Am I capturing the essence of the raga?

[u/halius_balius]

https://youtu.be/xxhcsGKgoV0?is=kbfQStA6Y5LyNa8n

Anyone here adapt ragas to the clarinet?

I have recently found a love for Indian classical music and have been trying to learn the theory and music, but on western instruments.

I’m a beginner at playing clarinet and Indian classical music so I’m wondering what people think of this, if it is recognisable as a raag or if it is not quite. Any advice is highly appreciated.

I’ve heard some incredible raga clarinet playing on youtube by the likes of Ram Krishna which has been one of my main inspirations.

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[u/-thinker-527]

You can also look up kadri gopalnath. He was a really popular carnatic saxophonist.

[u/halius_balius → u/-thinker-527]

Yes! I love his music. It’s actually nice to play along with too because he often uses Bb as his shruti pitch on alto sax which is easy to transcribe to Clarinet.

[u/Much-Recording4282]

Recognisable to me (a noob), has elements of the raag for sure.  That is to say, if one were to play this with no additional info, I'd be thinking "why does this Jazz music sound so much like raag Malkouns". Loved listening to it!

What might missing for me is the sense of seriousness/devotion/stillness that Malkouns generally (but not compulsorily) brings

[u/halius_balius → u/Much-Recording4282]

Thanks for the feedback!

To capture better the stillness/devotion/seriousness what would you recommend focusing on? Is it the tone of the instrument, or maybe the melodies im using/not using, the speed/tempo or maybe the ornaments/gamakas?

[u/Bilbo_bagginses_feet]

I liked your rendition, amazing effort!

Just a few things I'll point out: Try not to use major 7th note (Shuddha Ni) it goes against the grammar and experience of malkauns.

You could incorporate more meend (glide) and gamakas, instead of just shifting notes up and down. I'd suggest you to listen to some dhrupad and flute renditions in malkauns, that should give you more ammo to approach and treat this specific Raag.

Also not a very urgent suggestion for you rn, as your just starting to get into indian classical music, but I noticed a thing that your 4th major note (Madhyam) was little sharper for this raag. Though this is a very advanced concept and comes through a lot of experience, with practice you shall learn the application of different shrutis (microtones) for different raagas.

Overall amazing rendition, I enjoyed it. Keep up the good work!