Folk tunes
One tune written out in full, some studies in the idiom, and a list of the songs worth learning by ear — which is how this repertoire has always been passed on.
Why so little of it is written down
The Gandharba tradition has no notation. Songs were carried by memory, taught by a father to a son on the road, and changed as they travelled — which means there is no authoritative version of most of these tunes. A song sounds one way in Gorkha and another in Baglung and both are right.
So treat everything on this page as one version, useful for getting the shape into your hands. Then go and listen, and play what you hear instead. Where to listen.
Resham Firiri
रेशम फिरिरी — the most widely known Nepali song there is, and the right first tune for almost anyone. It sits in a major pentatonic — Sa Re Ga Pa Dha, no Ma and no Ni — which means five notes, all of them consonant against the drone, and nothing to trip over. It goes in Kaharwa, eight beats.
The refrain
Eight beats of Kaharwa, written in half-beats so you can see where the two quick notes fall — sixteen chips, one per half-beat. A faded dash is the previous note still sounding.
The answering phrase
Starts high, works down and settles on Sa. Together with the refrain that is the whole tune — the verses reuse both halves.
Set the metronome to 8 beats, or leave the madal room's Resham feel running in another tab and play over it.
Studies in the idiom
These are not transcriptions of anything. They are short phrases built from the moves that recur across the repertoire, so that the shapes are in your hands before you try to catch a real tune by ear.
1 · The pentatonic frame
Sa Re Ga Pa Dha and back. An enormous amount of Nepali folk melody never leaves these five notes, and going up and coming down with a rest at the top is the commonest shape of all.
2 · Starting in the middle
Folk tunes very often begin on Ga or Pa rather than on Sa, rise a little, and only find Sa at the end. That delayed arrival is most of why the last note feels like an arrival.
3 · Down into the low string
Descending below Sa and onto the thick string. The bow has to cross somewhere in the middle; find where and hide it. How.
4 · The same shape, sung
Every note after the first reached by sliding, on one bow. This is the difference between playing the notes of a folk song and playing the song. Meend.
5 · The minor colour
Not everything is bright. Flatten Ga and the same shape turns plaintive — the flavour of the Malashree melodies played at Dashain, and of a good deal of the sadder Gandharba repertoire.
Songs worth learning by ear
These are the tunes a Nepali audience knows. Find recordings, slow them down and copy them phrase by phrase — the traditional method, and still the best one for music with no score.
| Song | Who | Listen for |
|---|---|---|
| Aamaale Sodhlin आमाले सोध्लिन् |
Jhalak Man Gandarbha | The sarangi answering the voice line for line, which is the Gandharba manner in its purest form |
| Resham Firiri रेशम फिरिरी |
Traditional | How little the tune uses, and how much the rhythm carries |
| Kanchi Matyang Tyang | Magar Gaine Nepali | Dance energy in the bow; short repeated phrases |
| Sani Sani | Magar Gaine Nepali | The same composer in a gentler mood |
| Phool Ko Thunga फूलको थुँगा |
Traditional / widely covered | Long sliding lines — a meend study disguised as a song |
| Kusume Rumal | Film song, widely covered | A melody that goes higher than folk tunes usually do |
| Malashree dhun | Traditional, Dashain | The flattened notes, and how a festival tune can be melancholy |
| Sim Sime Pani | Traditional | Jhyaure lilt at a walking pace |
How to learn a tune by ear
- Sing it first, all the way through, without the instrument. If you cannot sing it you do not know it yet.
- Find the tonic. Hum along and find the note the tune keeps coming home to. Set that as your Sa in the practice bar.
- Take four notes. Not a phrase — four notes. Get them exactly, against the drone.
- Add the next four. Then join them.
- Then listen for what is not the notes — where the singer slides, where they lean early, which notes they let go of. That is the part that makes it the song rather than the melody.