The Steel Guitar Forum

Where could I find tuning schemes for a chaturangui?

Thanks,

hey Tom,

idk if this helps, but I think most of the Hindustani guitar stuff is Pa Sa Pa Sa, lo to hi. I think Debashish might use Sa Pa Sa Ga Pa Sa for one of his guitars.

on a regular 6-string, you can then take the two bottom strings off and replace them w/ plain strings, Sa and Pa, for the chikari strings.

when I was studying, I initially started w/ Sa Pa Sa Ma, like a sarod or sitar tuning, but I haven't been able to find evidence of anyone else doing that on a guitar, and I've searched a good bit for it.

I'd love to get a legit Hindustani axe one day...

j

FWIW:

Brad: http://www.well.com/user/wellvis/indian.html

Andy: http://www.volkmedia.com/Volkmedia.com/ ... _Book.html

HTH.

que?

chris ivey wrote:que?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swara

so they're just tuned to 2 or 3 notes?

yes. Sa Pa Sa Ga Pa Sa is just open D intervals, tuned to whatever Sa is, usually between C and D.

but, I think it's pretty common to only be using four melody strings, like Brij Bhushan Kabra's tuning, below:
http://www.debashishbhattacharya.com/hi ... guitar.php

and then the sympathetic strings are tuned to the raga.

Don't know if there's any interest in this old thread any more. I stumbled across it while searching on something else.

By some miracle, I actually study chaturangui with Debashish.

He uses a number of tunings on the main 6, but the most common are open D (low to high -D A D F# A D, ie S P S G P S) and open D minor (F# changes to F natural, or in the Saregama, G to g). He also uses open G and G minor for some things.

There are only two chikaris on the chaturangui, and they're just D and D'. The bottom drones are both D, and of course the sympathetics depend on the raag.

I also own a Mohan Veena, which is set up differently. Just 3 melody strings and 3 chikaris, along withthe sympathetics.

The three melody strings are usually D A D. VM Bhatt uses a variety of tunings on the chikaris, sometime S N P, S n P, S P G, etc.

Thanks for sharing that info Mike!

Correct link: http://www.volkmediabooks.com/products- ... lide-rules

FYI: The book has the tunings and gauges used by Debashish and by Harry Manx.

Debashish has a nice general intro to the chaturangui here. Includes tunings, basic technique, etc.

https://youtu.be/E-qyvjUJQRY

Interesting. There's no standardization outside of your teacher and your gharana, really, vs some of the older instruments like sitar and sarod. Mohan veenas and Hansa veenas all vary in setup. I play sitar and surbahar and the main playing string is usually Ma, so adapting to an open sa on the main string would be interesting, although I have done a sort of inversion on surbahar (usually tuned, including chikaris, S'' S' P P ''S 'P S m) where I tune it to C# sa instead of G# sa, tuning something like this: P' P S S ''P 'S 'P S) (never do gandhar chikari on surbahar, too muddy...love it on sitar though!).

If any one wants to take the plunge, I'd recommend Lars of Rain City Music. He has a basic Mohan veena in stock right now it looks like, and he always gets quality instruments.
http://www.raincitymusic.com/mohanveena1.htm

Nic Neufeld wrote:Interesting. There's no standardization outside of your teacher and your gharana, really, vs some of the older instruments like sitar and sarod. Mohan veenas and Hansa veenas all vary in setup. I play sitar and surbahar and the main playing string is usually Ma, so adapting to an open sa on the main string would be interesting, although I have done a sort of inversion on surbahar (usually tuned, including chikaris, S'' S' P P ''S 'P S m) where I tune it to C# sa instead of G# sa, tuning something like this: P' P S S ''P 'S 'P S) (never do gandhar chikari on surbahar, too muddy...love it on sitar though!).

If any one wants to take the plunge, I'd recommend Lars of Rain City Music. He has a basic Mohan veena in stock right now it looks like, and he always gets quality instruments.
http://www.raincitymusic.com/mohanveena1.htm

Yeah, I think the lack of standardization is a reflection of the relative newness of applying slide to Hindustani music compared to sarod or sitar--about 60-70 years vs at least a few hundred years. There are at least 5 or 6 variations on the instrument that I know of, probably more

Chaturangui (Debashish Bhattacharya)

Mohan veena (VM Bhatt, whose son Salil plays one with an additional melody string)

Hansa veena (Barun Kumar Pal)

Kachhapi veena (Chakrapani Singh)

Shankar guitar (Kamala Shankar)

And of course Brij Bhushan Kabra, the great pioneer of slide in Hindustani music, played a Gibson Super 400, with only slight modification.

There is also the vichitra veena. Not exactly slide guitar, but in the ballpark! Dhrupad is of course not the most easily digestible music compared to khayal for the newly initiated. Takes a very patient, attentive ear.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdaTBhk6MiQ

Nic Neufeld wrote:There is also the vichitra veena. Not exactly slide guitar, but in the ballpark! Dhrupad is of course not the most easily digestible music compared to khayal for the newly initiated. Takes a very patient, attentive ear.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdaTBhk6MiQ

Yeah, that’s the great great granddaddy of all of them. The Carnatic version supposedly dates back a couple thousand years!

Another modern one I forgot. Triveni veena.

https://youtu.be/wMDMVriZsVc


I’m sure there’s more!

Well,usually this tunning on six string base.
Lo to Hi EBEG#BE (1st 5th 1st 3rd 5th 1st).
And any indian Rag consist minor 3rd in a scale,
Then the 3rd note will be flated(EBEGBE).
Besides there are more tunning option to be used.
Thanks.Ashoke.

A nice recent interview with Debashish, including some detail on the history of the instrument and technique he uses.

https://youtu.be/Y75tZC_ML1k