Why Do Carnatic Musicians Use A Shruti?

If the closest Western equivalent to talam is a metronome, the closest Western equivalent to a shruti box is a pitch pipe. So you might wonder, why does a Carnatic musician need a shruti box to stay on key?

Well, it's not so much that they need it to stay on key. But its sound serves as a backdrop when they sing or play. And when they sing and hold a note that perfectly aligns with the shruti, it just sounds so good! And when there's a note that almost aligns with the shruti but not quite, that sounds so good too! In fact, every note that is sung or played in Carnatic music sounds so much better when it's rendered with a shruti in the background.

There's no way to explain it in words. So like I've done with my previous posts, here's a video that illustrates this.

In this case, the artists use a tambura instead of an electronic shruti box, but you can hear it constantly droning in the background. Try to listen to her singing AND the shruti simultaneously - it's amazing!

Why Do Carnatic Musicians Put Talam?

Carnatic musicians use a metronome when singing. This metronome is not an electronic one or one provided by a conductor standing on a platform. The metronome is nothing but the musician hit their hand on their thigh. Different kinds of slaps denote different locations in the beat cycle.

Here's a video of a 17 year old kid putting talam as she is singing:

Why do Carnatic musicians do this? It turns out They put talam for multiple reasons:

1. To demonstrate to the audience that their recitation falls properly within the constructs of the talam. 

Otherwise a singer might be able to get away with anything, and most of the audience would probably think nothing of it.

2. To help them remember where they are in the beat cycle during improvisation. 

The key here is improvisation. It's harder to keep track of where you are in a beat cycle when you're just singing notes freely for what could be minutes. Also, when you end your improvisation, you can't just end wherever you want. You have to end at the proper location within the beat cycle. How would you know where that is if you haven't been putting talam?

3. To demonstrate cleverness during improvisation.

Cleverness, as in the ability to render complicated but still elegant rhythmic patterns that still fit within the beat cycle. And to prove to the audience that your rendition falls within the beat cycle like it should.

Why Is Carnatic Music So Complicated?

It's not really all that complicated. Just like any other type of music, the best way to understand what Carnatic music is all about is to LISTEN to it. Lots of it!

For someone who has never listened to Carnatic music before, of course it will sound very foreign and exotic. The main reason it sounds this way is gamaka.

Gamaka - oscillations of a rendered note. Almost nothing is a plain, flat note. Learning to appreciate the subtleties and varieties of these oscillations will go a long way in understanding Carnatic music.

When you search for "carnatic music" in YouTube, this is the first video that shows up.

Within the first three seconds, you can hear the first use of gamaka. And it happens again. And again. And again. Learn to appreciate it when you hear it, and you will start to appreciate Carnatic music.