Chandar Mohan - Renowned Tabla Player (Indian Classical Music)

Rhythm plays a primary and active role in  Indian classical music. The Tabla is one of the important and famous worldwide instruments in the category of the Indian drums, which falls into the category of Gaiaphones i.e. instruments related to earth and solid in nature. It is the queen of drums and it is said that when somebody knows how to play it, then he can play any other drum or percussion instrument of the world. 

Parts of Tabla:

Renowned Tabla Artiste:

Ustad Chander Mohan

Ustad Chander Mohan has been playing Tabla for the last 50 years. He got his lessons in Tablain traditional system of “Guru Shishya Prampra” i.e. disciple and teacher from the renowned Tabla wizard late Pandit Hira Lal Ji, who belonged to Delhi Gharana, .

He has learnt Tabla for more than 25 years. He has been trained by his teacher in other Gharanas also like ‘Ajrara, Purab and Punjab. One of his fellow students is Ustad Miya Shaukat Hussain Khan Sahib from Pakistan who has a famous disciple Ustad Tari Khan is. 

Ustad Chander Mohan has performed Tabla with all the great artistes of India and Pakistan such as Ustad Villayat Khan (sitar instrument player), Ustad Rais Khan(sitar instrument player), Ustad Amjad Ali Khan(Sarod instrument player), Pt. Ram Narain (sarangi instrument player), Ustad Sultan Khan(Sarangi instrument player), Pt. Hari Prasad Chaurasi(flute instrument player), Pt. Bhim Sen Joshi, Pt. Rajan & Sajan Mishra(Indian classical vocal singer) , Smt. Girija Devi(vocal singer), Ustad Salamat Ali Khan & his son Ustad Shafakat Ali Khan(vocal singer), Pt. Durga Lal(Indian Kathak dancer), Pt. Pratap Pawar(Kathak dancer), Pt. Charan Girdhar Chand (Kathak dancer) and Smt. Shobhana Naarain (Kathak).

Ustad Chander Mohan has been playing Tabla with king of Ghazal, Ustad Mehandi Hassain, Ustad Gulam Ali Khan, Farida Khanam, Ahmed Hussain & Mohd. Hussain, Hari Harian, Chandan Das and Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. 

Ustad Chander Mohan has performed across the world i.e Middle East, USA, UK, Canada, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, France, Norway, Caribbean countries - Trinidad & Tobago, Guyana etc. .

The Government of India under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (ICCR) has announced his name as Indian icon to promote Indian classical music among youths in Suriname (Paramaribo), South America for three years as a Tabla teacher-cum-performer. He had groomed a number of Tabla students in Suriname.

MUSIC OF LOVE

With Ustad Allaha Rakha Khan and Ustad Sultan Khan

Ustad Chander Mohan Pandit Ram Narayan Ji

With Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and Pt. Ravi Shankar

 

With Pt. Charan Giridhar Chand - Kathak Dancer

Drama (Indian) and Hinduism

Hinduism is known as the oldest religion of the world, which is widely followed by the inhabitants of the Indian sub-continent. It has as many as one billion followers - the third largest of the world after Christianity and Islam.

Now, let me explain you how Hindu religious scriptures assisted in the origin and development of performing arts, dance and music.


Hindu scriptures can be classified into two parts - Shruti (revealed) and Smriti The Vedas are compilation of hymns, which are intended as manuals for presiding priests, officiating priests and the priests who chant. There are four Vedas i.e. Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samveda and Atharvaveda. Samveda teaches us about the formula of singing all other Vedas. Gandharva Veda, an appendix to Samveda, was considered as the fifth Veda which had 36000 hymns. Its existence had been lost over the course of time. Lord Brahma was known as the composer of the fifth Veda - 'Gandharva Veda'.

It is believed that the sage Bharata had composed Natya Shastra on the basis of Gandharva Veda during the period 1st century BCE-3rd century CE. It is an ancient treatise on the performing arts, theatre, dance and music which has approx 6000 hymns. It is principally divided into four parts i.e. art of recitation, art of music, art of acting and Rasas (aesthetics).

The name of sage Bharata is derived from the three words i.e. Bhaav (mood) Raag (melodic framework) and Taal (rhythm). Bharata has mentioned in Natya Shastra that he gained knowledge about Natya Shastra from Lord Brahma.

Abhinavbharati is a sole commentary available on Natyashastra which was composed by Abhinavgupta during the period C.A 950-1020. Abhinavgupta was a yogi and a great Kashmiri Savite spiritual leader.

Abhinavbharati is divided into 36 chapters. It contains science of dynamic performance, the concept of imitation, three kinds of theatre buildings, causes of eight aesthetic sentiments - basic sentiments, erotic love, heroism, laughter, fear & wrath, wonder, gestures and transitory emotions. Moreover, it contains four kinds of expressions - bodily expressions, linguistic expressions, costumes/stage decorations and emotional expressions such as tears, change of facial expressions, trembling of lips and enhancing of tears. It has details about actor and actress of a play. Abhinavbharati not only influenced theatres and plays but it had also helped to develop various forms of dances, music, musical notes, musical scales, musical instruments and songs sung in the praise of God.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Vishal_Dogra

Flutes - The Nerve of Melody

You might have seen many musical instruments such as Keyboard, Trumpets,Tabla, Drums, Flutes, Piano and Congo, etc. A musical instrument is a melodic framework to produce sounds.

In ancient times, musical instruments were also used by warriors to mark their victory. Some instruments such as Conch Shells, Trumpet and Drums are used in Hindu and Buddhist religious ceremonies. Later, the society developed musical compositions for entertainment purpose also.

Musical instruments can be classified into five categories based upon the five prime elements such as earth, water, air, fire and space. The classification of musical instruments is given below:

1. Gaiaphones: It is based upon earth and these instruments are solid in nature. e.g. Congo, Tabla, Bongos and Piano, etc 

1. Hydraulophone: These instruments are played with the physical contacts of fluids. e.g. Water Flutes.
   

1. Aerophones: Aerophones primarily create sound by vibrating a body. e.g. flutes, trumpet, Bagpiper and saxophone, etc.

1. Plasmaphones: Plasmaphones create sounds in plasma or ionized gas.

1. Quintephones: Quintephones are based upon ideas or informatics. e.g. Keyboard and Electronic Guitar, etc.

However, it is not possible to classify every instrument into the above mentioned classes.

It is difficult to elaborate each category and the instruments that fall into. Therefore, let's discuss about the oldest musical instrument of the world - 'The Flute'. The Flute falls under Aerophones. It is a believed that a simple flute is the oldest musical instrument of the world which came into existence approx 67000 years ago. To begin with, it was a woodwind instrument, which is a sub-category of wind instruments. Ancient flutes were made of wood, grass and reeds. But, now, Flutes are available in glass, tin, copper and bronze, etc. There are two types of flutes i.e. open flutes and closed flutes.

You may be curious to find out how a flute produces sound and how it changes the pitch of that sound. A flute produces sound when we blow air across its hole. It creates vibration of air at the hole. A flute player can direct the pitch of the sound by opening and closing the holes of a flute.                He can also change pitch by varying the air pressure.

An open flute produces sound when we direct a focused stream of air across the sharp edge of the flute. However, in the case of a closed flute, we need to blow air into a duct to produce sound.