tarotplane
Did a little article on #hindustaniClassicalMusic that might shed a little light on a musical style some people find confusing. It's influence on modal and spiritual jazz is pretty large it seems to me. My hope is you come away slightly more informed and able to enjoy the music a bit more
https://open.substack.com/pub/zikzak/p/an-introduction-to-hindustani-classical?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android
An Introduction to Hindustani Classical

Hindustani Classical : Some background and recommendations I have grown up with with this music for most of my life. I had training on the sitar in my early 20’s and I have listened to quite a bit of the great instrumentalists music over the years. Saying all that, it still blows my mind how very little I know about it. It also got me thinking, with the popularity of the Spiritual Jazz post I did a few weeks back, that I might try to give you a little more background on Hindustani classical because it definitely influenced modal jazz. I’m going to really, really try not to say things that are straight up wrong. This is why I have a lot of links from people who are vastly more knowledgeable on the subject than I. It can be very confusing because it doesn't really work like most western music in terms of structure

Zik Zak
Dec 21, 2022 at 3:15pmWeb
Show threadField Lines CartographerDec 21, 2022
@tarotplane this is great ! Thanks so much
Show threadtarotplaneDec 21, 2022
@FieldLinesCartographer oh, nice! I'm glad. Writing it helped me enjoy the music even more
Show threadMike BabyakDec 21, 2022

@tarotplane @microtones
1/ very nice piece! I study w Debashish and am currently part of his production team. A lovely man and indeed a master. The Bhimpalasi you chose is one of my favorite performances of his. He’s actually got a new record coming out in January with Swapan Chaudhuri. Here’s a preview https://debashish.bandcamp.com/album/the-sound-of-the-soul.

If I had to add one more thing about Indian classical music is that westerners tend to think it’s just

The Sound of the Soul, by Debashish Bhattacharya

4 track album

Debashish Bhattacharya
Show threadMike BabyakDec 21, 2022
@tarotplane @microtones
2/ loose improv. It is improv but with many very specific rules and restrictions. Some raags allow only certain note orders. There are rules for which notes can be ornamented in a given raag, and often only certain kinds of ornaments. There are required phrases and certain notes that must be emphasized. Then there’s the rhythmic aspect—you can play with all sorts of divisions but the lines must finish on the one (sam)
Show threadMike BabyakDec 21, 2022
@tarotplane @microtones 3/ it’s rather like a game of rhythmic Tetris. As a simple example, over a 16 beat cycle you might play phrases of 5-5-5-5-3-3-3-3 so that over two cycles (32 beats) you come out on one. The masters have a huge vocabulary of these combinations at their avail, some extremely complex, fitting over many cycles. So although improvised there’s a huge amount of discipline involved so that the rules are followed.
Show threadtarotplaneDec 21, 2022
@mikebabyak @microtones thank you for elaborating on this! I studied sitar with a teacher who learned from Annapurna Devi but it was many years ago and I only really got to play Sa over and over for like 2 years :-) da ra da da ra da da ra da ra.....I never got to learn beat cycles but it definitely improved my rhythm now that I play guitar
Show threadMike BabyakDec 21, 2022
@tarotplane @microtones Haha! Yeah, it’s painstaking for sure. It’s just so deep and so vast. After 3 years w a sitarist and 4 with Debashish and I’m barely a beginner. Apart from the rules there are subtleties in how each note gets produced that makes it distinctly Indian (this is where the microtones come in).
Funny anecdote about that. In 2018 Debashish, his brother Subhasis and daughter Anandi stayed here in NC for 2 weeks. 1/
Show threadMike BabyakDec 22, 2022
@tarotplane @microtones 2/ On one of the first nights Subhasis texts me and says come over and play. I knew a fairly long composition in Kirwani so proposed that. Subhasis is of course a world class tabla player so I’m simultaneously nervous and thrilled. We end up blazing through the piece way faster than I had ever done it. But I got through it with no mistakes! So I’m all proud of myself thinking wow I just played real Indian music.
Show threadMike BabyakDec 22, 2022
@tarotplane @microtones 3/3 Hmm Some server strangeness seems to have deleted the punchline. Here it is again. So I'm feeling very proud that I played a genuine Indian raag. Then Anandi emerges from the room next to us. She had heard the whole thing. She says, "That was really good, Uncle Michael. And I really like the way you added that Western flavor to it!" DOH!!!!