Khonoma lad invents indigenous stringed musical instrument

Our CorrespondentKohima, Oct. 20 (EMN): Thirty-one year old Atso Chase, a young self-taught musician from Khonoma Village who is a classical guitarist has developed an improvised three-stringed Naga folk instrument called ‘Gei-ü’. The name ‘Gei’ is derived from Tenyidie which means ‘to saw.’
Giving a brief background of the instrument ‘Gei-ü’ at a press conference at Fifa Cafe, Kohima on Friday, Chase said the resonant base of the instrument is carved out of bison horn and covered with animal hide.
‘Gei-ü’, he explained draws inspiration from our traditional instruments, whereby the base itself is an assemblage of a number of our age old instruments with flexibility to suit the wants and needs of the user which comprises of two bow strings and one plucking string.
In a concept note, it was stated that due to the readily available western instruments at our disposal, musicians including folk musicians opt for the convenient. Hence, the folk instruments are degraded as an opportune of the past whereby most of our instruments are victimised to a point of extinction.
With culture and traditions consistently evolving with the change of time, the young musician strongly felt the need to polish and upgrade the existing indigenous musical instruments. ‘Gei-ü’, he humbly opined is a small effort to keep up with the world while keeping ‘our identity’ intact – an improvised instrument for all culturally conscious musicians willing to explore.
Stressing on the importance of incorporating finer ideas to make our own instrument, Chase said this is his second attempt of trying to come with an improvised instrument and added that unlike the ‘Tati’ used by our forefathers, he said ‘Gei-ü’ blends well both with traditional and contemporary music.
When asked if he was planning for mass production, Chase said plans are on the pipeline if he gets any sponsorship from well wishers.
While encouraging everyone to try the instrument, Chase maintained that ‘Gei-ü’ is an instrument with a purpose to mark our identity in this fast changing world – an instrument that is not confined to a few tribes but the Nagas as a whole and that which is presentable and risk worthy in the global arena.
A self-taught musician who started playing music at a very young age, Chase graduated from Kohima College and has to his credit of performing at state, national and international platforms. He has also performed at the Indigenous Music Fest held in Dimapur, August Rush in Kohima and with Shiori Ohari from Japan at the 12th Global Youth Peace Fest 2017 at Chandigarh.
Chase also won the ‘Youth talented artist award’ and the ‘Indegenous Music Award’ in 2014.