0b.1 Holding the veena, and where everything is

What this is and why it exists

The veena is large, heavy and not symmetrical. Where it rests decides what your hands can reach. Get the position wrong and you will spend a year fighting the instrument instead of playing it.

There is a second reason to start here. You will be finding notes by feel, not by sight, for the rest of your life on this instrument. So the first job is to know the shape of it with your hands.

The vocabulary

• Sarani — the playing string nearest you. It carries the melody.
• Panchama, mandara, anumandara — the other three playing strings, in order outward from the sarani.
• Side strings — three thinner strings on the far side of the neck. They are never fretted.
• Frets — twenty-four raised bars set into wax along the neck, covering two octaves.
• Bridge — the wide plate the strings cross near the body.
• Resonator — the large gourd or bowl at the body end.
• Yali — the carved head at the far end of the neck, above the small gourd.

The mental model

The instrument sits on two points and you are the third. The body rests on the floor at your right. The small gourd sits over your left thigh. Your right forearm rests on the body.

Once those three contacts are settled the instrument does not move. Nothing is being held up by a hand, so both hands are free to work. If you find yourself gripping, something is in the wrong place.

The frets tell you where you are. They are wide apart at the low end and close together at the high end, and that spacing is a map your fingers learn. A player who has that map does not look at the neck.

The work

1. Sit cross-legged on the floor.
2. Rest the body of the veena on the floor to your right.
3. Let the small gourd sit over your left thigh.
4. Rest your right forearm on the body, near the bridge.
5. Check that you can let go with both hands and nothing moves.
6. Touch the four playing strings in order, starting with the one nearest you.
7. Name them aloud as you touch them: sarani, panchama, mandara, anumandara.
8. Find the three side strings on the far side of the neck.
9. Pluck one side string with the little finger of your right hand and listen.
10. Run one finger along the frets from the low end to the high end.
11. Count them. Feel the gaps narrowing as you climb.
12. Do this every day for a week, without playing anything.

What you should now be able to explain or do

Sit with the veena in the playing position and let go of it. Name the four playing strings by touch, in order. Find the side strings without looking. Say why the frets are closer together at the high end.

Check yourself