Tuesday 6 May 2008

Pandit Debashish Bhattacharya, Pioneer of Indian slide guitar

Debashish BhattacharyaBorn to musician parents Pandit Debashish Bhattacharya, a child prodigy, was initiated into Indian classical singing, but was drawn to the guitar because of the ability to emulate the human voice by using the slide.

He is the inventor of the Trinity of Slide Guitars:

The Chaturangui takes the guitar and gives it the tonal resonance of traditional Indian instruments, Rudra-veena, Violin, Sarode and Sitar. It has six primary sliding strings, twelve or more sympathetic strings, and two chikaris - a pair of strings located beyond the treble main strings, and tuned an octave apart from one another.

The Gandharvi is a 12-string slide guitar with an additional pair of drone strings, and which melds the tones of the Saraswathi-veena, Santoor and Sarangi with the guitar.

The Anandi is a simple 4-string instrument, and is more akin to ukulele played with a slide.

These are absolutely fascinating instruments, and I'm very curious to hear what they sound like.

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