George Howlett is a London-based musician and writer. I focus (loosely) on jazz, rhythm, and global improvisation, drawing on my study of guitar, sitar, santoor, tabla, & more. Above all I seek to enthuse fellow sonic searchers, connecting fresh vibrations to the voices, cultures, and passions behind them.
• Writings | Lessons | Sounds •
“An intrepid guitar researcher…”
• ‘Double-siding’ in DADGAD: a DIY capo-harp hack •
Projects: I‘ve worked as a raga musicologist for Darbar, and written articles for Jazzwise, The Wire, and JazzFM on topics from Coltrane and Hendrix to West African polyrhythm and animal musical capabilities. I also teach online, and create sounds as Rāga Junglism. See my site for more!
• The ‘World of Tuning’ •
Exploring how we can get the most out of our peg-twisting rituals, examining tuning horizons from multiple musical angles: practical, harmonic, historic, social, scientific, spiritual, and so forth…
Menu of Tunings (100+) • Altered-tuned artists • Divine Indian drones • Global instrument tunings • Joni’s stringed canvas • Alpha-melodic word-games • Double-siding: capo-harp hacks • Tales & quotes • Megatable: hidden relations • Glossary: tuning terms • Feedback
“There’s perhaps no better guide to alternate tunings than George Howlett’s ‘World Of Tuning’: with its compendium of 100 tunings, each helpfully accompanied by recorded samples, details on the intervallic relationships between strings, and bios of the guitarists who invented or popularised them…” (The Wire: Unofficial Channels, Aug 2022)
• Other Projects •
- ‘Living Traditions’: 21 articles for 21st-century Indian classical – in-depth Darbar collection exploring how music with ancient roots is adapting to a modern, interconnected world
- ‘Fresh Repertoire’: Guitar World series – new perspectives on the fretboard inspired by music from around the globe: Saharan harps, Ewe polyrhythm, Javanese microtonality, etc
- Hindustani Raga Index – an open-ended megaproject seeking to bring North Indian raga closer to all who approach with open ears. Combines direct input from dozens of leading artists with in-depth insights from music history, global theory, performance practice, cognitive science, and more! [out 2023-24]
[MORE TO FOLLOW]
Like everything on my site, the Raga Index will always remain 100% open-access and ad-free: however, anti-corporate musicology doesn’t pay the bills! I put as much into this project as time and finances allow – so, if you like these resources, you can:
• Support the Raga Index! •
…and hasten the project’s expansion…
—Riyaz-focused notations & bandish—
—Resurrecting rare and ancient ragas—
—Further melodic & geometric analysis—
—Engaging with Hindustani performers—
—Ensuring that high-quality raga knowledge will remain open to all, at no cost: free from commercial motive!—
- No Kanjira (with Jesse Bannister) – guitar, sax, samples:
• Articles •
- Shahid Parvez interview: ‘What you play spontaneously should be perfect’ – discussing intuition, bounded innovation, and hyper-discipline with the world’s leading sitarist (Darbar)
- What is it about drummers? Rock mythology vs. tales of the tabla – why have disparate societies of the East and West built such similar stereotypes around their percussionists? (RJ)
• LESSONS •
- West African music for the fretboard – reworking Ewe polyrhythms and Malian kora harps, and learning about the human lives, routines, and cultures behind them (Guitar World)
- Jazz walking basslines: making them really groove – turning to the low end for harmonic-melodic inspiration, and adapting some ‘bassistic’ inflections for soloing (Guitar World)
