George Howlett is a London-based musician and writer. I focus (loosely) on raga, jazz, 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 •
Recently: I’ve worked as a raga musicologist for Darbar, and written for Jazzwise, The Wire, and Guitar World on topics spanning Coltrane and Hendrix to microtonal tunings and animal musical capabilities. I also teach online, and create sounds as Rāga Junglism. See below for more on what I do!
• Selected Writings •
- Standard tuning (& a brief history of the guitar): Tracing the long-scale roots of EADGBE, spanning Mesopotamian grave harps and Baroque lutes to the advent of electrification
- Eb ‘Hendrix’ tuning (& reappraising Jimi’s life): Jimi Hendrix remains my all-time favourite guitarist: here’s a deeper look at his life, character, innovations, and sonic outlook
- ‘Alpha-melodics’: the hidden sounds of words: How are ‘alphabetic-melodic’ creation methods used around the world? Beautiful BAGDAD, crunchy CABbAGE, dissonant DECADE
- Joni Mitchell’s stringed canvas: Exploring her unique musico-visual approach to altered tuning and songwriting (…would a painter always begin with the same 6 basic colours?)
- Raag Chandranandan: A truly curious raga tale: hastily improvised to fill spare studio tape and soon forgotten by its creator, before rising to be hailed as a modern classic
- Raag Bilaskhani Todi: What do mythic fictions reveal about the nature of raga itself? Reappraising the role of Tansen-era tales in understanding North India’s most revered ‘funeral raga’
- Raag Parameshwari: Exploring the origins of a famous Ravi Shankar creation, which he invented by spontaneously rotating a scale dreamed up during a car journey in Bengal
- Raga Jargon: Hindustani musical glossary: Demystifying the core concepts of North Indian classical raga via analogies, etymologies, audio, video, diagrams, illustrations, & more
- 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?
- Up to 11: Spinal Tap’s hidden roots in jazz, J.S. Bach, and North Indian raga: A (seriously silly) meta-musicological thesis on the melodic and sociocultural genius of Nigel Tufnel
[All articles & projects]
—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 popularised them” (The Wire)
—Hindustani Raga Index—
Ragas, while truly mystical in nature, are often unnecessarily ‘over-mystified’. These resources unpack the phenomenon from multiple musical angles, going in-depth (and into new areas) while also building ‘from the ground up’ – with no prior knowledge assumed, and all terms defined. Start from anywhere…
• Search: Find your new favourite •
• Tags: Classifying the ragascape •
• Ragatable: Analytical connections •
• Glossary: Raga jargon demystified •
• Tanpuras: Divine overtonal drones •
• Quotes: Musings from raga artists •
• Murchanas: Swara-set rotations •
• Thaat: Bhakhande’s base scales •
• Talas: Hindustani rhythm cycles •
Sa | Re | Ga | Ma | Pa | Dha | Ni
• Megalist (365+ ragas) •
Ahir Bhairav | Antardhwani | Asavari | Bageshri | Basant Mukhari | Bhairav | Bhairavi | Bhimpalasi | Bhupali | Bihag | Bilaskhani Todi | Chandranandan | Charukeshi | Darbari | Desh | Durga | Gorakh Kalyan | Jhinjhoti | Jog | Jogkauns | Kafi | Kalavati | Kaunsi Kanada | Lalit | Malkauns | Marwa | Megh | Miyan ki Malhar | Multani | Parameshwari | Patdeep | Pilu | Poorvi | Puriya | Puriya Dhanashree | Shree | Tilak Kamod | Todi | Vachaspati | Yaman
“Raga: The melodic foundations of Indian classical music…To oversimplify, ragas function something like ‘mood recipes’, each presenting their own ‘ingredients’, such as core phrases, note hierarchies, ascending & descending lines, and ornamentations, as well as guidelines for how (and when) to blend them – alongside a wealth of cultural and spiritual associations…particular hours, seasons, or deities. Crucially, ragas are much more about aesthetics than theory, aimed foremost at summoning unique sets of sentiments and colours…”
• No Kanjira (guitar/samples/sax) •
• Electric loops + Hindustani ornaments •
[More sounds & videos]
