Title of Invention

"A NOVEL MUSICAL INSTRUMENT "

Abstract

A novel stringed instrument suitable for playing Indian Classical Music. Typically the novel musical instrument is an improvement over the conventional guitar and would favour simple and convenient playing of classical tunes by guitarist who presently have to play Hindustani and Kamatic classic music in Hawaiian steel bar guitar by modifications like adding some chikari strings. The new instrument produces tonal output especially suitable for Hindustani and Karnatic Classical Music. The instrument can be played as a guitar to play solo classical music be it north Indian or south Indian. The instrument would have improved tonal quality to favour as a perfect instrument to render Indian Classical music. The instrument includes an innovative structure, string arrangement or tuning that makes it a new instrument and thereby provide a technique of playing such instrument that would make it a different, powerful and new mode to express the subtleties of the Indian Classical music - be it North Indian or South Indian.

Full Text

The present invention relates to a novel stringed instrument. More particularly, the instrument is suitable for playing Indian Classical Music. Typically the novel musical instrument is an improvement over the conventional guitar and would favour simple and convenient playing of classical tunes by guitarist who presently have to play Hindustani and Karnatic classic music in Hawaiian steel bar guitar by modifications like adding some chikari strings. The new instrument produces tonal output especially suitable for Hindustani and Karnatic Classical Music. The common Indian Classical musical instruments are Sitar, Sarode, Veena and the like. Lately Classical Hawaiian Guitar is a new entrant in the group. A brief descnption of the orthodox classical musical instrument is set out below. Sitar 'Sitar' is a Persian word meaning 'three strings'. Between the 13th and 14th Century, Ameer Khusro introduced Tritantri Veena' as 'Sitar'. Perhaps Sitar became a five stringed instrument by the improvisation made by Maseed Khan of the Taansen family. Even 40-50 years back from now, there was no 'chikari' string in Sitar. However, in 'Surbahar' - a similar instrument suitable for playing 'aalap', for last 150 years the 'chikari' and 'tarap' strings continued to be used being introduced by Golam Mohammed Khan. At present there are seven main strings (including two 'chikari' strings), eleven to thirteen 'tarap' strings in Sitar. In the 'achal thaat' variety, there are 19 to 23 frets, in 'sachal thaat' variety -there are 17 frets. Sarode It resembles 'rabab' in appearance. In 19th century, use of gut strings was replaced by steel strings and this necessitated use of a steel plate for the fingerboard. It has no fret. Use of steel strings has increased sustain of a note which made it suitable for playing 'aalap' in addition to gat & taan. Veena a fretted instrument usually having 7(seven) strings, appeared in India in many shapes and sizes after the seventh century. This instrument was basically designed to play Indian Classical music in 'Dhrupadi' style. 2 In next about 6-7 centuries, gradually the 'Khayal' has developed - accommodating more ornamentation of the notes and faster movements of melody, diluting the slow 'meend' and 'gamak' oriented presentation of a raga which was the characteristics of 'dhrupadi' style. There has been many variations of the 'Veena' - including the 'Vichitra Veena' or 'Gottubadyam' as it is known in the North and South of India respectively - played with a ball in the left hand instead of fingers and plucking the strings by the fingers of right hand with contraptions similar to the 'pick' of the steel guitar. But none of the variations of Veena was designed to express the lighter mode of the 'Dhrupad' i.e. the Khayal or Thumri. Lute - originated as the Arabian 'Ud', had a deep pear shaped body, neck with bent back peg-box and the stnngs hitched to a tension or Guitar type bridge, glued to the instrument's belly. The SARODE, it is believed, has evolved from the Arabian 'Ud' and has undergone many subtle as well as substantive changes to reach the shape, size and specification now popular among the leading musicians The Hawaiian Guitar played by steel bar is a solo instrument and started becoming popular from the fifties as a light and Western musical instrument. In a few decades it has gained extreme popularity. This instrument is being used both as 'solo' as well as an 'accompanying' instrument in the arena of light music. Since the seventies, there have been attempts to use the Guitar for playing Indian Classical music. The obvious modifications required for rendering a 'raga' was to add a few 'chikari' strings and a few 'tarap (i.e. sympathetic)' strings to spell out different phrases of rendenng of a 'raga' in the way it is done while playing 'Sitar', 'Sarode' etc. Addition of such 'chikari' and/or 'tarap' strings, is nothing phenomenal, and essentially the Guitar remained a Guitar, with the only difference of a few added strings. Guitar, however, has had it's drawbacks, so far as rendenng of Indian Classical music was concerned. Among those, (i) the most important aspect was absence of the TONAL QUALITY. 3 (ii) it did not have the flavour of a distinct 'da' and 'ra' bani, so important to emphasize a note and also important while playing a balanced weighted / accented 'taan'. (iii) it also did not have any provision for playing 'krintan' - a beautiful way of expression in the Sitar - now followed by instrumentalists, whenever possible. Another expression - 'jamjama' was also not possible to play in Guitar convincingly, (iv) it did not have any specific provision in the fret board to accommodate the all important 'sruti' - {the intermediate notes between the 12 standard notes of a scale). Thus a basic object of the present invention is to provide for a novel musical instrument which would be an improvement over the conventional guitar whereby it would be possible to avoid above discussed limitations of conventional guitars in playing classical tunes. Another object is to provide for novel musical instruments which can be played by guitarists to play classical music be it north Indian or south Indian. Another object of present invention is directed to provide a novel instrument which would avoid limitations of playing in the conventional guitar to generate classical tunes and can be adapted/played by guitarist for solo playing of classical tunes. Another object of the present invention is directed to provide a novel instrument which would be an improvement upon the conventional guitar to avoid its above limitations for playing classical music and extend the possible applications/use of guitar. Another object of the present invention is directed to provide a new instrument for playing classical music which would have the simplicity of playing as that of a guitar than the established stringed classical instruments like sitar, sarode, surbahar etc. and would also not have the requirement of growing and maintaining of painful corns (as in sitar, surbahar, sarangi) or to have very delicately maintained fingernails ( as in Sarode). Yet further object is directed to not only provide a novel instrument by the innovative structure, string arrangement or tuning that makes it a new instrument, but provide a 4 technique of playing such instrument that would make it a different, powerful and new mode to express the subtleties of the Indian Classical music - be it North Indian or South Indian. Another object is directed to provide for a novel instrument with improved tonal quality to favour as a perfect instrument to render Indian Classical music. The design of Guitar, in it's acoustic form (without amplification) is not conducive to solo playing - probably because of the fact that it was principally designed to play as an accompanying instrument. Though it is capable of producing long 'meends', the depth and sustainability of the sound produced by conventionally designed guitars are not anywhere near the depth and timbre of sound normally expected by listeners of classical music. Observation of the designs of nearly all Indian Classical stringed musical instruments suggests that the sound is acoustically amplified by one or two big size gourd(s). The base of Veena, usually made by carving out from special light quality of wood like 'Toon' (or specially cured gourd), was replaced by 'gourd' as is seen in Sitar, probably with a view to reduce the weight of the Sitar as the instrument has to be held vertically at about 45° angle while playing without having any portion of the instrument resting on the ground. This replacement, though successful in reducing weight, has made the instrument fragile. There is no such limiting factor in the new instrument being discussed here. However, there is-little dispute that the material of the resounding chamber and sound box, be it gourd or made of wood, is not primarily responsible for the quality of the sound produced. The quality of the sound basically depends on the surface and material of the resonating board (tabh) on which the bridge and the strings rest. Thus according to the basic aspect the present invention relates to a stringed musical instrument comprising: i) a sound box m acoustic combination with a long neck; ii) resonating board covering the sound box; iii) a bridge on the resonating board on which the stnngs rest in a spaced manner; iv) nuts provided on the long neck at its end away from the sound box; 5 v) plurality of strings having desired tonal effect; vi) keys for the strings; said instrument adapted to be played by a bar and optionally other means wherein bar is made of metal, wood, fibre and the like and being of a shape. The bar is an implement usually of cylindrical shape which in use is slid on the main strings to produce desired musical note or notes. Such bar is commonly referred to as 'steel bar'. The strings are proposed as under : 1) Four main strings - starting from the treble 1st string - the tuning would be 'Sa'( mudarra i.e 'madhya saptak or scale), 'Pa' (udara - mandra saptak), 'Sa'(udara-mandra saptak) and 'Pa' (ati-mandra saptak -referred as 'bass') ii) Two chikari strings disposed along the long neck at the side nearest to the player of the instrument. iii) Three melody strings in between the base 'Pa' string and the inside chikari string, but at a level lower than the main and chikari strings to accommodate 'chher' or open string dromng (interludes) without disturbing unintended stroking while playing. iv) Thirteen sympathetic strings or 'tarap' strings. v) One resonance string below the 1st. string - tuned as the first string (with 'open joari') to achieve the accents required at times by striking the 1st string and this string together - as is heard in 'sitar'. According to further embodiment there are five main strings starting from treble 1st string and adapted to tuning of 'sa'(mudarra i.e. madhya saptak or scale), 'pa'(udara- mandra saptak), 'sa'(udara- mandra saptak), 'pa' (ati- mandra saptak, referred to as 'bass') and 'sa' (ati mandra saptak). According to a further embodiment the stringed instrument is provided with unique fret-board indicating approximate positions of desired srutis per octave - 12 normally used sruti positions being marked by frets made up of elastic threads accommodating 6 adjustment to other sruti positions according to the raga being played. The said frets are made of curved metal rods with their ends adapted to slide along the length of fret board. The said nuts are equal to the number of main strings and placed side by side and adapted to be moved along the length of the fret board. There are a plurality of adjusters provided over the nut and below each string , said adjusters being adapted to be moved along a string so as to alter or vary the length of the strings to get the appropriate note According to a further embodiment the said stringed instrument is optionally provided with a resounding chamber at the end of long neck away from sound box as in Figure 1 a. The resounding chamber is smaller than the sound box. In accordance with a further aspect the invention provides that the positioning of the instrument is very vital. In order to accommodate faster movements, easily playable when the instrument is stroked vertically, two measures have been taken to achieve somewhat vertical position by: a) raising the bridges (bride and nut) to resemble a triangular shape - the angle being higher gradually towards the inside b) positioning of the instrument itself tilting (skewing) it clockwise toward the ground by placing on two circular tubes (like bird). The invention is now described with reference to non limiting accompanying figures The present invention provides a novel instrument as illustrated in accompanying Fig. 1,1a and Fig. 1A to 1D which apart from these basic features, suggests a longer neck since use of the left ring finger cap (second bar - detailed under heading 'The technique1 below) would require wider gaps between frets. The instrument comprises sound box (1) in acoustic combination with long neck (2). The four main strings (3), (4), (5), (6) are 7 adjusted by the keys (7) for the main strings. The three melody strings or drone stnngs(8) and two chikari strings (9) are positioned as described above. Keys for the drone strings (10) and keys for the chikari strings (11) are provided to adjust the same. The tarap strings are also provided with keys (12) for their adjustment. The strings are held at the string base holder (13). The position of the angular nut (14), angular bridge(15) and adjustable frets (16) which form important aspects of the present invention are also indicated in figure 1. Fig 1A indicates the position of the angular bridge (15), bridge (17) for tarap strings and chikari strings (9) on the sound box (1). Fig 1B shows the arrangement of the 4 main strings (3,4,5,6), 11 tarap strings (18) and 2 chikari strings (9). Fig 1C shows the fret board (19), tarap string keys (12) and mount for chikari strings (20) Fig 1D shows the position of the angular nut(14) and keys (7) for the 4 main strings. The Comparative position of the Bridge (15) in the instrument of the invention and the conventional Veena and Guitar are shown in accompanying Fig. 2. In case of Veena and Guitar, the position of the Bridge is horizontal to the body top(tabli) - marked B & C Whereas in case of Guit Veena, the top of the Bridge is angular to the body top (tabli) -marked A The sound box (1) is hollow - made of 'Toon' wood, carved from solid piece preferably having the size as further illustrated in accompanying Fig. 3. The fret board has been developed uniquely to accommodate the 'sruti' swaras. In western music, there is no existence or concept of playing notes present in between two standard notes, e.g. between C# and D, there is no recognised note in western music. But in Indian 8 Classical music, in between there are notes called 'sruti'. To take an example, if C# is 'Sa', then while playing the raga 'Shree', the 'komal rishav' available at 'D' will not serve the purpose since the raga demands an 'ati-komal rishav' - which is a note lower than 'D' in frequency. In Indian Classical stringed instruments having frets, this problem was overcome by providing movable frets. In 'Guit-Veena', the original positions of the notes are marked as a middle line, while the gray bands on both the sides of the middle line indicates the zones of corresponding 'sruti' positions - making it very suitable for learners to identify the difference of a standard note and a sruti note more tangibly. In any stringed musical instrument there is no arrangement to mark the places of 'sruti' -other than the 12 wellknown srutis of the Saraj Gram of Bilawal Thaat (also referred to as 'Achal Thaaf) i e. with all 12 notes from 'Sa1 (Sadaj to 'Ni'(Nishad). Importantly, the instrument of the invention would also enable generating the krintan note. Krintan as defined and translated from the book 'Bharatiya Sangeet Kosh', Bimalakanta Roy Choudhury, is generated on a stringed instrument, emitting the note where the index finger is placed, by placing the left hand index finger on any fret and cutting the string by middle finger is called 'Krintan'. In other words, both the index and the middle fingers of the left hand should be placed on two consecutive frets and the string should be struck by Jaba (in case of Sarod -supplied) / Mizrab ( in case of Sitar -supplied) held in right hand and while the resonance of the stroke is still on, the middle finger of the left hand should cut the string moving away from the string outwardly releasing the fret where it was placed. This will release the sound of the note at the fret where it was placed. This will release the sound of the note at the fret where the index finger is placed. This was hitherto impossible to achieve while playing Guitar / Tarafdar Guitar because by the using the steel bar, the string can be touched only at one point / fret. It is found by way of the present invention that the problem may be solved by a 'Second Bar' (21) 9 designed as follows, when worn on ring finger of the left hand, it will allow the above feat possible as illustrated in accompanying Fig. 4. In accordance with the objective of the invention the novel instrument while providing for simplicity in playing as that of the conventional guitar at the same time provide for playing of classical music The instrument is well distinguished from the conventional guitar and the conventional musical instruments such as Hawaiian Guitar, Veena, Tarafdar Guitar. Such difference in the instrument of the invention the Guit-Veena from the conventional guitar/veena is further illustrated by way of the pitch analysis and related characteristics provided in accompanying Fig. 5 and 6. The accompanying gadgets useful for playing the novel instrument (Guit-Veena) is discussed hereunder: Instead of the picks in two fingers (index and middle), one 'mizrab' (as required for playing 'Sitar') should be worn on the index finger as is done while playing veena. The 'thumb-pick' should be replaced by a contraption made modifying the mizrab so that to and fro movements on the 'chikari' strings are possible. Instead of plucking the strings, there should be strokes by the mizrab, at close to 90 angle between the mizrab and the string stroked while keeping the right shoulder straight. This angle is necessary to scientifically achieve the maximum possible speed of stroking with distinct 'da' and 'ra' bani. When the stroke is from left to right, it is 'da' while the stroke from right to left is 'ra' - following the style of 'sarode' which is opposite to the direction of 'da' and 'ra' known in playing 'sitar'. A specially designed metal (or hardened plastic) cap, with an elliptical cut made longitudinally in the middle, should be worn on the ring finger of the left hand (hereinafter referred to as the 'second bar') so that it can act as a complement to the bar. I claim 1. A stringed musical instrument comprising : i) a sound box (1) in acoustic combination with a long neck (2); ii) resonating board covering the sound box (1), iii) a bndge (17) on the resonating board on which the strings rest in a spaced manner; iv) nuts provided on the long neck (2) at its end away from the sound box (1); v) plurality of strings having desired tonal effect, vi) keys for the strings; said instrument adapted to be played by a guitar bar and optionally other means wherein bar is made of metal, wood, fibre and the like. 2. A stringed instrument as claimed in claim 1 wherein the plurality of strings comprises main strings, chikari strings, melody strings (8), sympathetic strings (18), resonance strings 3. A stringed instrument as claimed in claim 1 further comprises frets (16) and fret board (19). 4. A stringed instrument as claimed in claim 3 wherein the frets (16) are movable along the fret board (19). 5. A stringed instrument as claimed in claim 1 further comprising a resounding chamber provided at the end of long neck (2) away from the sound box (1). 6. A stringed instrument as claimed in claim 5 wherein the resounding chamber is smaller in size than the sound box (1). 7. A stringed instrument as claimed in claims 5-6 wherein the sound box (1) and resounding chamber are hollow and made of material selected from gourd and toon wood, preferably toon wood 8 A stringed instrument as claimed in claim 2 wherein the chikari strings are two in number and disposed along the long neck (2) at the side near to the player of the instrument. 9. A stringed instrument as claimed in claim 3 or 4 wherein the fret board (19) is adapted to indicate positions of the desired 'srutis' per octave with the help of the said frets (16) 10 A stringed instrument as claimed in claim 3 or 4 wherein the said frets (16) are made of curved metal rods with its ends adapted to slide along the length of fret board (19). 11. A stringed instrument as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the bridge (17) is angular or slanted and adapted to be raised to a triangular shape with the angle being gradually higher towards the inside. 12. A stringed instrument provided along with said means substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying illustrations. A novel stringed instrument suitable for playing Indian Classical Music. Typically the novel musical instrument is an improvement over the conventional guitar and would favour simple and convenient playing of classical tunes by guitarist who presently have to play Hindustani and Kamatic classic music in Hawaiian steel bar guitar by modifications like adding some chikari strings. The new instrument produces tonal output especially suitable for Hindustani and Karnatic Classical Music. The instrument can be played as a guitar to play solo classical music be it north Indian or south Indian. The instrument would have improved tonal quality to favour as a perfect instrument to render Indian Classical music. The instrument includes an innovative structure, string arrangement or tuning that makes it a new instrument and thereby provide a technique of playing such instrument that would make it a different, powerful and new mode to express the subtleties of the Indian Classical music - be it North Indian or South Indian.

Documents:

00543-cal-2001 abstract.pdf

00543-cal-2001 claims.pdf

00543-cal-2001 correspondence.pdf

00543-cal-2001 description(complete).pdf

00543-cal-2001 description(provisional).pdf

00543-cal-2001 drawings.pdf

00543-cal-2001 form-1.pdf

00543-cal-2001 form-18.pdf

00543-cal-2001 form-2.pdf

00543-cal-2001 form-3.pdf

00543-cal-2001 form-5.pdf

00543-cal-2001 letters patent.pdf

00543-cal-2001 p.a.pdf

00543-cal-2001 reply f.e.r.pdf

543-cal-2001-granted-abstract.pdf

543-cal-2001-granted-claims.pdf

543-cal-2001-granted-correspondence.pdf

543-cal-2001-granted-description (complete).pdf

543-cal-2001-granted-description (provisional).pdf

543-cal-2001-granted-drawings.pdf

543-cal-2001-granted-examination report.pdf

543-cal-2001-granted-form 1.pdf

543-cal-2001-granted-form 2.pdf

543-cal-2001-granted-form 3.pdf

543-cal-2001-granted-form 5.pdf

543-cal-2001-granted-letter patent.pdf

543-cal-2001-granted-pa.pdf

543-cal-2001-granted-reply to examination report.pdf

543-cal-2001-granted-specification.pdf