hi
this is the digit I do also known as
Ladakhi in the elan GU language which is
one of the native languages of the
northern Australian people which also
happens to be the place of origin for
the didgeridoo it’s believed to be the
oldest instrument on the face of this
earth researcher says that this is an
easy of 40 thousand year old instrument
perhaps the oldest documented instrument
ever it’s also believed that if earth
would have a sound of its own it would
be the sound of a digit eetu and the
reason perhaps lies in the way this
instrument is born the most natural
birth of the instrument is when the core
of the eucalyptus tree is eaten out and
hollowed out by the ants and termites so
that when the Earth passes through it
produces the drone so what exactly the
digital you would ask it’s essentially
just a hollow piece of pipe really
there’s a new world order and an old
world order you know kind of divided now
because of the materials that I used the
old world says that it’s still made in
wood the new world say that we can
probably make it in plastics and PVC and
couple of other slides but the basic
design still remains the same you know
so how do you place what you would ask
me right what what was I doing with the
mouth you’ve all seen three idiots right
no no this one scene when the professor
viruses Raju Rastogi
so mr. Raju Rastogi please tell us how
this in index and motor starts and Raju
Rastogi says boondi and that’s
essentially how you play a didgeridoo
it’s very native very intuitive you all
perhaps done this you know mimicking a
school
motorcycle running around the alleys but
yes the basic design of the instrument
still remains the same and so while so
what’s also happen is that with the
advent of the new instruments and the
new material the range of the instrument
is kind of changed so you can then vary
the the length and the breadth of the
instrument you can change the sound you
will probably have a slight this is a
slight edge which you can probably you
so the longer the pipe the wider the
Bell the deeper the sound gets which is
also the reason why this instrument is
now seeing the light of the day in the
treatment of sleep apnea any sleeping
related disorders the snoring and couple
of other sinuses another in very common
ailment which is which the digitial is
actually helping treat people you know
it’s funny how I learned about the
didgeridoo on the first place so I
always thought that you know going into
i-80 would perhaps you know take me away
from music everybody would think that
and I it happened to me as well I was in
IIT didn’t find much time to do music
and I was juggling around with courses
and electives I could just sail through
so one of the course that I was doing
was noise engineering course and I was
scouting so so while that was happening
I was also doing industrial and
Production Engineering the reason why I
would want to mention this particularly
here because is that it proved to be a
boon to be an industrial and Production
Engineering more than one wage you know
while I could have my ways of modifying
instruments and doing knickknacks and
you know fix this over something else
and you know I could have my ways of
playing an instrument in the most
non-traditional ways possible so I play
a table as well but then I play tabla in
a very very different form and that’s
what has because I never learned music
and because I was an industrial engineer
I was just trying to dabble around with
so many other instruments that I could
just do it so while I was doing noise
engineering in that particular course we
were supposed to pick up a project and
as to this noise a spectrum analysis and
I picked up a Chinese Peaceville this
but this is an amazing piece of artifact
from the Chinese you know the Chinese
history so while I was doing this one of
the quotations in the footnote kind of
mentioned that similar alpha Peaks
around 1 to 1.5 Hertz are found in a
didgeridoo and thus the entire journey
of digital started
[Music]
so Chinese fees will effectively
resonates a stress so while that was
happening I was into music I was going
out and attending a lot of open-air
concerts in one of such concerts I kind
of you know saw somebody playing a
Cottam I was like dude this is like
really cool instrument amazing sound
let’s you know probably go to the market
and buy myself a matka such life isn’t
no but being an industrial in a
production in Jena I had an access to
the mechanical engineering lab so I went
back to the workshop I picked up some
signed papers I started up unit you know
I went i standed the matka you know
inside out I was like so it’s he
obviously did not become the instrument
it did not really develop any musical
capabilities but then it started to
sound a little better so much so that
actually went out and I performed my
first commercial concert while studying
in campus and I was paid 500 rupees for
that but I was like voila
oh you bet
totally so while I was experimenting
with a makeshift cutter I was you know
researching about what this whole
instrument is about learning about South
Indian classical concerts there’s one
particular concept that kind of moved
the needle by the way the reason why I
am saying so as says because the error
that I’m talking about is the one where
and there was no internet there was no
YouTube there was no mobile phone you
had to actually go and meet people ask
questions to them finding information
was extremely old-school so you have to
actually go ask them the relevant
questions rather than asking them to CD
and what it’s easy today that you hey
hey Siri you know what’s the digit I do
and Siri probably you know it just pops
up the answers but back then it was very
very difficult so in one of those
concerts the the it kind of moved the
needle for me where in I met mr. cottham
Karthik was sitting in the centre there
he plays Khatami’s what are the
disciples of Miss Reiko vinayak ram
and I after the concert I went back to
him I spoke to him about you know hey
I’m from IIT oh hey hey mature when I
come like say I want to hit him like
whoa cool really so and he was like he
extremely kind to you know offer me to
come down to Chennai and buy myself a
ghetto in the similar concert I saw
another person doing something with his
mouth and I thought perhaps it’s weed
boxing but that’s not beatboxing he was
doing it was something very very
different that he was doing I asked him
like dude what are you doing and he
showed me this that ladies and gentlemen
is a jaws harp so I went down to Chennai
bought myself a title and a more chung
came back remember there was no internet
the basic emails were working I tried to
figure out a way to play a jaws harp I
could not one fine day I kind of wrote
an email to Karthik saying this sir I
could not you know I could not figure
out so he sent back to me and a text
email tutorial saying that you know you
got to hold it in your mouth and you
know do something with it I tried doing
it after 72 hours and a chipped teeth I
you know I was able to play needless to
say my dad wasn’t too happy about the
chip mm yeah that’s another story about
so that’s jaws harp jaws are essentially
is alamelu phone with the Latin root
lingua which basically means tongues
attached to an end it’s one again one of
the oldest instruments on the face of
this earth you could have seen it across
there’s been a Chinese painting from
fourth century BC wherein a painter is
painted playing mohchung or jaws harp
you forevs heard it across the entire
time but never realized it was a jaws
harp a scene Tom and Jerry when the Tom
when in the old movies you have to do
the horse moving it’s always being jaws
are riding your face so how do you play
a jaws heart and that’s also the way
with the reason why it’s has come to
known as a jaws are the commonly this
instrument is started to be known as
Jews heart but trust me there is no
connection to Jewish or Judaism and it’s
just because of the songs the people
like kind of cool yes juice yeah how you
play this is when you place your teeth
on this brass frame and not biting just
placing it here and pulling the trigger
and you move your tongue in and out
which kind of gives those psychedelic
trance feels and stuff so have a video
which can you know gives you the range
in the overtones that instrument can
probably produce that’s the the range of
psychedelic instrument jaws harp has
many names
it has over 900 names across different
parts of the world in South of India
it’s known as more sing in Russia it’s
known as work on in Siberia is known as
komak in Nepal is known as more chunga
the one that I’m holding in my MA in my
hand is more chunk from Rajasthan it’s
made by the last few remaining families
in jaisalmer today who are making these
instruments the blacksmith’s their
forefathers used to be in the weaponry
and the cavalry of Mariana Pratap when
Mughals attack Maharana Pratap and they
defeated the the you know market up they
decided that they’ll probably abandon
city life and they’ll lead a life of a
nomad and since then they’ve been on
their own making instruments me
artifacts of iron selling it and then
living a life of a nomad it’s only about
for last about 40 years that they’ve
settled themselves in jaisalmer and
making a living out of making various
instruments and obviously the the
otherwise you tooth
utensils in iron jaws or otherwise can
be made in several other materials you
know what this one is in brass I have a
couple of others in iron it can be even
used in plastic and credit cards for
that matter if you know if nothing else
works the reason why this instrument is
so important is because it’s considered
to be the father of the harmonic or
harmonium because of the way the sound
is produced and the principle principle
that’s the same principle in which a
harmonica harmonium is actually also
played so it’s funny while researching
about a jaws harp and trying to
understand where the whole piece is I
came across a go gonna which is a bamboo
[Music]
go-go noise played in BU which is also
the festival of harvest so while I was
researching about jaws harp and then I
landed on to go gonna and I was learning
about being festival exactly etc and I
was searching for go gonna images are
all the way across I was like why is
this Google Images kind of showing me
women you know dancing and I couldn’t
figure out why and then I saw Kabbalah
as a hairpin
it’s amazing how how various cultures
kind of reuse the same material the
leftovers from perhaps the other
artifacts so they may be using bamboo
for and they use it to fuse it of the
you know a hairpin and then use the same
thing as an instrument as well and viola
was doing that another instrument kind
of caught in my eyes which is pepper so
pepper essentially is a hornpipe made
from the horn of a buffalo or a yak
that’s very royal very very royal in the
it’s amazing how when you’re researching
and learning about one particular
instruments something else completely
you know jumps into your face and it
fascinates you so much that you go deep
dive into that culture and the whole you
know information soaking experience is
so overwhelming and humbling at the same
time and you realize that you don’t even
know the iota of what’s happening you
know you just don’t know I mean the
fabric of life is amazing it connects
one dot to the other and this reveals
the oblivious at times when you don’t
even realize what it’s actually throwing
up at you and it’s only it’s actually
taken me over 15 years to realize what I
T is actually done to me and I come to
think of it so while I was researching
about all of these instruments and now
thanks to Internet I have access to a
lot of this information I’m researching
and learning about so many other
instruments to instruments which kind of
stood out to me which is what I have
here is isaku Hachi and a Native
American flute isaku Hachi
is a end blown Japanese flute this was
originated in China brought into Japan
somewhere around sixth century however
got the limelight in the Edo period
which lasted from 1600 to 1800
shakuhachi is largely played by the Zen
monks who were also summarized and as
the legend is to be believed they were
spies in disguise so they would move
around and you know just playing Saku
Hachi and because they were also adapted
martial arts so if there was a
particular thread that came to minim
they could perhaps use the same Sokka
Hachi as a weapon it also lies in the
design how Osaka Hachi is made so a
standard Sarkoja Chi is 1 point 8 feet
long in the key of D having seven nodes
of the root and a stamp of the Sun the
root ends are chopped to give it a sharp
edge so if there’s something you can
actually just word it off so it’s a coup
hochy you know fast forward a few
centuries and civilizations and cultures
from if you skip how the fluid was
traditionally born and you come from you
know when and the flutes were made out
of animal bones too now fairly more
sustainable material in wooden plastic
and couple of other things on one side
when you have Sarkoja chi in the east
separated by thousands of kilometers and
the west people the Red Indians were
making flutes made out of the cedar wood
it’s beautiful to realize that a chinese
zhao flute the japanese shakuhachi
Native American flute are all in minor
pentatonic scales separated by thousands
of civilizations so many so many so much
its cultural diversity is I mean Native
Americans are different than Japan right
I mean there’s no brainer Japan is so
different from China yet the flutes are
so similar
traditionally flutes were single-chamber
flutes you know as you would expect the
Indian bass or again as a symbol singer
the straight single chamber
however the Native American drone flute
Native American flute is a double
chamber which kind of gives it a
characteristic echo sound I’ll probably
give you a small demo of that
[Music]
very melancholy The Legend of this
Native American fluid cannot goes back
that this one guy was trying to woo the
girl who was apparently one of the
princess and she was not looking at him
at all so after trying for a couple of
years together he was sitting in one of
the forests and there was a woodpecker
was trying to beat through the wood and
one would ferry down he picked it up and
started to play that so this girl listen
to that sound and came to him and that’s
how she fell in love with the music
first and then the guy so that’s the
melancholic reaper if you if you
remember the poem is some hard did I get
out of that particular piece then came
the Native American drone flute but this
is the rajastani counterpart of algo so
if you’ve heard also the bean is again
the same similar principles we have a
drone which has this particular one is
in minor pentatonic scale again the
pentatonic scales it’s beautiful that
you have one Native American flute all
the way in the southern or America and
the cultures are very different same
instrument you bring it down to India
take it to the mountains in Himalayas
and it just transcends into something
else
[Music]
the same melancholic thing well let’s
try something else
[Applause]
what’s even more beautiful about these
instrument is they are all extremely
rare ancient instruments so even though
in today’s age I was we have access to a
the Internet I haven’t found any maker
of these instruments in India they’re
extremely handful of people very few
people who actually know about these
instruments now so and not much has
changed to these instruments shakuhachi
is still the same Native American flute
is same these these instruments are so
advanced in the very basic structure of
fit that not much has changed so we had
the fluids and then you have those keys
and then he became the clarinet and then
you know it kind of changes the whole
plethora of those instruments but these
instruments still remains so what do I
say so so concrete and so just to the
music that even the new-age genres of
music have not been able to touch it in
fact if you overlay these instruments on
top of the new-age electronica it just
brings it back to the glory I have a
small video to again demonstrate the
power which probably is the last thing I
[Music]
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