INDIAN MUSIC FORUM ARCHIVES: Sitar Forum: Hawaiian Guitar with tarbs?

:-)

"The instrumental artistry of Vishwa Mohan Bhatt"

and

"Hindustani Slide by Debashish Bhattacharya"

You can find them at,
www.guitarvideos.com

They both play slide guitars with sypathetic strings on them but also I dont thnk the main strings are set up like a regulr guitar though, more like a sitar or some kind of veena.

I saw a little bit of one video and it was very good. The Mohan Bhatt one I think it was.

Were you able to get a lesson from either David or Usha ?

Neal

hi all i modified my name a little from new- B- sitarist to this name . so at least you know my first name now , an now my question im looking at 2 sitars , 1 is the manoj kumar sardar #3 from aacm $600+sh and the shristi standard from lars of sitars etc , $795+sh which in your opinion would give me the most insturment for the money ? or should i save more and buy a higher end instrument so i dont have to up grade later on ? thanks for your opinions alan[/quote]

But once upon a time there was an older musician named Brji Bhushan Kabra, who performed on this instrument as well. There probably were other folks to Indianized this instrument at the same time as BBK. (No not BBKing).

Anyone know the critical physical differences between the Mohan Veena and Debashish's unnamed veena?

Personally I prefer the tone of VBhatt, but consider Debashish a far better musician.

A

hmmm cant seem to figure out how to attach pics. .oh well. . sorry about dangling the carrot.

here is his website:
http://www.debashishguitar.com/

Peace,

Remco

I followed the link (http://www.angelfire.com/music4/sitar/Net_Teaching.htm) and signed on for a trail.
I got 3-4 e-mails from Sanjoy Bandopadhyay and my first impression is, is wow cool! I find it to be the next best thing if any of you dont have "real" a teacher.

Sanjoy Bandopadhyay sendt me a document where i describe my skills or the lack of them. In return i get a tailormade lesson to fit my needs. Allso i got a text file containing instructions and
usefull information.

I guess it will take another lesson to calibrate the student teacher relation so that the instructions will frame my playing skills.
There is a .mp3 file where he plays the whole lesson, first slow then actual speed.

But there is a price to pay, 480$ for 12 lessons over 3 months. 30 min a week.

Jan

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rg (Dec 08, 2003 01:52 p.m.):
that is very interesting. Could you explain how that works - do you have a speaker phone? Do you have any trouble communicating with him - like when you are playing something back. How much (if you don't mind me asking) does this cost??? Does he fax you written exercises?

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rg, I use my cell phone with handfree kit and my teacher has a speaker phone. One thing I need to mention here is I have learnt Sitar regular way for about 2-3 years - out of which 1 year was with Pt. Habib Khan himself. To answer your question about exercises - he tells me the notation and I play it and also write it down in my book. He plays /sings himself too. So every thing is almost same as how it would be normally. I can only say that it is the second best thing you can do and many times better than not having a regular lesson. I would say a beginner can take a few lessons by visiting the teacher and then continue on phone and make visits as and when necessary.

Regarding cost, with my teacher, it depends on the level of the student. Not sure what it is for the beginner.

Ken,
I am doing good - how are you?
The improvement in my Sitar playing is largely attributed to special Taans Pt. Habib Khan is giving me. My singing lessons will surely help me in the long run. I am sure some day it will help me to do 'upaj' that will be useful in playing Sitar as well.

Here is a link to the instrument that's currently on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2564496812

Its a mismash of several instruments, not what I would be looking for. But what I have previously seen is nearly the same instrument, but without the keyboard. It looked more like a standard lap steel, but with tarbs. I don't know if it was these same people are not, but I plan on writing them and asking.

Hey Billy

Thanks for that link! I got to listen to something called "Hebrew Fusion", really enjoyed it!

see ya,
AJ

I think going for the actual guitar conversion is the best way to go. Chand wrote today that there are actually three variations of Mohan's veena, the MV we've seen photos of, and I know theres the Vishwa Veena which includes the harp strings. I don't know what the third style is. Anyway, Chand is ordering one of each, and I'm sure he'll have them all posted on his site. Since he's the only one that I know of selling these on the Internet (and outside India) he may have a market.

He says he should have the instruments in a couple of weeks. We'll probably know more about actual costs then. It wouldn't surprise me if the price currently posted on his website changes. I think he purposely made it a little higher that what it should be, but don't quote me on it. Apparently he has no real idea what the weight it, he can make a guess based on the weight of a regular guitar, but he doesn't know how much weight the tarb extension will add, so I think he's being very conservative.

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kalyan (Nov 11, 2003 03:51 p.m.):
Sorry again cant seem to get the full address in I guss if anyone wants to see it you have to go to www.silverbushmusic.com and scroll down to the repairs and info section look under indian guitar full conversion

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The problem is with the embedded blanks in the URL. These appear as a percent sign followed by the number 20 (I can't even type that, as it would show up as a blank!)

I've tried to make the link work in a posting usung Ultraboard codes, but it just won't work. So I guess going to the silverbush home page and scrolling down to the link is the best way to do it.

Cool conversion!

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Keshavdas (Nov 11, 2003 11:22 p.m.):
The etiquitte around here regarding promoting anyone's business is rather touchy, but I will risk it and say that Sanjay Sharma is at present building a VM Bhatt guitar for my shop and I expect to take delivery in about 45 days. I get so many guitar-wallahs passing through my place, that I figure I'd be crazy not to have one made.

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I'm not so sure that its all that touchy, except when there is only one business being "promoted". As with our discussions with AACM, because a couple of us had recently purchased sitars from another business, there was a comment made that only that one store was being promoted, which would seem to be true if one had only looked at the messages for a couple of weeks after we bought those sitars; looking at messages over several months would show that no particular business was being promoted more than others.

I see no problem with you promoting your store, as well as AACM and Lars, among others. I want to know where I can find particular instruments, accessories or other ICM related merchandise. If you have something that might be of interest to me and others, especially if its an item that can't be found elsewhere, its almost a disservice *not* to tell us.

I'm looking forward to hearing how your MV turns out, and how much interest it generates!

BTW, is it Keshavdas or Keshav Das, or are both forms acceptable?

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kalyan (Nov 19, 2003 03:48 a.m.):
Rich I'm not sure if this is the same person or not he plays a 5 string upright with sympathetic strings his name is Mark Deutsch he plays both western and indian classical there is a picture of his instrument at this site
http://www.oddmusic.com/gallery/om06200.html[/quote]

Hmmm, 29 taraps? Got a couple of days for tuning?

Actually, it looks like a pretty awesome.

Now, has anyone considered putting sympathetics on a banjo or trombone?

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Namaste',
Billy Godfrey

http://www.saskiarao.com/

see ya round like a UFO!
AJ

Jeff, thanks for the advice on the video tapes. I got the Mohan Bhatt tape last week, which is pretty good. Even though it really isn't a teaching tape, I've learned quite a bit from it, and have even figured out most of the string tunings using my tuner next to the tv, though I already knew the three melody strings are tuned Sa-Pa-sa for bilaval with Sa=D.

Apparently the second string can be tuned to Ma for other tunings. I still haven't gotten the drone/chikari strings completely worked out, and I figure the sympathetics will be similar to a sitar, but based on a Sa=D, so they should be no problem.

Anyway, the tape also demonstrates some training excersises, so that will get me started. I also ordered the other tape you mentioned by Debashish Bhattacharya, hopefully I'll get it in the next couple of days.

I've been corresponding with Mark Humpries, who wrote some articles in Guitar Player and elsewhere about Hindustani Slide guitars, and got some good info from him. He thinks I should take Indian vocal lessons, which makes perfect sense and something I had already thought about doing. I just have to find someone tone deaf enough to stand my singing.

I think this is going to be way cool! Hopefully I'll get a good start and when my left hand is in better shape, and can get back to learning the sitar, with a bit of a head start. . .

Peace,

Remco