Pitch Bend

Usage of Pitch Bend Wheel in Keyboards

Generally any form of music is composed with a mix of straight notes and bends. In particular, Carnatic music has a lot of bends and gamakas. To handle these bends, there is a facility available in most of the keyboards called the 'Pitch bend' wheel. In advanced keyboards like Korg, Rolland etc, the quality of the pitch bend wheel is high, and the range of the pitch bend can also be altered. But in normal keyboards like Casio CTK series, Yamaha PSR series, the quality of the pitch bend wheel is low, and we have to handle it very gently. Anyway we can use the pitch bend wheel to produce bends.

In the videos below, I have explained the use of pitch bend wheel.

Difference between a 'bend' and 'gamaka' :

A 'bend' is a one way connection from one note to another.

Example : M --> G  or N --> D. Bends are done slow or fast, depending on the requirement and timing of the phrase.

A 'gamaka' is a back and forth movement between 2 notes. 

Example : M --> G --> M --> G --> M --> G. Gamakas are also done slow or fast depending on the requirement and timing of the phrase.

There are some ragas in which most of the phrases are straight notes, with a little bends here and there. Eg., Mohanam, Hamdashwani, Revati

Some ragas are full of gamakas. Eg., Thodi, Bairavi, Varali

Bends and gamakas are advanced concepts of music, and should be learnt only after reaching a good level in timing concepts., and timing should not get disturbed because of a bend or a gamaka.