Tweaking tanpura’s, fussing over jivari and tuning with Ustad H. Sayeeduddin Dagar

’Tweaking tanpura’s’ with my former, regretted teacher, Ustad H. Sayeeduddin Dagar, filmed by Felix van Lamsweerde. Felix had a pair of first class tanpuras made in Miraj in 1963. He kept one, and the other went through the hands of two fine musicians (Jamaluddin Bhartiya and Alexander Smit before she came to me. For the concert tour I organized for Sayeedji, we used this pair for most of the concerts. Here is the first time the two Miraj sisters, made by ’Prof. Haji Abdulkarim Ishmaelsahib & Sons Satarmakers Miraj’ were reunited. Previously, I had changed the strings similarly to mine, and done a jivari-fresh-up. We tune to a low B, sometimes B-flat. Listening back to it now myself, I notice I then still had a lot to learn: it would still take a while before Sayeedsaheb allowed me to tune in public. With a longer commitment over time, while doing the jivari-work on many instruments, selecting strings, getting everything just right, tanpuras have lot to teach. Minute changes in tuning, shifting the jiva-threads, even plucking can change its colours to complete the mood of the chosen raga. A carefully tuned resonating energetic system that needs little input to generate a sustaining soundwave with many layers of harmonics. Chaos is always the beginning of things. Kaleidoscopic sound, raining overtones, or diversely crystallized root-harmonies, the tuner must know what lies ahead and where to go, and to allow for surprises on the road, but also keep a clear idea of the raga in your mind’s ear. The Dagars often decided only while tuning up what raga they were going to present. Makes sense to me.