Indian Lap Guitar - A Forgotton Musical Instrument 

Introduction

 In 1940, Tau Moe, a Hawaiian musician visits India. His musical talent was off a different class and style. Taj hotels was fortunate to host this great star and conducted many musical nites. And this was the beginning of the introduction of the slide guitar in the Hawaiian style to India. Later Tau enchanted the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi and Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore with his slide guitar performance.

Tau was greatly influenced by Hawaiian  instrument ‘KiKa Kila’ the lap Guitar. As this instrument found its origin in the Hawaii Islands it was later known as Hawaiian  guitar.

Slowly  great musicians crafted a few changes in the instrument and it took its final shape as a Hawaiian guitar later known as Indian lap guitar

Adaption of Hawaiian Guitar to Hindustan Music 

The classical guitar is played holding the same is the sling  from the shoulder or sitting and placing it on the lap. Recent modification  also enabled playing a Hawaiian guitar by placing it flat on the keyboard stand.

The strings are raised up of the fret  board so as to allow the player to slide the steel on the guitar strings.

The instrument draws tremendous inputs from the  ancient Indian Veena, where a steel round ball was used. It also has been modified for playing  jhallar (fast paced conclusions in classical ragas ) from the Indian sitar.

Notable Players

Pandit Brij Bhushan Kabra

Pandit Brij Bhushan Kabra was the first artist to be considered a great musician of Indian steel guitar. Born in 1937 at Jodhpur, Rajasthan he was a trained Geologist. He had visited Kolkata as a young man and got attracted to the Indian lap guitar. He later took up this guitar made modification by placing a sympathetic and drone  string which is a thin wire string designed to vibrate sympathetically  to reinforce the sound. He was the musician to play the first classical raga on this guitar. He was awarded with the Rajasthan Sangeet Natak Academy award in 1983 and later received the National Sangeet Natak Academy award in 2005 he is considered the father of Indian lap Guitar. ‘The Call Of The Valley’ an LP album in 1970s gave the Indians lap guitar entry to the Hindustani Music

Sunil Ganguly

The next notable figure was Sunil Ganguly. He specialised on the classical Rabindra Sangeet and also played numerous old and contemporary Hindi film songs.

Sunil Ganguly exploited the instrument to learn both in the Hindustani classical style under the renowned sitar is Pandit Ajoy Sinha Roy and later mastered  Western Classical music under Oscar Jones.

His style was appreciated by Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan Sahab and was recommended by the Ustad to be a permanent artist for AIR and Doordarshan. In the past decade his tunes  motivated many musicians to take up guitar for learning Hindustani and light music.

Vishwa Mohan Bhatt

Rajasthan provided yet another stalwart to the classical Indian  lap guitar and he is Vishwa Mohan Bhatt . He improved  the guitar to add five drone strings , 12 sympathetic strings and ‘gouda’ for sound sustaining and resonance.

He made Mohan  Veena guitar and Patented his creation on his name as  ‘Mohan Veena.’

He is a mesmerising performer. He spelled magic with his guitar at all levels  and made the Mohan Veena popular . He is best known for his Grammy award winning album ‘A Meeting By The River’ along with Ry Cooder.

The the influence of Vishwa Mohan Bhatt on the Indian lap guitar shifted the focus back to the Indian lap guitar being placed as the Hindustan classical music instrument.

He was awarded Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan and till date remains the most notable player on the Indian lap guitar.

Popularity

The Indian slide guitar has been very popular in Bengal, Orissa, Tripura and to some extent in Gujarat and Rajasthan.  The Pracheen Kala Kendra a premier educational institution based in Chandigarh started a course to award  Visharath (graduation degree in music )  in the late 1970s the Indian lab Guitar. However it  is still yet to leave a lasting mark in the hearts of many in the country

Films and concerts 1950s and 1960s showed a grand use of the Indian lap guitar. This was primarily as a music industry was influenced by music directors from Bengal. In Bengal the lap guitar was very prominent, as the Rabindra Sangeet was often being played on the guitar. However as electronic gadgets  overpowered the Indian classical musical instruments , the Indian lab Guitar slowly vanished.

Economic front of Music Industry
Indian music industry has a very bright future. The concept of global Village has ensured that the musicians across all the countries can associate themselves without travelling the length and breadth of the globe, to integrate their music. In this scenario, many new developments taking place and many new instruments are being created by great musicians.

Few musicians like AR Rahman and Yanni or experimenting with new and old and obsolete musical instruments to create new conceptional music which will attract the humans to start loving the most relaxing art.

Sound charts is a leading blog blog on music industry. From the pie diagram above it is clearly seen that the revenue earning model of music industry is increasing day by day as a large number of people or getting associated with live streaming and creation of new content in the music field.

From the data available on the internet have Guitar too has made a lot of room for itself in the music industry and slowly the instrument is gaining popularity among youth who would like to take up classical and light music as a profession. The growth of internet as indicated in the graph below gives us an indication on the teacher-student relationship is more based on a good benefit rather than getting off-line classes as a system which was prevalent a few years ago. The Gharana concept and the system wherein we had the guru shishya Parampara is slowly diminishing and the online guru shishya Parampara has started gaining a foothold in the society.

Way Ahead

In the recent past SPIC MACAY had made a great contribution to encourage the youth to take up the Indian classical music. Renowned artist like Hari Prasad Chaurasiya, Zakir Hussain, Ahmed Ali Khan and many notable classical singers like  Veena Sahasrabuddhe, used to tour to various colleges and schools , play and explain the beauty of classical music.

However, regrettably, the Indian slide guitar has not be given that any stature by the SPIC MACAY and they were no programs performed by the Indian Lap Guitarists . Vishwa Mohan Bhatt in his own capacity used to travel a  few cities to propagate his style and his patented instrument.

I will show the beauty of the guitar and introduce the same to you to give you a brief insight into the instrument which is being neglected by many musicians in the present era. My wishes that this instrument is taken into the force of the orchestras and more music is churned from this soothing and melodious musical instrument.

The Central government, State government and many non-government organisations should take interest in this beautiful instrument which has evolved with the time as the most scintillating musical instrument.

Conclusion

The melodious rendition of the Indian slide guitar has left a great impact to the years in hearts of music lovers. It is time that the industry and many people from the media also propagate this musical instrument which has become a part and parcel of the store houses in many music shops, only to gather dust. It is of course certain that when this instrument is taken out and played it will certainly stir the hearts of many people and will become once again the most popular musical instrument in the country. Here are some  popular numbers by Pandit Kabra, Sunil Ganguly, Pandit Bhatt and the writer of the blog. These tunes will definately  unwind the reader and take them to a new plane of bliss.