B-E-B-E-B-E

• OVERVIEW •

Distinctive drone used prominently on the acoustic by Nick Drake – and on the electric by ‘Guitar’ Prasanna, a South Indian virtuoso acclaimed for playing Carnatic classical ragas on his Epiphone (in Guthrie Govan’s words, “If you don’t know about Prasanna, prepare to be terrified…”).

 

Highly versatile despite offering only two notes, with a wide range and clear, logical geometry. There’s a marked ‘tension gradient’ from low to high unless you restring – in fact, the uber-slackness of the deep interval stack can even add some Indian tanpura-style buzz (hear the open tones as representing a 5th either up or down: i.e. ‘5-1-5-1-5-1’ or ‘1-4-1-4-1-4’ – which resemble, respectively, the tanpura’s common Sa-Pa and Sa-ma tunings).

Pattern: 5>7>5>7>5

Harmony: E5 | 5-1-5-1-5-1

• TUNING TONES •

• SOUNDS •

South India’s melodies tend to move ‘stepwise’: i.e. avoiding too many wide interval jumps, going in ‘neighbour-by-neighbour’ fashion instead. In Prasanna’s words, the tuning keeps scalar-style playing “self-contained within the first few frets…many scales become symmetrical…and you can play gamakas [rapid ornaments] in three octaves”.

 

It also provides a handy jam match for the Carnatic violin. South India’s sliding fiddle, present in the Subcontinent since the 17th century (i.e. before the birth of J.S. Bach), is commonly slackened to E-B-E-B (vs. the European G-D-A-E: also see Norway’s hardingfele, which sets dozens of different tunings across a curiously Indian-style layer of ‘drone strings’).

 

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• Carnatic tuning demo – Guitar Prasanna (2017):

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“[As] a teenager I was playing a Carnatic concert one day, playing with a metal band the other day, and playing jazz fusion with another band – and composing so much music, combining all of these…I just felt like a child, playing with many different toys…And I thought, ‘maybe this is my calling’…I knew I had to devote all my time to music…” (Guitar Prasanna)

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In Carnatic music – i.e. South India’s classical raga traditions – melody reigns supreme. Musicians learn their art by internalising thousands of them, building up a vast shared vocabulary of songs, shapes, and intricate microtonal ornaments (see my Carnatic Primer article for a ‘no-prior-knowledge’ taster). As ever, the sounds themselves are the best intro – watch Aruna Sairam sing Kalinga Nartana Thillana at Darbar 2016 (featuring me…in the crowd).

 

Based on mythical poetry from the 6th century, the composition recounts Lord Krishna’s legendary battle with Kaliya, a fearsome five-headed snake who boiled the waters of the Yamuna River around them as they fought. Sairam uses rhythmic vocalisations to depict Krishna’s martial dance, hissing in imitation of the serpent and timing each syllable to perfection. Carnatic music, while mystical, is intensely playful too…

 

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• Kalinga Nartana Thillana – Aruna Sairam (2016):

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“In contrast to the structured approaches of the West, Carnatic music theory is a loosely delimited phenomenon. It is not just about sitting down to study ragam rules and rhythm formulas. For a dedicated musician, learning is an entire mode of existence, inclusive of everything from technical aptitude to the way they walk to the instrument and clear their mind before a performance. After all, no aspect of living seems irrelevant to an artist who seeks to give their whole being to their craft. Music theory, seen this way, can encompass all of life…” (from my Carnatic Primer article for Darbar)

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British fingerpicker Nick Drake also used the same ‘B-E-B-E-B-E’ interval sequence at various transpositions – e.g. on From the Morning (cp.1), Time of No Reply (cp.3), Man in a Shed (cp.3), Harvest Breed (cp.4), At the Chime of a City Clock (cp.4), Northern Sky (cp.4), Fly (cp.4). I wonder what he’d have made (or did make) of Carnatic music?

 

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• At the Chime of a City Clock – Nick Drake (1971):

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“Hang on to your crown,

For a stone in a tin can,

Is wealth to the city man,

Who leaves his armor down…”

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• NUMBERS •

	6str	5str	4str	3str	2str	1str
Note	B	E	B	E	B	E
Alteration	-5	-5	-3	-3	0	0
Tension (%)	-44	-44	-29	-29	0	0
Freq. (Hz)	62	82	123	165	247	330
Pattern (>)	5	7	5	7	5	–
Semitones	0	5	12	17	24	29
Intervals	5	1	5	1	5	1

• See my Tunings Megatable for further such nerdery: more numbers, intervallic relations, comparative methods, etc. And to any genuine vibratory scientists reading: please critique my DIY analysis!

• RELATED •

—Associated tunings: proximities of shape, concept, context, etc…

• Zen Drone: another two-note, fifths-based Indian infusion
• Godzilla: wide acoustic layout with the same E-B-E high side
• Db Standard: turn down to open up slack melodic freedoms

• MORE INFO •

—Further learnings: sources, readings, lessons, other onward links…

• South Indian sounds: apart from my Darbar Carnatic Primer, also see [shameless plug alert:] my Carnatic articles on vocals, violin, amplification debates, and modern protest fusions – as well as a longform interview with Trichy Sankaran, elder statesman of the double-headed mridangam drum (“I constantly think of laya [rhythm]…I take my notebook to the doctor’s waiting room so that I can write new korvais [compositions], and always find that trains have their own particular rhythms…even the street noise can take on rhythmic qualities…”)
• Carnatic guitar tuning: learn more about Guitar Prasanna’s astonishing innovations on his official website – and also check out slide student and nuclear scientist Prabhakar Gundlapalli’s own tuning musings (“I was attending both the classes…Hawaiian guitar with [my] Hindustani music teacher…and veena for Carnatic music. This kind of switching was quite taxing on my little brain, as if I was…rebooting the operating system”. UPDATE: Gundlapalli kindly added some further context via Mar 2023 email: “As indicated, my journey started with Hindustani music, and tunings compatible with violin. Later on, this culminated with maintaing same tuning for guitar and veena simultaneously, smoothing the transition from one instrument to the other.”)

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Header image: Carnatic veena master D Srinivas (Darbar)