shaheediyan

Its a tanpura - used as a standard measure for singers and musicians.

Thanks for sharing the kathaa, excellent as always.

Just watching an interview of Satinder Ji on Sikh TV.

What a totally amazing personality - an inspiration for anyone in any field.

Finally, a mainstream Punjabi singer who has real talent and old fashioned Punjabi wisdom/respect.

God bless him with much success.

Yudh Gatka Akhara - CA

http://gatka.ca/Gatka/Academy.html

Seems to be a mixed martial arts type gatka school using Karate and sports Eskrima movements - lot of non-gatka movements in their gatka demos (see Lions Roar you tube videos).

Basic vocal exercises are always the best to practice. Using a surmandal or tanpura loop, establish your sur gian through doing meditative exercises in your riaaz (daily morning practice). Start of singing srgmpdns sndpmgrs in the middle octave. Do the cycle 2 times BUT ensurs you sing and hold each note for as long as you can (this is the abyaas on the sur, which also develops a long breath and stable voice). Next move down to the lower octave and sing 2 cycles of both the low and middle octaves. Lastly move up to the higher octave and sing 2 cycles across all 3 octaves. If you are new to singing don't push yourself past low octave g and high octave r.

This is the core drill no matter how advanced one gets, later variations on the saptak are introduced, I will give some examples of these in the next few days.

To develop sur gian you need a saaj, traditionally tanti, recently vaja. The tanpura is also used as a standard measure for sur, but again was traditionally used as the standard measure for tanti saaj, which on turn were the measure for vocals. That is why all kirtaniye learn vaja alongside vocals, because the vaja due to its fixed sur, has replaced the tanpura and tanti saaj both (sadly).

On another note, lol, I am not a member of any Gurdwara commitee!

Seriously, hanging CDs work against all animals including birds.

Thanks for sharing that bro, excellent website. Gamma has always been one of my personal heroes :-)

Today pehvani in Punjab is all about modern body building and posing. In other areas of India like Benares and even in Pakistan, many traditional schools still operate today - this is mainly due to poverty and lack of modernisation/westernisation.

The old school diet and exercise regimes cannot be beaten in my opinion.

The 2 basic traditions I would personally advocate for a child would be wrestling and wushu (Shaolin) - as an excellent foundation/grounding in developing a good combat body/mindset. Real combat should be introduced later.

The sangat in Boston (or a large part of it) are seriously interested in kirtan and are the owners of the Gurmat Sangeet project - which has a huge library of live recordings from nearly all famous visiting raagis.

I am not sure how they went about setting up the prevailent culture, may be worth dropping them an e-mail, they have a website for the aforementioned project.

In the UK, we have a similar set up at Southgate Gurdwara in North London - where many kids (and even elders) from the sangat are instructed under Raj Academy.

The thing to do is learn, then teach/create interest in your Guru Ghar. When you have numbers (kids learning) then you will have a say (a voice). Until then, it's all theory and speculation, people like to see evidence/proof. So advice would be learn yourself firts, then teach/create interest and finally look at creating change.

Stuffed cats are supposed to work wonders!

Forget the window sill, get an allotment!

Not much you can grow apart from herbs and may be peppers, chillies and perhaps tomatoes.

Logically sweet potatoes should be able to grow in a bag, but haven't tried it. You will have to experiment and feedback to us :-)

Look forward to the developments Ishvar Singh, and even more to coming and raiding the crops when they are ready! Get that rotovator churning!

For any bibiyan learning, I couldn't recommend anyone more amazing to learn from than Bibi Ashupreet Kaur.

Don't worry about saving the Panth, focus on yourself 1st, get a good education. Buy the books I mentioned so you have the 'regulative' framework for Gurbani raags. Then its just a matter of learning 1 raag correctly i.e rules for ascentt/descent, key notes (vadi, samvadi, niyas etc), alaap creation, rules for saptaks etc. Once you learn 1 raag correctly, you can easily learn the 2nd, 3rd etc as you have an understanding of the principles. Then its just a matter of applying those principles to the next raag whilst respecting its unique nature.

If you can't find a Sikh gurdev, then learn from a Muslim or Hindu one, the basic rules for learning raag, vocals, saaj and taal are the same as shaastri sangeet, its just the execution that is different.

Where are you based, I may be able to suggest someone, pm me if you like.

Personally, of I was in your shoes and kirtan was my priority, I would do whatever it took to learn from our living treasures i.e bhai Balbir Singh, bhai Gurmeet Singh Shant. Amrik Singh Zakhmi, bhai Gurmeet Singh Namdhar, Dr Gurnaam Singh, Prof Kartar Singh, Bhai Nirmal Singh etc just to name a few. Boston is perfectly outstanding example (albeit unique, sadly) of an intelligent sangat who pay world class ragis to come and teach their youngsters.

I never said saaj were more important than singing - its not a matter of choosing one over the other, Gurus kirtaniye have always excelled at both. Its common knowledge that Bhai Avtar Singh took up the Taus 'again' after many decades of playing vaja. They already knew how to play it, they didn't learn it from scratch in their old age. Rather than arguing with me, ask their son or grand nephew. Saaj help us to keep sur during kirtan, as well as em embellishing/beautifying the kirtan. The reason we promote tanti saaj is to promote/honor Gurus inventions/gift/ravaaj.

Bhai harjinder singh shrinager wales kirtan is usually in filmi tunes, not gurbani raag. Although they are a great singer.

Bhai Sahib, Bhai Avtar Singh and his famous Father and lineage before him, used the Taus to perform kirtan. Bhai Avtar Singh started using the vaja when he was a little older. Later in his life he reverted back to Taus. Bhai Baljeet Singh and Gurmeet Singh are another great example. I my self learnt to sing and play the saranda and sarangi at the same time, its a business myth that you cant learn both, as I said, gurmat and shaaatri sangeet are connected, but their purpose and execution (and rvaaj) differ, having taught on this subject I can provide you with many examples. Going right back to the start, Bhai Mardanas kul played rabab and sang kirtan, this was always the case until early 1900s when vaja was introduced.

Manbir Ji,

You have misunderstood me, I have not differentiated shaastri sangeet from Gurmat sangeet - I have said one falls under the other - they intrinsically linked.

Legends like Baba Shaam Singh, Bhai Jvala Singh, Bhai Avtar Singh, many Namdhari Kirtaniyai, Almast Ji, traditional rababi tradition etc defunk your theory that to be quality suffers if one is a musician and singer. Gurmat Sangeet is much more powerful than Darbari sangeet, as the famous story of Swami Hardas and Tansen shows.

Also, no one is doing imaginery talks - I have been involved in study and research with Raj Academy which hs spoken to many famous kirtaniyai with long lineages - and Bhai Baldeep Singh with his excellent research can show the same conclusion.

The recent innovation of Sikhs having to learn shaastri sangeet from Hindustani classical artists due to loss of knowledge in the Panth should not be used as a basis for re-writing tradition - which can clearly be established though existing exponents with kirtani lineages.

Dhanvaad.

Gurmat sangeet is simply a spiritual element within the wider shaastri sangeet. They need not be seperate things learnt seperately. Traditionally kirtan was all sung in nirdaareth raags, so the issue of having to learn classical music seperately was and still is a non issue if the teacher has correct vidya over gurbani raag. Saaz, taal and vocal are also not seperate issues. A kirtani needs to have vidya over all 3 elements irrelevant of his/her specialty. Anyone who learns vocal learns vaaja to help with sur gyaan, why? Why not learn a tanti saaz instead from the outset, as was done traditionally? Learning just vocal or saaz is not sikh rvaaj, it was a darbaari sangeet innovation, entertainment based. Kirtan is a different ballgame. A perfect and most famous example of the old Sikh norm was Baba Shaam Singh Ji Sevapanthi, who was an expert in saranda, vocals and taal.

The outreach programme is good, but it is important to ensure this is supplemented with fortnightly face to face learning (at the very least).

Re cost, can you put a value on kirtan or sikhi, in my experience people can. Whilst there is no issue buying designer clothes, big houses, flash cars, holidays etc, when it comes to sikhi our people magically seem to become poor.

On one hand we complain about low quality sikh services, then when some of us dedicate years to learning in order to teach professionally and make a living doing so (in order to dedicate 100 percent time) we complain about cost. If we paid good money for quality sikh services, maybe more intelligent/talented youth would consider making a dedicated career out of sikhi. Its because of this free sikhi attitude that the quality of parchaar and kirtan is so low today.

Not having a go, just giving food for thought.

Hi, inbox sorted. Give me your address etc via pm.

Ta.

There are actually quite a few good raag/tanti saaz teachers around the uk, its just that they are localised and not well promoted (due to lack of demand). In the midlands there is H S Lallie, in London bhai Amerjit Singh Nanaksar, Seatle Singh Sitara etc, there are many.

Again, anyone who wants a copy, send me a pm with your address. Thanks.

Send me pm.

Ideally if you have learnt gurmat sangeet from an experienced teacher, u don't need notations. You can easily listen to and memorise kirtan done in raag and even compose your own. If you want quality notations then buy the books by bhai Avtar Singh and Dr Gurnam Singh.

http://www.gurmatsangeetproject.com/

These guys are based in Boston and are the best people to ask about any quality Raagi jathas in the Americas.

Martial Arts are and have always been an evolving science - changing with the environment, culture, mindset of man etc.

Alamid is a unique and fairly new system created by a Filipino soldier - it based on the lightning quick stikes of the mongoose fighting the cobra. It looks flash, but in fact incorporates well aimed strikes to sensitive areas using numerous types of strikes. Its a simple system in that it is based on 48 strikes - but the applications are situational and combinations endless.

It is a close quarter striking system - focusing on in-fighting rather than footwork. Not sure about the stick fighting aspect though.

Here is a small glimpse.

The US is seeing the start of the end as a superpower.

China is the 'sleeping dragon'. It has business interests in almost every corner of the planet - it's appetite is insatiable.