Variants in Ri, Ga, Ma, Da and Ni

[HarishankarK]

Dear members,

For a newbie to carnatic music, could anyone explain how i can understand clearly the differences between the variants in Ri, Ga, Ma, Da and Ni.

Ri has two variants - Shudhdha Rishabam and Chatushruti Rishabham. What is the difference between the two? How to recognise the sthaayis?
Am learning first Geetham 'Sree Gananantha' and there is a phrase R, M, P, D, M, P, D, P ,, M, G, R,S
When am singing R, M my teacher corrected me saying that the Ri employed was wrong and sing it flat. On several repeats sometimes i got it and sometimes i missed it.
But am not convinced i have understood it clearly.

Any help on some means to understand the various sthaayis clearly would help a lot.

Thanks,
Harish

[sureshvv]

Buy a keyboard or

http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resourc ... sic/piano/

[arunk]

Its basically the same ri as the one you should have learned with your sarali varisais.

If you have an iPad/iPhone, for $2.99 you can purchase my app Swarasthana (http:/arunk.freepgs.com/swarasthana) which should be of help. Not only can you practice your Sarahi varisais in mayamalavagowla (which uses the same ri as in malahari that you are having doubt about) but also other ragas like sankarabharanam (which uses one of the other ri's - there are actually 3 of them, the third of which is the Vivadi shatsruthi rishabam which figures e.g. In nattai). The app also lets you practice signing individual swaras and tracks your pitch so that you can get feedback on how you are doing. Please check the demos as the above mentioned website.

Thanks
Arun

[vasanthakokilam]

I can vouch for the usefulness of the Swarasthana app for your practice, Harish. You can surprise your guru after practicing at home with this app.

It is indeed an exciting experience to sing the first geetham after learning to sing the notes properly, that it sounds like a song and a very pleasant one when sung with swarasuddham.

Please let us know about your progress.

[msakella]

In my extensive experiments on our kids it has absolutely been found that the machine, Casio is 100 times more reliable than the music-teacher to rely upon in respect of correct note and rhythm. In our useless-traditional-quantitative-system of teaching, which is being followed by one and all since many years and in which the aspirant is compelled to rely only upon the teacher’s singing/playing in the absence of any gadget like tape-recorder, always the teacher is used to sing/play himself/herself for half-an-hour or one hour in the class and ask the aspirant follow him/her singing or playing by which only the imitative talents of the aspirant increase but not the technical knowledge or abilities. In this method, since many years, either the teacher or the aspirant or the parents have been in a blind belief that teaching means only making the aspirant sing or play along with the teacher and even if I tell it is nothing but suicidal to do so everybody finds fault with me only. More over, even while practicing himself/herself in the absence of the teacher for the remaining 23 hours in a day he/she doesn’t have anything to rely upon and follow but, in general, commits umpteen mistakes. In fact, this is the crucial point to be taken into consideration by all the teachers in the process of teaching but without realizing it all the music-teachers have absolutely been wasting the abilities of the aspirants and whoever is fortunate enough to get out of the tentacles of these teachers has been becoming a successful performer. But, most unfortunately, no teacher is thinking on these lines to guide the aspirant properly even in the absence of the teacher. In the modern-qualitative-method of teaching, even right from the first day of lesson, if the aspirant is properly initiated to work on his own along with the rhythm and note of the Casio it helps a lot in his/her progress. This has absolutely been proved in our extensive experiments on our kids and by following this very strictly we have been getting thumping results and the process of learning is also quickened amazingly. Thus, each and every student of all our 100 nos. of students in our music-institution, Svarabhangima is regularly practicing along with Casio and progressing very efficiently in very high speed. Thus, hardly within a span of only two years, even before learning the first Krits on their own, our kids are able sing all the Varnas in full @ 4-6-8-notes per Kriya along with intricate Svarakalpana to odd-eduppu-points and brief Ragalapana too. amsharma

[msakella]

In continuation to my last post I would like to point out the importance of Shankarabharana while starting the preliminary exercises in our music. In general, our conservatives are always used to harp on starting these preliminary exercises in Mayamalavagaula on the pretext that Purandaradasa himself had started in this way. But, when I had visited many places in Karnataka-state for conducting my workshops on music I found that these preliminary exercises are taught in that State not only in Mayamalavagaula but also in Kharaharapriya at some places, Shankarabharana at some places and even in Todi at some places. By observing this we can understand that our conservatives’ statement is far away from the truth.

In this connection when I have experimented on our kids I found that Shankarabharana, which is followed not only by our Northern brothers in Hindusthani-music but also in the Western countries, is more suitable for this purpose having 5 independent notes, Shadja, Rishabha, Panchama, Dhaivata and Nishada and only one couple of Gandhara-Madhyama as against the usual Mayamalavagaula having no independent notes at all. Thus, even logically, as pure water, pure air, pure blood, pure mind, pure heart etc., etc., purity is more preferable in getting solace, even in respect of our sacred music, it is highly preferable to initiate our kids sing only pure notes of Shankarabharana while starting these preliminary exercises and to start ‘Gamakas’ from Varnas only. Thus, here, we are able to serve our people truthfully, efficiently and honestly by following these logical methods getting amazing results. amsharma