I have some interest in music (beyond the technical/research work that I often get to do) - mostly instrumental, and some vocal. I would like to think that all musical genres and instruments have a common theme. Before delving too much in philosophical domain, it is perhaps enough to say that any instrument should be playable with other instruments in any musical genre with the aid of Western music notation, backed up by some good ear training, and a good sense of musical quality that can be shared with an open-minded audience. After all, the music one creates using all the exceptional skills that one acquired with hard work (or as a "blessing" which is an exception rather than the norm!) has to be accessible to the hearts and minds of the listeners. I emphasize just intermediate skills here - the great masters do great job anyway - one with responsibilities of a vocation, family, and enjoys only self-support, etc. should be able to create great music without much difficulty, and enjoy and share the results of one's creation. For example, they should be able to play the tunes they heard and liked somewhere, and at some point during their lives.
A few years ago, a team of four enthusiasts (including me) have put together a song (instrumental) that was based on a modern form of musical genre of Southern India. Two instruments (named Veena and Mridangam; a stringed instrument and a drum) were from the same geographical area of India, two instruments were from the Western world- western flute and guitar. It was performed at a cultural show held in Corvallis, OR, USA on April 17, 2010. The performance received good appreciation, and interestingly several questions from the audience (including practitioners of other musical genres - like Northern Indian, players of other instruments and so on!) on how this was accomplished. Well, I will be posting more details later. For now, below are the links to the semi-developed western notation (not in a staff form, but only in the alphabet form). Dot above a letter indicates a higher octave, dot below indicates a lower octave, no dot indicates intermediate octave. If there is a bar over the letter, it means the note should be played longer. Timing has an interesting aspect- the Southern India style uses a term called "tala" which means rhythm- the performer is free to improvise (a little stretch or vibrato) on while playing notes, but the tala should match at the end of a line or a phrase. This specific song was based on 8 beats per phrase. We also used repeatable signs to indicate the phrases to be repeated. While I am open to the opportunity to hear from the gurus of the "genre" to improve such works and this writeup in future, I think this presentation will hopefully inspire, and be useful to create more such enjoyable experiments and unification of the themes. One need not be very familiar with the western-staff notation to play this song, since it is just in the form of English alphabet with flats and sharps - a piano/keyboard player should be able to understand quickly. I encourage instrumentalists ranging from starters to advanced ones from a variety of backgrounds to experiment, and play together in groups. And more importantly, enjoy the music!
1. The semi-developed (and readable) western notation is in here.
2. The transcript from the Veena to "any" western instrument is here.
3. The complete performance was made available as two links at Metacafe - one has better video and the other has better audio (you find out and tell me:-))). You need to skip the advertisement to get to these videos- First video; Second video
One can use the above notation, and play along with the videos to make good progress. Enjoy! More questions? Please see the contact info below!
More to come here.
More here in the future.
Contact information: I can be reached at nimmala@yahoo.com
*** Updated on Jan 14, 2012 ***