The Steel Guitar Forum

He has pretty impressive technique that strangely, reminds me of Gypsy jazzers like Josco Stephan who combine technique, accuracy and musical expression extremely well.

https://www.facebook.com/somranjan.chak ... ater&ifg=1

"It ain't bad... but it ain't country!"

Nice jor-jhalla, lovely playing! S - r - G - m - P - D - n - S'. Raag Ahir Bhairav, bhairav in the lower, more kafi or khammaj in upper. Similar raag that I love is Basant Mukhari...same bhairav swaras in the lower but with shuddh da and ni in the upper. But Ahir Bhairav is definitely more well known. My Ustadji (RIP) as a young man with his legendary older brother:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uSl2VKCeDA

I'm sometimes flabbergasted by the precision and devotion of Hindustani classical musicians. I once, before getting into steel guitar, witnessed Pt Vishwa Mohan Bhatt at a concert demonstrating a taan (scalar run) where he showed how he would play it with 1 note per beat, 2 notes per beat, 3 notes per beat, 4 notes per beat (so far western musicians are feeling ok...quarter, eight, triplet, 16th), then 5 notes, 6 notes, 7 notes (!), 8 notes. And he played it perfectly and distinctly. It broke my brain a bit

So guys, is the instrument itself called a chaturangui?

Is that what Debashish plays too?

Nic Neufeld wrote:I once, before getting into steel guitar, witnessed Pt Vishwa Mohan Bhatt at a concert demonstrating a taan (scalar run) where he showed how he would play it with 1 note per beat, 2 notes per beat, 3 notes per beat, 4 notes per beat (so far western musicians are feeling ok...quarter, eight, triplet, 16th), then 5 notes, 6 notes, 7 notes (!), 8 notes. And he played it perfectly and distinctly. It broke my brain a bit

Clap in threes and count "1-1-1." Continue clapping in threes and count "1-2-1." Etc., etc. until you are counting 12, 13, ... 18, ... 22.

Yeah, add 22 irregular shrutis and their rhythmic and harmonic training is nuts.

Chris Brooks wrote:So guys, is the instrument itself called a chaturangui?

Is that what Debashish plays too?

Debashish invented the chaturangui, so definitely what he plays (in addition to his four other inventions).

I couldn't see clearly enough to tell which this one was, but the three main modern schools of Hindustani slide (leaving aside the old chitra/vichitra veena) are Vishwa Mohan Bhatt's mohan veena, Barun Kumar Pal's hansa veena, and Debashish's chaturangui. The mohan veena and chaturangui are similar in many respects, being an adaptation of a spanish archtop guitar with various drones, chikari, and tarab strings...the string layout is the main difference, I know one has the chikari on the players side of the main strings like a sitar, the other has them on the far side, can't remember which...

The Barun Pal Hansa Veena, is a bit different...more sitar like with a carved wooden tabli and overall, more "Indian" in fundamental design, but still much the same thing. I wonder if it is a bit quieter given the design, I would imagine the large bodied guitar derived instruments would have a bit more sound projection. But they are gorgeous instruments.

http://www.sitarsencat.com/cat-sitars-t ... mar-sardar

Nic Neufeld wrote:

Chris Brooks wrote:So guys, is the instrument itself called a chaturangui?

Is that what Debashish plays too?

Debashish invented the chaturangui, so definitely what he plays (in addition to his four other inventions).

I couldn't see clearly enough to tell which this one was, but the three main modern schools of Hindustani slide (leaving aside the old chitra/vichitra veena) are Vishwa Mohan Bhatt's mohan veena, Barun Kumar Pal's hansa veena, and Debashish's chaturangui. The mohan veena and chaturangui are similar in many respects, being an adaptation of a spanish archtop guitar with various drones, chikari, and tarab strings...the string layout is the main difference, I know one has the chikari on the players side of the main strings like a sitar, the other has them on the far side, can't remember which...

The Barun Pal Hansa Veena, is a bit different...more sitar like with a carved wooden tabli and overall, more "Indian" in fundamental design, but still much the same thing. I wonder if it is a bit quieter given the design, I would imagine the large bodied guitar derived instruments would have a bit more sound projection. But they are gorgeous instruments.

http://www.sitarsencat.com/cat-sitars-t ... mar-sardar

Somranjan really is a wonderful player, for sure. He's a student of Debashish's.

There are a ton of various types of Hindustani slides out there these days, but the Mohan Veena and Chaturangui are pretty clearly the most popular ones. Debashish's Chaturangui has 6 melody strings and the chikaris on the treble side, the Mohan Veena has three melody strings and chikaris on the bass (thumb) side. The chanturangui also has two additional drone strings on the thumb side, so you can actually do a sort of double chikari thing on both sides. (I own one and study with Debashish). He's recently added a new instrument called a Pushpa Veena, which has a skin top like a sarod.

A while back I posted a list of all the kinds of Indian slides that I know of:

Chaturangui, Ghandarvi, Anandi, Pushpa Veena (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)

Triveni veena (Niranjan Haldar)

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

Here's a nice video of Debashish describing the Chaturangui.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-qyvjUJQRY