SUMUKHA VEENA

Date 24-03-2021

Hari Om.

About SUMUKHA VEENA 

I have had many enquiries about the structure of the Sumukha Veena and how it is different from Chitravina and Mohan Veena. So I thought of sharing a description of Sumukha Veena with you all.

Sumukha veena is a new adaptation of the acoustic slide guitar into Carnatic music (which implies that there have been earlier adaptations of the slide guitar into Carnatic music by various musicians, and this is another new adaptation of the same family of instruments, but with a different structure). It is nothing but a modified acoustic slide guitar.

Initially the modifications were made on a regular acoustic guitar with the help of Mridanga/Khanjira Vidwan Sri A V Kashinath from Bangalore. Later, I got it manufactured by a Mohan Veena manufacturer Mrs.Ria Biswas (who is the daughter of legendary Late Baba Sindhu Biswas) from Kolkata. 

Sumukha veena is made of Himalayan pine wood for the upper body and rose wood for the fingerboard. It  is a little  smaller  in size than Mohan Veena with entirely different strings alignment.  (Also Not having chikaari or drone strings, to mention a few differences) 

Sumukha veena has 8 main strings aligned in a specific manner , that is  s-p-sS-pP  capital letters indicating the higher octave, which is  in 1+1+3+3 pattern.

These strings are tuned by guitar pegs placed at the top.

The 1st string which is closest to the body of the player is Mandra shadja (one octave below the tonic note).

2nd string that is going away from the body of the player is the mandra panchama (the 5th note from the 1st string).

3rd, 4th and 5th strings are aligned close to each other and are to be played together. They are tuned to adhara shadja,  Mandra shadja (an octave below the tonic note) and Aadhaara shadja (tonic note) respectively. 

6th , 7th and 8th strings are also aligned close to each other and are to be played together. They are tuned to middle octave panchama,  Mandra panchama and middle octave panchama (5th note from the tonic note) respectively (this dual octave string alignment concept is inspired by Gottuvadya).

Sumukha Veena consists of a resonator; a bridge on top of the resonator  slightly to the right; a smaller bridge of 2 cm height on the neck of the fingerboard; and a small metal stick mounted on each of the bridges.  The main strings pass through these metal sticks and this helps in bringing out a brighter around that sustains for longer. 

It has a wooden tail-piece attached on the extreme right to which the main strings are anchored.

It has a fingerboard on which the fret lines are marked to help the player locate the positions of the notes accurately while playing.  

Sumukha Veena has 12 or 13(optional) sympathetic strings (that resonate/sympathise/respond when the main strings are plucked) aligned on the fingerboard. They pass upon a very small bridge 

underneath the main strings. These sympathetic strings are  tuned using the guitar pegs placed to the left of the fingerboard .

It has a 'koda' (pot like support that is attached behind the neck of the guitar- this does not work like a resonator).

Playing technique 

It is a plucked, stringed instrument.

Veena nakha/metal plectrum/Guitar plectrum is used to pluck the strings either in a direction away from the player or back and forth to achieve faster plucking. 

A cylindrical slider made of polytetrafluoroethylene (popularly known as teflon) material (credits to Maestro Chitravina Ravikiran, and special thanks to Vidwan Chitravina Ganesh who gave me a teflon slider years ago) is used to slide on the strings  backed by the left hand  little finger and ring finger which keep flowing on the main strings to mute the unwanted sounds as the slider moves up and down.

This is a brief description of the structure of Sumukha Veena and its playing.

 this is one of its kind I have modified the acoustic slide guitar  according to my ideas, worked upon these ideas for 16 years before finally getting this instrument made. 

I thank all those who have been and continue to be a part of my journey with this beautiful instrument.

Thank you.

Link to Sumukha veena 👇

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10225671939091616&id=1423710956