4.2 Melasthayi varisai: into the upper octave

The same thing, four instruments

The exercise is the same whichever one you play. What changes is how you make it.

Singing

The upper octave arrives before the voice is ready for it more often than not. Do not push: lower the whole exercise by a note or two for now, and keep the original sruti for everything else.

On the veena

The upper octave is at the far end of the frets, where the gaps are narrowest and the string is shortest. The notes are all there; the difficulty is that a small error of finger position is a large error of pitch.

On the violin

The upper octave means moving the hand up the fingerboard away from its usual place, and the reference points you had are gone. Check every note against the drone rather than trusting the shape of the hand.

On the flute

The upper octave is the same fingering with a faster and narrower air stream, so this exercise is a breath exercise wearing a fingering exercise's clothes. If the notes crack, the air is too wide rather than too weak.

Work through these

• Learn the first melasthayi varisai as far as your range allows.

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• Stop at the point where the sound stops being steady, and note where that is.

• Return to the exercise weekly and see whether the stopping point has moved.