next to his residence in Mysore. He had cooks and servants dedicated to meeting the needs of his guests. He always took care of his personal chores himself and would get really upset if he found any of his students folding his clothes, etc. He also introduced his disciples to almost all famous musicians of his times and he insisted that, they learn the many nuances of the art of music from them. On his concert tours, he would always take select disciples and gave them additional opportunities to meet the giants of music, and interact with them. He was in great demand and used to be on concert engagements most of the time. After each concert where he accompanied the great masters, he would sit with his disciples, review the concerts and demonstrate the salient points by singing. Whenever his disciples accompanied him on his concert tours, he would make sure that his students were well taken care of, and would work with sabhas to arrange the concerts of his disciples ahead of main concerts and accompany his disciples on violin. The respect and support he received in Tamil Nadu was amazing. The hotel proprietor's in many cities and states would invite him and his disciples and host them free of cost. The top officials and leaders of the town would compete with each other to extend him a warm welcome and request him to stay at their homes. Crowds would swell on the news of Chowdiah arriving in town. Such was Chowdiah's reputation; he had captured the hearts and minds of both ordinary listeners and knowledgeable artists and connoisseurs of carnatic music. Seven-stringed violin In his early years, he played the four stringed violin, and by 1927 he became an extremely well known violin accompanist. Those were the days when there was no sound amplification equipment and it was rather difficult for listeners who sat in the back rows of music halls to hear him playing the violin. Chowdiah realised this shortcoming and launched upon increasing the sound of the violin. He improvised the violin by adding three more strings such as Tara Shadja – Mandra Shadja, Madhya Panchama – Mandra Panchama and Madhya Shadja Mandra Shadja. After practising incessantly, he began to use this new seven stringed violin in all his concerts. He experimented, innovated and practised to achieve perfection, all without the knowledge of his Guru