hawaii.

I don't buy the young Joseph Kekuku walking along the railroad track, picking up a metal spike, sliding along the strings of his guitar, then woodshedding for four years and "inventing" the Hawaiian steel guitar story for a second.
Good musicians have "big ears" and they "borrow" freely from other musicians.

"Dr. Kamala Shankar has worked on the Hawaiian guitar and created an instrument that can lay claim to features that make the sitar and the sarod so popular with the classical musician Shankar's guitar is made from a single piece of hollow wood, and has no joints.

Meend over matter Dr. Kamala Shankar of Varanasi takes a step forward in adapting the guitar to Indian classical music. The guitar, like the violin, came to India from the West. It has found innovative practitioners, like Brijbhushan Khabra and Vishwamohan Bhatt, who have coaxed Indian classical music out of it. Yet the guitar is nowhere as popular as the violin on the classical music circuit. Invariably, its capacity for playing graces is compared with that of the sitar and the sarod, and the Western import is found wanting. Its tone cannot match the deep-toned dignity of the sarod or the fluid lyricism of the sitar.

Dr Kamala Shankar, well-known guitarist who plays Hindustani classical music, has designed a new instrument that seeks a better status for the guitar. Her instrument lays claim to some of the features that make the sitar and the sarod so popular with the classical musician.
Innovation of "Shankar Guitar" - by Dr. Kamala Shankar
"Doctorate" in Hawaiian Guitar "By the grace of Lord Shankara of Varanasi, I have created a modified version of the Hawaiian guitar, Dr Kamala Shankar told The Music Magazine. And she has named it Shankar Guitar, after the deity who presides over the holy city she lives in, Varanasi.

Shankar's guitar is made from a single piece of hollow wood, and has no joints. Wood knobs replace the normal steel ones. The tarabs (sympathetic strings) are an addition, and they too are strung from wooden knobs. Shankar's guitar looks like the normal guitar, but one end gets a lotus leaf design. The instrument has four main strings, four chikari strings and 12 tarabs. "The most important feature is its pure and natural tone," says Kamala Shankar. "It overcomes the problem of metallic sound that used to make Hindustani classical guitarists unhappy."

In the earlier guitars she used, Kamala Shankar says, the quality of wood - ply mostly - was poor, and the joints were not stable, resulting in the scales going offkey. This was what prompted her to modify and innovate. So how is Shankar's guitar different from Vishwamohan Bhatt's innovation, the Mohan veena? "My instrument has a fully hollow body, a thicker sound board and base, and the walls are made of solid wood. The Mohan veena uses plywood," says Kamala Shankar.

Pandit Rajeev Janardan, eminent sitarist and Kamala's husband, looked closely at the normal guitar, and came to the conclusion that a sitar designer may be able to overcome its drawbacks. That decision took them to Bishan Das Sharma of Rikhi Ram Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company, Delhi. "He is a very reputed instrument maker who makes sitars for Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Vilayat Khan and other big artistes. He was kind enough to co-operate with us, and design a guitar just for me," says Kamala Shankar.

She feels the new instrument achieves better sustain than other guitars. "The sitting posture becomes comfortable because of its flat base throughout, and the strong, single-piece structure holds the tuning better and makes the instrument crack resistant." Jerks or minor mishandling, she feels, will not badly affect its performance. And above all, its has an "Indian touch" to its tone which "our ears are so used to". To acknowledge that it is a modified Western instrument, Kamala Shankar has retained "guitar" in its name and not changed it to veena."

http://www.artists-india.com/instrument ... guitar.php



Steinar

Ok, but I still don't buy the Kekuku story.

Gerald,

"When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."
- The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

In Lorene Ruymer's book, she talks about an Indian who I think was named Damion. He lived in Hawaii contemporaneously with Joseph Kekuku. This Damion fellow, by different accounts was supposed to have either have been the actual inventor of the steel guitar or to have inspired it when Kekuku saw him perform on an instrument of ancient Indian tradition somewhat akin to the one pictured. The contemporary account of the steel guitar's invention is based partly on the best evidence and partly on the most reasonable guess. Based on what little is known, it is considered unlikely that Damion and Kekuku met prior to the invention of the steel guitar.
Note: This is based on my best recollection of Ms. Ruymer's book. Interested parties may look up the story for themselves. Also, I absolutely DO NOT stand behind my spellings of these various names. They were the best I could do off the top of my head.

Nice find Bob, thanks for postimg that. The Doc was jaming out pretty good there.I've got a cd coming from amazon by Debashish Bhattachara Indian slide guitarist. He's done some work with Bob Brozman. sounds like it might be pretty good. I came across some Jerry Byrd with Marty Robbins stuff on utube, from that Dr Shankar post if anybodys interested in seeing JB. I'm going to listen to somemore of the the good Doc now.

Oh ya thanks for all the info Steinar.

So... How did the Hummel get to India?

The Kekuku story seems to be the most popular of them all. No one really can prove any story, so it's a good conversation piece if nothing else. ( don't tell Lorene I said that )
I personally could care less "who done it", as long as it sounds good

This is all well and good, but can she play "A Way to Survive"?

b0b wrote:Her vibrato rivals Robert Randolph at times!

Maybe I'm pointing out something you already noticed, but anyway

Like all traditional indian classical musicians I've heard she doesn't really play with a vibrato in the western sense of the word, meaning she does not add a "shimmering shivver" to long sustained notes.

Our kind of vibrato is fairly undefined, a matter of personal taste and not really a going between fixed pitches but rather an ornamentation of a particular pitch.

She plays rapid flurries of notes that tend to sound like a vibrato to us but it's actually closer to Beyoncé's wailings than an classical western vibrato. Long notes are held straight, as any classical indian singer would too. It's one of the great differences of our musical traditions.

In hearing y'all talk about these things I thought you might have been hearing 1/4 tone trills. These are used alot in Indian music. But on second listen, I don't think so.

I like her playing. There's silence and space and a sense of theme and variation in her playing that's unique. Maybe not the jaw-dropping virtuosity of Bhatt or Bhattacharya, but very good nonetheless.


Here's her website:

http://www.kamalashankar-rajeevjanardan.com/

Who cares if the chicken came before the egg, just learn to play your Hawaiian guit-thing well.

I'm surprized no one has ever heard of Indian Bluegrass.

Bongo drums are allowed.

Darrell Urbien wrote:So... How did the Hummel get to India?

...via Hawaii. This Indian instrument is not the originator or the Hawaiian guitar, it's a derivative of it.

Alan F. Brookes wrote:

Darrell Urbien wrote:So... How did the Hummel get to India?

...via Hawaii. This Indian instrument is not the originator or the Hawaiian guitar, it's a derivative of it.

The Hummel was taken to Hawaii.

Kevin Bacon has been to Hawaii.

Hummel -> Kevin Bacon in 2 degrees of separation.

India has had a slid version of the veena for ages. It's known as vichittra veena in the north and gottudadhyam in the south.

Darrell Urbien wrote:

Alan F. Brookes wrote:

Darrell Urbien wrote:So... How did the Hummel get to India?

...via Hawaii. This Indian instrument is not the originator or the Hawaiian guitar, it's a derivative of it.

The Hummel was taken to Hawaii.
Kevin Bacon has been to Hawaii.

Hummel -> Kevin Bacon in 2 degrees of separation.

That's what I meant by "via Hawaii".