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Fresh notes

Meet Sajan Shenoy who plays the `pianica', an unusual instrument

PHOTO: N. SRIDHARAN

KEYS TO SUCCESS Shenoy

Sajan Shenoy is trying to build a musical edifice on the strength of a little known instrument. What he uses is a free-reed device that is fitted with a keyboard. While Sajan's fingers (on the left hand) move smoothly over the musical keys, his mouth is also at work, blowing air through a mouthpiece lodged at one end.

What comes out of the collaboration between the fingers and the mouth is the unmistakable tune of `Rim Jhim Gire Saawan.' This was one of the three songs Sajan played on what is called the pianica for the HMV bosses during a business chat. This meeting led to the album, `Rhythmic Tunes On The Pianica', which contains popular Hindi songs.Sajan has superimposed his tunes on tracks or carefully crafted arrangements. He seems bent on popularising the pianica. He found one by chance during a professional visit to Singapore with his light music troupe (Blue Boys). A Yamaha brand, pianica is actually one of the free-reed instruments that come under the melodica family. In fact, melodica was the name of a product brought out by Hohner. Once minor changes in build and output are allowed for, variations exist only in the names — what Hohner calls the melodica, Yamaha calls the pianica. Suzuki calls the same melodion. For Samick, it is melodihorn and Silvertone chooses to call its version, orgamonica.

Sajan has been using the pianica in all his programmes, since the time he discovered it. At first, some time was devoted to the pianica. Later, he began to give exclusive pianica programmes. In time, he started to experiment a lot with the instrument, and managed to coax classical tunes out of it. Because of this ability, he was featured in "Geetam Sangeetam", a music programme on Raj TV.

Sajan hopes to collect different models and various versions of the pianica. He already owns 32-key and 37-key pianicas and a three-octave melodion.

PRINCE FREDERICK

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