George Howlett is a London-based musician and writer. I (mostly) focus 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 explorer…”
(Guitar World magazine)
(Currently accepting Zoom students! Book in a free taster session)
• Showreel | Rāga Junglism •
See more raga-guitar on my Instagram
Past: 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!
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• 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
- 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’
- Golden-Age Hip-Hop on Guitar: Fretboard arrangements of classic golden-age loops: also exploring the samples from jazz, funk, soul, & beyond (Dilla, ATCQ, Eric Dolphy, etc)
- ‘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?)
- 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
• Featured in •
The resources on this site have been published in or used by…
- Guitar World magazine: Interviewed me & published my article series on translating global music to the guitar
- The Wire magazine: Interviewed me on my tuning research & published my rundown of Bristol’s Indian music scene
- Darbar Festival: Released my Living Traditions essays along with assorted other writings (I worked there from 2018-21)
- Ian Ring’s All the Scales: Used my Raga Index to match 200+ scales to raga congruents for the web’s leading scale database
- Ultimate Guitar: Profiled my research into global guitar tunings (“the exhaustive guide intends to explore how we can rethink our peg-twisting rituals”)
- Bandcamp Daily: Referenced my research into the Congolese tunings of Zacharie ‘Jhimmy the Hawaiian’ Elenga
- Stuart Hinds: Overtonal vocalist who used my chalans as the basis for his fantastic 2025 album Colors of the Melody
- Wooden Books: Published my chapter on Carnatic talam in Julian Gerstin’s superb 2025 book Rhythm: Pattern in Time
- Huygens-Fokker Foundation: Leading research centre for microtonal music, referenced my sruti analysis
- Ashish Dha: Extensive collaborations, e.g. on his forthcoming raga–scale analysis tables (see Ragatable)
- Nick Clark: Translated my elaboration of the ‘32 thaat’ into Western terms as part of his scale combinatorics research
- Soorbodh: Chintan Pandya’s real-time, on-screen swara transcription tool, featuring my tanpura samples
- Remo Scano: Fellow Benares sitarist who featured my Masterlist of 1000+ Ragas research on his raga site
- SG Talageri: Scale analysis based on my raga listings, also wrote a lengthy critique of my capitalisation choices for the madhyam swara (“really incredibly great work on Indian musical scales…”)
- Sevish: Microtonal composition pioneer who expanded on my analysis of the Zigzag Thirds tuning systems for his website on the quarter-tonal ‘Neutral Thirds‘ tuning system
- Barbican & Southbank Centres: Content used to create audience programmes for various global concerts at two of London’s leading cultural venues
- New ragas: My raga research has directly catalysed the creation of new Hindustani forms including Chandni Todi, Abhogi Kauns, and Ardhanarishvara (also see Audav Meladalan)
- Jalsa Ghar: Turned various tales from my raga research into bitesize video formats (e.g. Kedar, Chandranandan), and reviewed my Raga Index (“whoever is a student of Indian classical ragas, or a lover of music in general: I would highly, highly recommend the Rāga Junglism website…”)
Academic citations:
- Chandran et al (2025): Spatial Exploration of Melodic Topologies in ICM Using XR (3D mappings of my chalans and swara wheels)
- Radhika, Arya (2025): Swarlipi: An Exploration in Devanagari Typography, Hindustani Music, and Emotional Expression (rasas)
- Wang, Huanwen Wendy (2025): The Jack Pine and Four Other Solo Piano Works Composed by Five Canadian Women in the Twenty-First Century (Raag Darbari)
- Seow, Eugene (2024): Aural skills in undergraduate music using world music concepts: A Narrative Inquiry (Ewe polyrhythm)
- Dewari et al (2024): Soulful rhythm, dancing bodies: A review on spirituality, pain tolerance, and the risk of lower extremity musculoskeletal and back injuries among classical Kathak dancers of India (Akram Khan interview)
- Adams, Ashley (2023) Seeing the World Through Song: The Pedagogical Applications of World Folk Traditions (Raag Jog)
- Patra, Umasankar (2021): Elements of Literature: A reflective analysis of cathartic relief through Kun Faya Kun (Raag Darbari)
- Jonsson, Linnea (2021): A study on combining improvisational practice with trumpet methodology (tanpuras) [in Swedish]
• La Danse De Bonheur (Shakti) •
—Guitar Resources—
• Fresh Repertoire: global guitar •
• World of Tuning: peg-twisting •
—Indian Classical Music—
• Raga Index: Hindustani horizons •
• Darbar: Outreach musicology •
• Ragatip: South Asian sonic tales •
—Other Writings—
• Reviews: London happenings •
• Odds & ends: other explorations •
• Non-musicals: activism & more •
—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 •
• Instruments: Singing sculptures •
• Masterlist: 1000+ ragas profiled •
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…”
—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)
(see my full list of Writings & Projects)
