Govinda Marar (1798 – 1843), more famously known as Shadkala Govinda Marar was a Carnatic (South Indian Classical) singer from Ernakulam (DT), Kerala, INDIA. He was a contemporary of Saint Thyagaraja Swamikal (the legendary singer, poet and Music composer) and Swathy Thirunal Rama Varma Raja (King of erstwhile Travacore in Kerala, singer, poet and Music Composer). He was also adept in playing musical instruments like Mridangam, Chenda, Edakka and Thimila in any odd timing. His expertise in singing in six degrees of speed (around 32 notes per second) earned him the title ShadKaala (shadkaala= 32nd notes; Demi Semi Quaver speed) 

Govinda Marar was born in 1798 in Ramamangalam village in Kerala. His parents belonged to community of Marars (They are considered to be experts in Temple percussion instruments) and performed traditional singing in the temples of Kerala. He took to singing from a very early age. He received his musical lessons from Haripad Ramaswamy Bhagavathar.

He is said to have used a Tamburu having seven strings (conventional Tamburu has only four strings even now). At the age of 21, he left his home to begin a life for Music and was wandering. He is believed to have sung in many important temples in India.

However, he desired to meet the legendary Singer Saint Thayaga Raja Swamikal, who was residing in the state of Tamilnadu. But he was laughed at by Musicians including the Disciples (Great Professional Musicians) of Thyagaraja Swamikal.  But when the Saint heard that somebody has come to meet him, he called him inside and requested him to sing a song for him. Then he sang a Classical song, improvised the Swaras (notes) and reached the highest speed.  Then the Saint saluted him and composed his famous song then and there in “Sree Ragam”. The song named “Endoru Mahaanu” has deepest meaning in it….that “….there are so many GREAT SOULS in the World in different fields and I salute all those people……” This song is sung every year, even now, on his birthday in different parts of India by musicians, all sitting together (irrespective of professionals and others) as a tribute to him.

 After leading the life of a wandering for a long time, he reached the temple of Panduranga (Pandharpur in Maharashtra).   He was revered as Paramahamsa Govinda Das. The temple records note that he attained Samadhi (died) in 1843

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Many people write to me that playing fast Bass is not Music. But the aforesaid facts reveal that Musicians used to attempt to sing and play notes at higher pace even centuries before.  So I believe that there is nothing wrong in playing Music at Higher pace, and there is meaning in it….though Music is not playing fast alone… But I always love to Groove than playing fast.

Jayen Varma, Bassist

Slap Bass-The evolution

Many changes occurred in making and playing the instrument Bass Guitar during the last century. Slapping the bass is considered to have begun in the 1920s on the Double Bass. On double bass it refers to the technique which is a more vigorous version of pizzicato, where the strings are plucked so hard that when released it bounces off the finger board, making a distinctive sound. A percussive sound is also made by smacking the strings with all four fingers of the right hand.

On electric bass guitar

“Slap bass” is referred to percussive playing technique in electric bass as well, that the style sounds and looks percussive rather than the usual fingering of notes. Slap bass is more technically called “slaps” and “pops”. In the slaps, the bassist uses the bone of the thumb joint to strike the lower strings near the base of the guitar’s neck. In the pops, the bassist uses the index and middle fingers of the plucking hand to snap the higher-pitched strings away from the body of the bass, causing them to bounce off the fret board; this produces a prominent buzzing tone with a sharp attack and more high-frequency vibrations than in plucked bass.

Innovations

Double Bass player, Bill Johnson is considered by many as the father of slap bass. The methods developed by Larry Graham are nowadays practiced by a majority of bass players around the globe. Some bassists use fingers instead of the thumb to do slapping. Abraham Laboriel, Sr. has a different technique of using the thumb to pop the strings while his other four fingers slap the strings. Bassist Victor Wooten uses a double thumb technique, where he slaps the string when the thumb goes downward and pops when it goes upward. This gives him extra speed to play to sound it like a drum roll on the bass guitar. Tony Levin created a similar drumming sound by using a hard surface on the fingers to strike the strings which was named Funk Fingers. Funk Fingers are kind of small drum sticks strapped to fingers. To get a metal slap tone, bassists usually use their nails to hit the strings. Doug Wimbish also plays slaps with his thumb and also other fingers.

Some of the electric and double bass players who are notable in slapping the bass are Bill Johnson, Pops Foster, Wellman Braud, Chester Zardis. Milt Hinton, Kim Nekroman, Scott Owen, Alcide Pavageau, Lee Rocker, Amy LaVere, Bootsy Collins, Louis Johnson, Jonas Hellborg, Marcus Miller, Stuart Hamn, Les Claypool, Mark King, Kai Eckhardt, Mike Gordon, Flea, Stanley Clarke, Fieldy, Melvin Davis and the list goes on and on. A close watch of these bass players reveals that each and everyone has very distinctive styles. Similarly, every musician whether he is professional or amateur has his distinctive methods and techniques hidden inside. What matters is to develop it with proper training and self motivation.

Applications

Since the acceptance of electric bass guitar in Jazz Music and subsequent revised applications of the technique since 1940′s, slap bass has been increasingly attracting music lovers all over the World. When funk music became more popular, slap bass has been subjected to various experimental playing techniques. Slapping is applied in most of the music genres since the 1960’s especially in funk, disco, jazz, pop and world music fusion

During the changes in the music of the West, fusion music was silently having its own innovations. One of the inevitable instruments of India for fusion music has been Tabla. Bass players succeeded in blending the slap bass with Indian percussion instruments due to the similarity in the slap tones and sound of tabla. Jonas Hellborg and Kai Eckhardt adapted a different approach to the slap to blend it with Indian Classical music.

Tabla Style technique and Jayen Varma

Even from the beginning of Jayen’s bass playing career in 1986, he found the tabla/mridangam style more convenient for him than the usual slap method, because of the training he had in the Indian percussion instrument mridangam. In the early 1990s, when he could not get a slap tone due to inefficient pick ups and guitars available at that time, he was forced to use hard plastic pipe pieces on the fore finger and middle finger to get the tone while playing like a tabla. For him that was successes as far as tones were concerned, but the playability was poor. In those days the music genres he used to play in bands did not require slap bass, so he had to keep that idea aside after experimenting for few years. In the early days he did not have enough access to the world outside India, but in one of the videos of the great Abraham Laboriel, Jayen heard him say, and he is paraphrasing, that what is important is the sound that is produced and not necessarily how the bass is played.  Those words lit the fire inside him; therefore he decided to move ahead with the unconventional style. Later on he was also encouraged by the words of some of the greatest names in the bass world; Jeff Berlin, Bootsy Collins etc.

The technique

Indian Slap Bass is playing the Bass Guitar just like the Indian classical percussion instruments tabla or Mridangam or Kanjira. It is played by hitting the string with the index finger first and hitting the string with middle and ring fingers held close together. This is not at all complicated because strings are hit like two drum sticks: One stick is the index finger and the other stick is the middle and ring fingers held close together.

Jayen has been experimenting and promoting this method single handedly for years and it has many fans across the World now. Many young bassists are willing to learn it. Jayen feels that if someone practices this technique for one year, he will be able to do it well.

He feels that it works perfectly not only with funk, jazz, blues or rock, but with heavy metal also. Since the two fingers can distinctly produce clear 16th notes on the same string, it fits with metal music. It can also be blended beautifully with Indian classical music. He is confident that the next generation of musicians will find the potential in its application in future music to come.

Plans for the future

His intention is to popularize ‘Indian Slap Bass’ across the World. There are so many good bass players in India. But the majority of people still have to become familiar with the instrument Bass Guitar, which makes his task challenging. So his task also includes popularization of bass guitar in India among the masses.

Michael.M

Article courtesy- Jayen Varma

http://www.jayenvarma.net