Two more notation sheets for playing some complete Ragas on the Guitar. One set is relatively easy and the other one needs more practice.
Again, if you have suggestions / corrections do let me know. This is all I have from the self made teaching aids. Will go back to regular posts on life's little trivia tomorrow.
On a separate off topic note...we finally got both the kids the H1N1 vaccine today! It cost us 50 bucks in copay to do it, but it was better than waiting in a long long line. Reminded me of the special darshan pass for Thirupathi Balaji! More on that tomorrow...
For most of you who have visted our place, it is no secret that Daddy Narayanan plays electric guitar.
The rest of you know now.
Should say upfront that I am no expert and do this for the fun of it and have kept this one hobby to myself and very rarely play in front of anyone else other than Jr. and the little one.
Have been looking for a simple graphical cheat sheet to help people who are taught guitar on the western notation (or with Guitar tabs!) to translate Carnatic notation and have not found anything that you can print and hang on the wall as a quick start guide of sorts.
My teacher Paul is amazing because he reads my mind. He almost knows what I am thinking when I play, and figures out from my body language what makes me happy and what bothers me while playing.
After my long absence from the guitar studio with the accident, the physiotherapist suggested that the guitar lessons could start as it would be a good motivator for me to keep going back to physio. Their logic was "if you see your guitar playing improve and get easier over time, you will realize the work we do here" and they were right on!
Paul has been doing "guitar rehab" last couple of weeks. Was telling him that over the last two months, have been listening to more South Indian Classical music and less of 70's rock as the accident makes one moody and there is a lot of solace in listening to what you are used to as a child. He asked me to play something (anything) and I showed him "Raghuvamsa Sudha" and he said "okay, that was great, but why look frustrated?" and I told him that it would be nice to know what note is what on the fretboard instead of having to figure out note by note!
He smiled a big smile and gave me a cheat sheet for the entire fretboard and taught me each note. It was like giving my little one "high fructose corn syrup"! It was like the mystery of the fretboard revealed in one shot. Almost like God made himself visible to me on that green piece of paper!
Decided to make him proud by doing this sheet to convert to Carnatic notation and as an added bonus, included the octave information as a color code.
The Guitar is an amazing instrument. The fingerboard has multiple individual locations that give you the same note in the same octave! Isn't that a nice curve ball?
Hopefully this cheat sheet is reasonably accurate and will help beginner guitar players who are not new to Carnatic notation play classical (or Tamil film) songs!
ps. If you find this useful or you are going to post this somewhere, please do link back to this post.
pps. If there are any mistakes, do point them out and let me know. It will be much appreciated and will update this.
It has been a long time since I went to a formal concert.
Hope this is a new beginning!
If you have not listened to Sanjay, here is a link to get you started (youtube suggests link after link)
Truly gifted!
ps. Have been quiet on blogger because of a very busy week checking out physiotherapy locations. Have finally zeroed out one and going to start tomorrow!
During the recent Navarathri golu visits, we were treated to "Muddu Gare Yashoda". Both Jr. and the little one were so impressed by the A. akka's singing that they came home and asked me to teach them the song.
Having no clue as to the telugu lyrics or the tune, but remembering only the first line, found the clip on youtube, sung by Priya Sisters. They sing it sooooo beautifully. (note how the percussionists just stop at the right time to let them sing the last few words in each paragraph!.. just brilliant)
After watching this twice a day for almost two weeks now, they are singing it.
Note, that their Talams are impromptu and made up. While Jr. has been going to music classes for almost three months (she is learning dhattu varisai now) and has some idea of scales, sruthi and taalam, the little one is just trying to imitate the video and what she sees her sister do in class or at home.
The little one is also a lot more bold and is not afraid to look into the camera and sing. She is definitely going to get music lessons next year. (Jr. is also not very co-operative these days when it comes to doing anything in front of the camera. She deliberately makes faces while singing!)
A big thanks to A. Akka for singing this during Golu. Not every kid sings when their parents ask them to and with that kind of sincerity. When Jr. and the little one grow older, it would be a blessing if they oblige our requests like that!
On the lighter side, the kids were asking me for the meaning of the song. Found the meaning from the web and taught them bits and pieces. Here is a conversation during the earlier lesson..
Jr. : who is Yashoda?
Me : Krishna's mom. He had two moms. One who gave birth to him and one who raised him?
LO : I have only one mom. How can someone have two moms?
Me : You see "Dinosaur Train" right? In that Buddy the T. Rex is raised by a Pteranodon mommy right? Same thing. Krishna was given to Yashoda to be taken care of, but Devaki was the one who delivered him!
LO : But why does Devaki want to kill Krishna?
Me : !!!!! Where did you get that story? Devaki loves Krishna..
LO and Jr. : Because it says "Devaki suttudu.. Devaki suttudu" and suttudu means shoot someone with a gun and kill them!
Me : (ROTFL) The song is in Telugu, not Tamizh. It is suthudu and not suttudu. Suthudu means "son of". They are singing "Krishna, son of Devaki"!
Wednesday, November 11, 2009 at 11:31PM 
