You don’t really have to twang on your tambura for shruti these days. Instead, you can just tap on your mobile app and take off.
Melody on your mobile seems the latest trend catching up with young musicians, even as a dime a dozen software applications offering digitised versions of a tambura have captivated musicians across ages who find them “handy” and “practical”.
Most of them can be downloaded for free, and it is believed that such apps, however synthetic and non-traditional the sound they produce may be, are here to stay or so it seems going by their popularity.
“Pulling out a mobile for shruti makes life easier when I travel or practise in my car, but the apps are no replacement for my tambura or the electronic tambura that I use at home or during concerts,” says 23-year-old vocalist Priyanka Prakash.
“It’s become a way of life for us to use such apps,” says Pavani Kashinath, although the young vocalist swears by her 100-year-old family tambura which she regularly uses for practice and concerts. “I use the app for my short-duration invocation songs where I don’t have to carry a tambura,” she says.
“ Shruti , or the indispensable baseline pitch, seems perfect and divine when it emanates from a traditional tambura,” says finance professional and vocalist Pavan Rangachar, a student of T.V. Gopalakrishnan. “But let’s give technology its due. The app I use helps me set my tambura or electronic tambura perfectly in tune as the digital precision it offers is in exactitude,” he says. Although Mr. Rangachar is happy about the conveniences the app provides literally on his fingertips and uses it during his travel, he dismisses the idea of including a tambura app in a concert as the speakers are not powerful enough to have the melodic terrain sensed in concert halls.
