Alap and gat in DADGAD (Yaman mode)
Note after Note · Level 5 (Advanced) · study · Guitar, sheet music and tablature
An original study in the spirit of the long modal pieces on Jack Rose’s Raag Manifestos (2004): in DADGAD tuning, an open D drone in the thumb and the mode of the Indian raga Yaman (D Lydian, with G♯). A slow introduction (alap), then a fast part in sixteenth notes (gat) that climbs to the 12th fret. It is not a transcription of Rose.
▶ Play this piece with the interactive score
How to practise it
- Listen first: the site plays it while the score scrolls.
- Wait mode: the score waits for you at every note, at your own pace.
- Tempo challenge: play in time, with a score and a map of the bars you got right.
- DADGAD: strings 6, 2 and 1 down a whole step. The G♯ (3rd string fret 1, 1st string fret 6) is the signature note of the Yaman mode: let it ring. Bars 5 to 11: the thumb strikes the open 6th string then the open 4th string on every beat; the sixteenths are mostly on the 1st string, alternating index and middle fingers.