Indian fusion
Drones, thaats, ornaments and raga-based improvising.
Drone and melody
- Playing over a Sa–Pa drone
- Bilaval and Kafi on one string
- Meend (slides between notes)
Milestone: Play a melody over a drone with slides.
Needs: Your first improvisation, Copy what you hear · about 8 hours
Thaats and ornaments
- The ten thaats as modes
- Gamak and kan ornaments
- Teentaal and film-melody phrasing
Milestone: Play a composed melody with ornaments in teentaal.
Needs: Modes, Transcribe licks and Level 1 · about 12 hours
Raga improvising
- Improvising in a raga over a drone
- Tihai endings
- Blending with Western harmony
Milestone: Improvise in a raga and finish with a tihai.
Needs: Modal improvising, Scale degrees & progressions and Level 2 · about 16 hours
Hear it, try it
A typical indian fusion phrase and a backing track to play along with. Everyone can use these, on any plan.
e|-0--1--/4--5--\4--1--0----7--8--/11--12~------\8--7---| B|------------------------------------------------------| G|------------------------------------------------------| D|------------------------------------------------------| A|------------------------------------------------------| E|------------------------------------------------------|
Harmony: Drone-based: a tonic (Sa) and 5th (Pa) under the melody; rhythmic cycles (tala) such as 16-beat teentaal.
Scales: The ten thaats map onto scales you now know. Bhairav, Todi, Poorvi and Marwa add new colours.
Technique: Meend (slow slides and bends between notes), gamak (oscillations), kan (grace notes), single-string phrases, tihai (a phrase played three times, landing on beat 1).
John McLaughlin (Shakti), Prasanna, Debashish Bhattacharya, Brij Bhushan Kabra.
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