Canadian Musician - November/December 2020 | Page 39

ARAZ SALEK
ROB SIMMS ROY PATTERSON
CM : IF SOMEONE IS TRYING TO IN- CORPORATE THE SOUND OF MODAL MUSIC INTO THEIR PLAYING , WHAT IS THE FIRST STEP ?
SALEK : Most importantly , you need to listen to the music . Get an ear for it ; there is so much out there . If you want to play it , you need to have an instrument that can produce quarter-tones . Instruments like pianos and fretted guitars won ’ t work because there is no way to play the microtones in between the keys or frets . On the tar , I have frets , but they are actually moveable , so I will move them and tune the strings differently based on the makam I am playing .

Immediately following my conversation with Araz , I did what I imagine most guitar players in my position would do : a quick search to see how much a fretless guitar would cost me . I ’ ll save you some time – they ’ re not very easy to find , and the ones I could find are not cheap . Perhaps it ’ s time to pick up a new instrument …

What I found most interesting about my chat with Araz was his view on world music in Canada . It makes me wonder , how much of the “ world music ” I ’ ve heard is actually a simplified version of something deeper that has been altered to appeal to my western ears ?
One modal genre that I ’ m sure
I ’ ve heard unfiltered is classical Hindustani music . This is classical music from Northern India and Pakistan , where my dad was born . Growing up , I was exposed to my fair share of Hindustani music but it wasn ’ t until recently that I started to really appreciate it and view it as my own musical heritage . I felt obligated to learn more about it and that ’ s what I did . Two years ago , I started studying the Music of India at York University and this was the first time I was exposed to the inner workings of non-western modal music .
In many Hindustani genres , like my favourite , the dhrupad , a piece starts with a section called the alap . You could call it the intro , but in real-
CANADIAN MUSICIAN 39