Continuing our journey to explore traditional Indian Musical Instruments, we take a look at some more of these master pieces.

BANSURI

There are two varieties of bansuri: the transverse, and the fipple. The fipple variety is usually played in folk music and is held away from the lips like a whistle. Because of the flexibility and control it offers, the transverse variety is preferred in classical music.

The Bansuri

Pandit Pannalal Ghosh (1911–1960) elevated the Bansuri from a folk instrument into serious classical music. He improvised with the length and number of holes and eventually came up with longer bansuris with larger bores and a seventh hole placed 90 degrees around from the line of the other six holes. Longer bansuris provided better coverage in the lower octaves.

Playing style

Bansuris vary in length. They range from about 12 inches up to about 40 inches. 20-inch bansuris are common. Another common and similar Indian flute played in South India is the venu. The index, middle, and fourth fingers of both hands are usually used to play the six hole bansuri. For the seven hole bansuri, the fifth finger of the right hand is usually used.

The sound from a bansuri comes from resonance in the air column inside it. The length of this column can be varied by closing or opening the holes. At the same time, keeping a hole half-open helps in getting a flat note. The Sa (on the Indian sargam scale, or equivalent “do” on the octave) note is obtained by covering the top three holes from the mouth-hole. The higher and lower octaves are played by changing one’s embouchure. The flat portion of the fingers, and not the tips, are used to cover the holes as this gives better control and ease while playing the half-holes. While playing, the sitting posture is also important and care must be taken so that the back is not strained for long hours. Bansuris of different sizes are used to play different octaves. The longer bansuris with larger bore are usually for lower octaves and the slimmer ones for higher octaves.

Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia

In order to play diatonic scale on a bansuri, it is important to find where the notes lie. E.g. in a bansuri where Sa or the tonic, played always by closing the first three holes, is equivalent to D, one can play sheet music by creating a finger notation that corresponds to different notes. A bansuri player is able to achieve the complexities of Raga music such as microtonal inflections, ornamentation, and glissando by varying breath, fast movement while playing both half and full holes, and covering the holes gradually.

Maestros

• Hariprasad Chaurasia
• Rajendra Prasanna
• Devendra Murdeshwar

Fun fact

• In traditional Indian metaphysics, it is noted how remarkable it is the way the life force (pran, or literally ‘breath’) is converted into a musical resonance (sur).
• In Indian mythology the bansuri has a special significance as it is the chosen instrument of the Hindu god Krishna, who is often depicted playing it.
• Hariprasad Chaurasia was a trained wrestler before he moved on to play the flute, (His students dare not play a wrong note!)

The sarod is believed by some to have descended from the Afghan rubab, a similar instrument originating in Central Asia and Afghanistan. The name Sarod roughly translates to “beautiful sound” or “melody” in Persian (which is one of the many languages spoken in Afghanistan). Although the sarod has been referred to as a ‘bass rubab’ its pitch range is only slightly lower than that of the rubab. Lalmani Misra opines in his Bharatiya Sangeet Vadya that the sarod is an amalgamation of the ancient chitra veena, the medieval rubab and modern sursingar. There is also a speculation that the oud (a pear-shaped stringed instrument commonly used in Middle Eastern music) may be the origin of the sarod. Among the many conflicting and contested histories of the sarod, there is one that attributes its invention to the ancestors of the present-day sarod maestro, Amjad Ali Khan. Amjad Ali Khan’s ancestor Mohammad Hashmi Khan Bangash, a musician and horse trader, came to India with the Afghan rubab in the mid-1700s and became a court musician to the Maharajah of Rewa (now in Madhya Pradesh). It was his descendants – notably his grandson Ghulam Ali Khan Bangash who became a court musician in Gwalior – who gradually transformed the rubab into the sarod we know today. A parallel theory credits descendants of Madar Khan (1701–1748) – Niyamatullah Khan in particular – with the same innovation in 1820. It is possible that Ghulam Ali Khan and Niyamatullah Khan came to the similar design propositions either independently or in unacknowledged collaboration. The sarod in its present recognizable form dates back to 1820, when it started gaining recognition as a serious instrument in Rewa, Shahjahanpur, Gwalior and Lucknow. In the twentieth century, the sarod received some finishing touches from Allauddin Khan, the performer-pedagogue from Maihar, best known as Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan’s guru.

Construction

The Sarod

The conventional sarod is a 17 to 19 – stringed lute-like instrument – four to five main strings used for playing the melody, one or two drone strings, two chikari strings and nine to eleven sympathetic strings. The design of this early model is generally credited to Niyamatullah Khan of the Lucknow Gharana as well as Ghulam Ali Khan of the Gwalior-Bangash Gharana. Among the contemporary sarod players, this basic design is kept intact by two streams of sarod playing. Amjad Ali Khan and his disciples play this model, as do the followers of Radhika Mohan Maitra. Both Amjad Ali Khan and Buddhadev Dasgupta have introduced minor changes to their respective instruments which have become the design templates for their followers. Both musicians use sarods made of teak wood, with the playing face covered with goat skin. Buddhadev Dasgupta prefers a polished stainless steel fingerboard for the ease of maintenance while Amjad Ali Khan uses the conventional chrome or nickel-plated cast steel fingerboard. Visually, the two variants are similar, with six pegs in the main pegbox, two rounded chikari pegs and 11 (Amjad) to 15 (Buddhadev) sympathetic strings. The descendants of Niyamatullah Khan (namely Irfan Khan and Ghulfam Khan) also play similar instruments. The followers of Radhika Mohan Maitra still carry the second resonator on their sarods. Amjad Ali khan and his followers have rejected the resonator altogether.

Another type is the one designed by Allauddin Khan and his brother Ayet Ali Khan. This instrument, referred by David Trasoff as the 1934 Maihar Prototype, is larger and longer than the conventional instrument, though the fingerboard is identical to the traditional sarod described above. This instrument has 25 strings in all. These include four main strings, four jod strings (tuned to Ni or Dha, R/r, G/g and Sa respectively), two chikari strings (tuned to Sa of the upper octave) and fifteen tarab strings. The main strings are tuned to Ma (“fa”), Sa (“do”), lower Pa (“so”) and lower Sa, giving the instrument a range of three octaves. The Maihar sarod lends itself extremely well to the presentation of alap with the four jod strings providing a backdrop that helps usher in the ambience of the raga. This variant is, however, not conducive to the performance of clean right-hand picking on individual strings. They tune to C.

Playing Style

The lack of frets and the tension of the strings make the sarod a very demanding instrument to play, as the strings must be pressed hard against the fingerboard.

There are two approaches to stopping the strings of the sarod. One involves using the tip of one’s fingernails to stop the strings; certain strength and stiffness of the fingernails is a prerequisite for accuracy of pitch. The other uses a combination of the nail and the fingertip to stop the strings against the fingerboard. The technique which uses the fingernails produces a ringing tone, while the fingertip technique produces a flatter tone.

Ustaad Amjad Ali Khan with sons Amaan and Ayaan

Left hand fingering technique of the sarod is not as well-defined as it should have been in order for sarod players across the board to understand each other. Fingering techniques and how they are taught depend largely on the personal preferences of musicians and are not even distinguishable on the basis of school affiliation. Radhika Mohan Maitra, for example, used the index, middle and ring finger of his left hand to stop the string, just like followers of Allauddin Kha. Maitra, however, made much more extensive use of the third fingernail for slides and hammers. Amjad Ali Khan, while a member of approximately the same stylistic school as Radhika Mohan, prefers to use just the index and middle fingers of his left hand. Amjad Ali is, however, pictured in 1960 playing with all three fingers.

Maestros

• Ali Akbar Khan
• Allauddin Khan
• Sharan Rani Backliwal
• Debojyoti Bose
• Mohammad Amir Khan

Fun Fact

A student of Ali Akbar Khan once mentioned,

“He could find out within a hundred and fifty students, which student had which string out of tune and by how many semitones off, and a sarod can have upto 25 string!”

Images & Content courtesy: Furtados Music

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In a 2 part series starting this month, The Big M brings to you traditional musical instruments that form the essence of Indian Classical Music.

A number of musical instruments have come to be associated with Indian classical music. These have a rich history and literature surrounding them. The veena, a string instrument, was traditionally regarded as the most important, but few play it today and it has largely been put out of fashion by its cousins the sitar and the sarod, both of which owe their origin to Persian influences. Other plucked/struck string instruments include the surbahar, sursringar, santoor and various versions of the modern day slide guitar. Among bowed instruments, the sarangi, esraj and violin are popular. The bansuri (bamboo flute), shehnai and harmonium are important wind instruments. In the percussion ensemble, the tabla and the pakhavaj are the most popular. Various other instruments have also been used in varying degrees.

VEENA

A veena can be traced back to the lute family of the European stringed instruments.

It is by far one of the most revered of traditional instruments. A veena player is called a Vainika.

It first mention on written records dates back to 1500 BC.

Playing

The Veena

It can be plucked, bowed or struck. A Vainik plays by sitting cross-legged with the instrument held tilted slightly away from the player. The small gourd on the left rests on the player’s left thigh, the left arm passing beneath the neck with the hand curving up and around so that the fingers rest upon the frets. The palm of the right hand rests on the edge of the top plank so that the fingers (usually index and middle) can pluck the strings. The drone strings are played with the little finger. The veena’s large resonator is placed on the floor, beyond the right thigh.

Construction

About four feet in length, its design consists of a large resonator (kudam) carved and hollowed out of a log (usually of jackwood), a tapering hollow neck (dandi) topped with 24 brass or bell-metal frets set in scalloped black wax on wooden tracks, and a tuning box culminating in a downward curve and an ornamental dragon’s head (yali). A small table-like wooden bridge (kudurai)—about 2 x 2½ x 2 inches – is topped by a convex brass plate glued in place with resin. Two rosettes, formerly of ivory, now of plastic or horn, are on the top board (palakai) of the resonator. Four main playing strings tuned to the tonic and the fifth in two octaves (for example B flat, E flat below bass clef & B flat, E flat in bass clef) stretch from fine tuning connectors attached to the end of the resonator across the bridge and above the fretboard to four large-headed pegs in the tuning box. Three subsidiary drone strings tuned to the tonic, fifth, and upper tonic cross a curving side bridge leaning against the main bridge, and stretch on the player’s side of the neck to three pegs matching those of the main playing strings. All seven strings today are of steel, with the lower strings either of solid thick gauge wire or round wound.

Acoustics

The veena has a unique construction. The string terminations at both ends are curved and not sharp. Also, the frets have much more curvature than any other instrument. Unlike in guitar, the string does not have to be pushed down to the very base of the neck, so no rattling sound is generated. This design enables a continuous control over the string tension, which is important for glissandi, producing more harmonics than any other instruments.

Fun fact

The veena has a recorded history that dates back to the Vedic period (approximately 1500 B.C.). Earlier veenas ranged from one string to one hundred, and were composed of many different materials like eagle bone, bamboo, wood and coconut shells.

Maestros

• Veena Dhanammal
• Desamangalam Subramanya Iyer
• K.S. Narayanaswamy
• Rugmini Gopalakrishnan

The sitar is often said to have been developed in the thirteenth century AD by Amir Khusro, the Godfather of Hindustani Classical, from a member of the veena family of Indian musical instruments called the tritantri veena and to has been named by him after the Persian setar. The sitar is, like the setar, a member of the lute family while the north Indian veena is a zither, but it shares the veena’s resonating gourds and sympathetic strings. Amir Khusro does not mention the sitar but he does mention the tanbur and, by the mid 18th century, Indian tanburs were referred to as sitars.

In his Bharatiya Sangeet Vadya, Dr. Lalmani Misra traces its development from the tritantri veena through the nibaddh and anibaddh tanpuras and later the jantra. Construction of the similar tanpura was described by Tansen. During the time of Moghul rule, Persian lutes were played at courts and may have provided a basis for the sitar. However, there is no physical evidence for the sitar until the time of the collapse of the Mughal Empire.

Construction

The sitar’s curved frets are movable, allowing fine tuning, and raised so that sympathetic strings (tarb, also known as ‘taarif’ or ‘tarafdaar’) can run underneath them. A sitar can have 21, 22, or 23 strings, among which are six or seven playable strings which run over the frets: the Gandhaar-pancham sitar (used by Vilayat Khan and his disciples) has six playable strings, whereas the Kharaj-pancham sitar, used in the Maihar gharana, to which Pt. Ravi Shankar belongs, has seven. Three of these (or four on a Kharaj-pancham sitar), called the chikaari, simply provide a drone; the rest are used to play the melody , though the first string (baajtaar) is most used.

The Sitar

The instrument has two bridges; the large bridge (badaa goraa) for the playing and drone strings and the small bridge (chota goraa) for the sympathetic strings. Its timbre results from the way the strings interact with the wide, sloping bridge. As a string reverberates its length changes slightly as its edge touches the bridge, causing the creation of overtones and giving the sound its distinctive tone. The maintenance of this specific tone by shaping the bridge is called jawari. Many musicians rely on instrument makers to adjust this.

Playing

The instrument is balanced between the player’s left foot and right knee. The hands move freely without having to carry any of the instrument’s weight. The player plucks the strings using a metallic pick or plectrum called a mizraab. The thumb stays anchored on the top of the fretboard just above the main gourd. Generally only the index and middle fingers are used for fingering although a few players occasionally use the third. A specialized technique called ‘meand’ involves pulling the main melody string down over the bottom portion of the sitar’s curved frets, with which the sitarist can achieve a 7 semitone range of microtonal notes (it should be noted, however, that because of the sitar’s movable frets, sometimes a fret may be set to a microtone already, and no bending would be required).

Fun Fact:

Sitar has a cousin called the Surbahar which can count as a bass sitar, downtuned by 2 – 5 steps.

Sitar has been used in western pop music more than one can imagine. Pt. Ravi Shankar playing on The Beatle’s ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ is the most noticeable and of course The Rolling Stones using it in ‘Paint it Black’.

Niladri Kumar has also put pick-ups on his sitar! Any takers for an Electric Sitar?

Maestros:

• Ravi Shnakar
• Enayat Khan
• Krishna Bhatt
• Anoushka Shankar
• Niladri Kumar
• Vilayat Khan

Images and Content Courtesy: Furtados Music

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I have always been passionate about music and have written and composed songs since I was 6 years old. Since my upbringing was mostly in American schools in Europe and my influences in music were all the classic bands such as the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jimi Hendrix, etc., most of the music and lyrics that I wrote were in English and of western style.

Visionary - Aditya Bhasin

On moving back to India I joined rock bands in school and college, took some training from Delhi School of Music and also learnt informally from my friends. But even though I had this hobby which I loved, I never thought I’d make it my career. So I got busy with professionally educating myself and joined the field of hospitality management. I managed hotels here in India and in US, but after 8 years of work and an amazing promotion waiting for me back in Mumbai, I realized something was missing. This instinctual feeling coupled with angry guests and the whole corporate scene altogether forced me to realize that my underlying and nagging problem was that I needed a change.

It was at that time that I met up with good family friends – John and Faith Singh, who had successfully run a contemporary hand block printing company – Anokhi, for 30 years and had spent the years of their retirement working in the field of heritage conservation. They’d started an NGO called Jaipur Virasat Foundation along with running the Jaipur Heritage International Festival.

Potful of talent: Some artists forming Rajasthan Roots

After one meeting with John, discussing the possibilities of working with thousands of artists from different communities of Rajasthan, the scope for experimentation, production, freedom of expression, and thus empowering them and providing a stable livelihood – seemed like a mission and a vision that I just couldn’t walk away from. So without any job confirmation with the foundation, I came back to Delhi, turned down my promotion, quit my job and went on to settle down in Rajasthan.

The next few years were a crash course for me in every sense – a new language – Marwari, songs and traditional beats I’d never heard before with many different instruments and sounds. Vinod Joshi – the anthropologist who worked with the foundation was a storehouse of knowledge and a genuine grass root contact. We would get a call at any random hour, informing us that there was something happening in some remote village like storm chasers, etc. Vinod and I would jump into John’s SUV and drive off into the countryside. Sometimes it would be all night Jagrans, an opportunity to meet Jasnath Ke Bhope – dancing barefoot on burning embers of coal, or a whole village of Tejaji ke Bhope – dancing with hundreds of defanged cobras and sometimes it would be Momasar – where on every Holi, for 3 days everyone dresses up in drag, in unimaginable characters and they dance, act and perform street theatre.

Also an effort to discover the best artists of Rajasthan was made by JVF, organizing talent hunts and regional festivals in small villages. The response and outcome was tremendous, attracting hundreds of undiscovered artists and thousands of spectators. All this ground work was a seed which spawned the collective and soon many of these artists began performing in concerts in Jaipur and all over India.

Gifted: Kutle Khan on Kartals

When the work load of touring and performing became overwhelming I had to leave my day job in the foundation and concentrate entirely on production. Soon with support from John and the others, we saw the beginning of Morchang Studios – the production house and Rajasthan Roots – a collective of folk musicians.

We stayed away from the typical fusion – either with western drums or drum beats and allowed for the sound to evolve on its own. By introducing instruments which made the music and tone warmer such as the bass guitar and other melodic instruments such as the bamboo flute, guitar and saxophone, the outcome was an easily palatable sound to people all around the world across all age groups.

7 years went by and we’d showcased performances all over the world. In places like England, Singapore, Japan, Europe, Abu Dhabi and the middle east, as well as prestigious events in India such as the Times Delhi and Kolkata Festivals, blueFROG in Mumbai and Central Park and Garden of Five Senses in Delhi.

Production and collaboration has always stressed upon learning from other world cultures such as Cuban, Latin American and Mali of Africa while collaborating with different musicians such as Idan Rachel and Shye Ben Tzur.  Rodney Branigan from US, Raghu Dixit from Bangalore and many others from France, England, and Middle East provided training, learning and a cultural exchange for all musicians involved. So you will find in our music, traces from different folk cultures and styles. My favorites are the African Blues, the Middle Eastern scales and of course the Sufi traditions.

Rajasthan Roots has been able to promote some of the finest musicians and dancers in a contemporary representation of Rajasthan’s folk culture. The vision is and always has been for the music of Rajasthan to evolve and to represent a current state and emotion. Once the musicians are given the freedom of expression and guided to stay away from songs which have become a stereotype or in some ways a novelty, the new and real sounds of Rajasthan can emerge.

Article by Aditya Bhasin with Divya Srinivasan

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The Big M sets sight on this irreplaceable instrument to help you find the one that suits you best..

Out of all the modern day instruments, none has a longer history than the drum. Drums are found throughout the world, in practically every culture, and are known to have existed since at least 6000 BC and have always fascinated their audiences. Almost everywhere they have strong ceremonial, sacred, or symbolic associations. Taking into account, all of the musical instruments that we see in our society today and use on a regular basis, this is one instrument that stands out in musical history.

THE EARLY DRUM KITS

Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player’s hands, or with a drumstick, to produce sound.

In the early 1930’s, musicians slowly discovered that with proper drum placement and a lot of practice, one musician could handle a set of drums, and an entire band of drum players was not required anymore. Thus, a basic kit evolved and took place. Cymbals and Tom tom drums were brought in from China and the size was adjusted to allow for ease of play when played with drumsticks.

A Standard Drum Set

The early drum kits were simple in their design and consisted of a bass drum and foot pedal, a snare drum, Tom toms, a hi hat cymbal and one or two sets of hanging cymbals.

In the 1930’s the drum set was heavily influenced by the sounds of the time, and the early forms of Rock and Roll music. The sounds had a strong basic beat backing them.

By the 1950’s when Rock music had started to develop, sounds became more complex and likewise, the drum sets became more evolved, with new additions made to them. Drummers kept adding cymbals and Tom toms to their set up. As time went by, Electronic drum kits came in as an addition. All of these additions allowed the musicians to expand their sounds and diversify their music.

Modern Drum-affair :

Mapex Saturn - Green Apple Burst

Today, drummers have the option of creating their own unique config to suit their comfort, defining the sound they hear themselves playing and also the brilliant finish to show off a little more than their talent to the world. The best drum companies in the world spend every second mastering new techniques to create even better sounding drums that can last a lifetime.

Let’s start with a basic config of a standard drum kit.

The most Common set up is a Single 22” inch Bass Drum, two suspended Tom toms, 12” inch Left and 13” inch right, one 16” inch Floor tom, one 14” inch Snare drum, a Pair of Hi-Hats, Crash Cymbal on the left and a Crash Ride on the right.

Over this standard set up, drummers grow their kits to suit their style and interests. Most common add on is a 10 inch tom to the left of the drum kit.

Factors that contribute to a brilliant drum sound

• Wood selection
• Number of ply
• Proprietary developments to ensure undisturbed flow of vibrations

Wood selection:

There are 3 commonly used wood types. Namely

Maple:

North American Maple is handpicked to meet stringent requirements for proper density, age and consistency of grain and colour. Maple offers a smooth, warm, well rounded tone, with equal amounts of hi-end attack and mid-range body, plus its excellent low-end punch. Most drum companies offer some form of 100% maple drums today as it has taken its place as the standard of the industry for hi-end drum kits.

Birch:

Birch gives a “naturally EQ’ed” tone that is the perfect alternative to the overall smoothness of the maple. Many professionals today prefer Birch to Maple as it offers a boosted hi-end cut, mellow mid-range and a deep low-end presence. The more popular Birch drum kits have found their way to recording studios where they are a favorite for both the artists and the engineer.

African Mahogany:

African Mahogany offers extremely rich low-end frequencies, with beautiful smooth mids and a slight roll-off in the higher register. Mahogany drum kits are set aside from all other kits. Few companies today offer this excellent wood, simply because its porous exterior is extremely difficult to finish and it costs more than Maple.

Number of Ply:

‘Ply’ simply means the number of Layers. A 4 Ply Maple drum shell means, there are 4 different layers of Maple shells stuck together under high pressure to form one Brilliant drum shell.

The output of the drum depends entirely on the number of ply. Here is how it affects the sound.

Thin: 4 Ply (5mm Shell)

Best “near field’ or player’s experience. Easy transfer of energy from heads to shell, causing the shell to fully vibrate.

Medium: 6 Ply (7.5mm Shell)

Thicker wood, resists some of the energy transferred from the head. Allowing the sound to be slightly thinner than the thin shell, but with greater volume and projection. Offers a warm, full bodied wood tone with great attack, loudness and presence.

Thick: 8 Ply (10mm) – 10 Ply (12.5mm)

Extremely efficient, allowing most of the player’s energy to be focused through the heads directly to the audience. Since the shell provides greater mass, less volume is lost through the shell in the form of resonance. Warm sound and great tone at a lower level, but provides ultimate volume.

Proprietary developments to ensure undisturbed flow of vibrations:

Professional drum companies like Pearl, Mapex etc invest a lot of time into figuring out the best way to keep the drum in place without affecting its sound thus allowing the drum to perform to its maximum capabilities. The Opti-mount System in Pearl and the Isolated Tom Mount System in Mapex are two such examples.

To sum it all up, a tremendous amount of time, energy and brilliance goes into making a drum so perfect for you. Drummers today actually literally have love affairs with their flawless drum kits.

Content : Furtados Music
Images Courtesy: Furtados Music, Mapex

Known as one of the world’s Best drum companies, Pearl has now decided to enter the India market and finally introduce flawless drum kits that are worth every penny.

Perarl's Reference Series

Let’s start with the hardware. Pearl is known for its incredibly sturdy hardware. With an easy design, even a layman can figure out how to set up a Pearl stand. Pearl’s ‘Advanced Hardware Systems’ introduces a line of professional grade equipment that will forever alter the way you look at hardware. Each piece is engineered to function above and beyond traditional hardware. That’s why the term ‘Advanced’.

Pearl’s Superior Shell Technology is a proprietary technique used for achieving the ultimate air chamber. It begins with select woods chosen for their unique acoustic attributes, milled to precise thickness with overlapping scarf joint seams, for a perfect air-tight fit. The wood plies are saturated with Pearl’s proprietary ‘AcoustiGlue’ that permeates every pore and dries to the exact consistency of the wood for optimum resonance. Finally, the plies are formed in high-temperature molds with 1000 PSI of hydraulic pressure to produce perfect drum shells that exhibit superior tone, optimal resonance and extreme strength.

Pearl Drum shells use scarf joints to eliminate all air gaps. Air gaps are used in studios to cut vibrations thereby sound proofing the studio. Pearl Drum shells guaranty no air gaps since the scarf joints provide 800% more surface area than the otherwise used Butt joint.

This combination of the best Hardware and drum shell is what makes Pearl one of the best drum companies in the world and probably the only one to offer a lifetime warranty on their shells.

Article by Keshav Dhanraj, Brand Manager, Pearl, Zildjian & Evans India

Mapex Falcon Pedal

Are you looking for a drum that you take on stage or into the studio with complete confidence that your style and creativity will not only be perfectly reproduced, but enhanced? With your Mapex drum set, your talents and personality will be faithfully delivered to your audience, whether you’re playing to a crowd of twenty or twenty thousand.

Mapex offers Quality beginner kits, mid- range kits and professional level kits at affordable prices, which is what makes it the best selling drum brand in India. The price ranges from Rs 19,400 to 2 lakh. Every Mapex drum, regardless of price, is built to exact specifications.

Endorsers do play a significant role in getting a company’s name out to the public. Here are some of the pros that use Mapex, Chris Adler (Lamb of God), Dom Famularo (Master Clinician), Kevin Miller (Tantric), Will Calhoun (Living colour), Tony Coleman (B.B king) and many more. There are many drummers in India too who have been endorsed by Mapex and play with the biggest bands around here.

Also don’t forget to check out the new Mapex Falcon pedals and the new Mapex replacement kits. The Voyager and the Horizon series have replaced the Q and the QR/VX series respectively.

Article by Ritesh John Dharmaraj, Brand Manager, Mapex & LP India

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“Owning a handgun doesn’t make you armed any more than owning a guitar makes you a musician.” – Jeff Cooper

One of the most versatile musical instruments on the planet, the electric guitar has become unbelievably popular in today’s world. People from all walks of life and different age groups have fallen prey to its magical charm. What makes it so special? Why is there a constant demand for this dazzling product? There may never be a correct answer to any of those questions, but looking back into its history can shed some light on how the electric guitar has come to make such an impact in the musical world.

The Journey begins…

This takes us all the way back to the 1930s, when the first electric guitars were made. To divert from the original acoustic guitar feel, and to produce louder outputs, the electric guitar was introduced. After many different approaches, a technique evolved wherein a new prototype magnetic product was developed that picked up the vibrations of the strings and converted it into electricity. This electricity was then channelized into an output unit like a speaker (or amplifier) through which the musical notes were heard. And thus the birth of a product that couldn’t have a better name, – “Pick Up”.

Electric Guitar

Pick ups are basically magnets wrapped with coils of very fine wire, that are placed into the bodies of electric guitars to pick up the vibrations of the strings and produce electricity. The earliest designs were aptly called ’single coil pick ups’. However, all magnets tend to pick up unwanted ambient, electromagnetic noises as well, so there was always a ‘hum’ that was produced. To avoid this, a new method was approached. Instead of using just one magnet, they used two magnets of opposite magnetic and electric polarities which cancelled out the hum. This new model was called ‘humbucker’. Humbucker pick ups not only canceled out the hum, but because both magnets were picking up the vibrations, the output turned out to be much warmer and ‘fuller’. This version became more popular in hard rock and heavy metal music. The older classic rock and blues styles still prefer the single coil sound.

A new era…

Guitar manufacturers started experimenting with different kinds of ‘upgrades’ to improve the already existing models of guitars. The innovative vibrato bridge (now called tremolo) was invented to create a vibrato technique on the electric guitar. This new bridge allowed for incredible new sounds that musicians had never imagined, but it also meant that the guitar would keep going out of tune.

Laney Amps are the perfect match for your EPS guitar

To try and prevent that from happening, one Mr. Floyd Rose came along. He came up with a system that locked the strings in place at the nut of the guitar. This prevented the tuning keys from being used and made sure that the guitar stayed in tune. His model also included a ‘floating’ bridge on which the other end of the strings was also vise – locked. The new floating bridge could be pulled back as well as pushed down, allowing a whole range of new sounds and the double locking system kept the strings in tune as well!

Adding flavour to sounds…

Now that guitar manufacturers were building and improving new and newer models, musicians had new desires. They wanted to be able to do so much more! All these new models of guitars allowed the musicians to send in very innovative musical signals, but the sounds that came out needed flavour. Early guitar amplispeakers or ‘amps’ were designed to amplify the acoustic guitar sound, but with the introduction of the electric guitar in the early 1930s, these amps had to be modified.

The guitar amp is a product that picks up the signal sent from a guitar (through a cable) and sends that signal through a series of stages. Earlier the most predominantly used amps were vacuum tube (also known as valves in Britain) amps. For financial reasons and with modern technology forever growing, there are many different kinds of amps available in today’s market.

So now what…?

Now that we’re aware of how an electric guitar works and what exactly an amp is, how do we decide which of the many different kinds of guitars to go in for, and how to choose the right amp for our own styles? Well, there is never a wrong choice when it comes to music as it is always a matter of taste. However, there are some combinations that never disappoint, and here are a few options that could get you started, if you’re a beginner or help you make the right choice to upgrade if you’re a performer!

When you think heavy metal and hard rock think ESP! There is no other brand of guitars and basses that can match the features and pricing of this brand. Right from the feel, to the tone and the shapes, ESP screams heavy metal. If that isn’t reason enough, the artist list should dispel all lingering doubts – right from Metallica, Slayer and Children of Bodom, to Lamb of God and Dimmu Borgir all of them swear by the brand. On the Indian side, we have bands like Demonic Resurrection, Bhayanak Maut, Myndsnare and Kryptos whose guitars go through one performance after another and sound just as heavy each time.

Coming to the features of these guitars, they go together with the pricing, depending on the audience at which the guitar is aimed. The LTD Series of ESP now available in India, have the series ranging from the 50 series (starting at 13k aimed at beginners), the 100 and 200 series (starting at 18k aimed at intermediate guitarists) and the 400 series (beginning at 40k aimed at the pros).

Features for the mid range and higher end models would include a mahogany body, Flame Maple or Quilt Maple top, Floyd Rose Bridge, EMG pickups and Grover tuners.

Laney Amplifiers

If you own the best metal guitar money can buy, you deserve the best metal amp to run it through. And again we have Laney Amplification where you choose right from a beginner amp, to a studio recording amp, to a full blown stack sound.

The Laney range includes solid state amps, tube emulated and all tube amps. The various options available in these three types offer a wide range to customers. So whether you’re a beginner, intermediate guitarist or performing professional, you will always find an amp to suit your sound. Prices range from about 3k to about 65k.

Also don’t forget to check out the new Prism range of digital amps. Laney amps will give you any sound you want; whether it’s a clean tone, warm tone, slightly distorted or all out metal feel, Laney amps deliver every time.

• Analysis by Duane Wilson, Brand Manager ESP & Laney –  India

Paul Reed Smith (PRS) Guitars

The hot black Alexi-200 from PRS guitars

PRS guitars are among the world’s most versatile guitars. The only way to prove that without actually owning one is to look at the artists who do. Santana, Avril Lavigne, Ritchie Sambora, The Eagles, Opeth, Porcupine Tree and the list continues.

Paul Reed Smith, a guitar maker and musician felt that he couldn’t get the sound he wanted from the guitars that were already available. Brands like Gibson and Fender too didn’t have an impact on Paul’s musical style. So he decided to make his own guitars, to try and get what he thought was missing.

He then decided to find out what the heavyweights thought of his guitars, so he went backstage during live gigs and offered his guitars to some of the biggest names. He would then take their suggestions and modify the guitars to suit the artists’ style. Before he knew it, PRS became one of the biggest guitar companies in the world, biting off shares from the Gibson and Fender market as well. To cater to demands of smaller markets, they had to release a lower end version, so that they could be affordable to people who weren’t as rich as Santana. This brought out the SE series.

PRS SE Series have been in the Indian market for some time now, featuring signature models of Santana, Mark Tremonti, Paul Allender and now even the new Mike Mushok baritone. To get a feel of these guitars, go to any Furtados outlet in the country and ask for your PRS guitar!

Vox Amplification

To get the most real sounds out of your guitar, you have to plug into an amp that brings out the best tones. Vox has been the favorite amp of most musicians, since its creation in the late 1950’s. Made famous by bands like the Beatles and The Rolling Stones, Vox is now a company that makes all the possible kinds of amps, guitars, processors, stomp boxes, cables and many more products that you would consider useful to a musician.

Vox amps offer a range so wide, that sometimes we don’t know what to pick up. Do I want an all tube amp? Do I need a processor to process my sound? What about miking my amp? These are frequently asked questions that musicians ask themselves. What if there was a product that has everything? The new Vox VT series has all the above features. It uses a 12AX7 tube to produce real tube power amp sound. This series comes with 22 realistic amp models, 12 high quality digital effects, an option to connect the VFS5 – a footswitch that allows you to change patches in real time, and more!

There are many other products that Vox endeavours, like the Tonelab ST, miniature amps called Amplugs, the DA series battery powered amps, etc.

Two of the most versatile brands combined together would give you the most versatile sounds possible! So if you want to explore, try out different styles, check out different genres, upgrade the sound of your genre, think Vox, think PRS! You will not have to look any further!

• combo amp: These have either 1, 2 or 4 speakers built into a wooden cabinet
• standalone amp: These amps need separate speakers commonly known as cabinets to produce an output sound
• tube amps: These are amps driven by tubes
• solid state amps: These are based on semiconductor or solid state circuits
• modeling amps: These are digital amps that simulate many different kinds of amp models, cabinets as well as digital effects like chorus, flanger, reverb, delay and so on

Guest Article by Arjun Dhanraj, Brand Manager – PRS & Vox, India

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