My Indian classical music journey

  As a compilation of my learning, I performed what I had learnt in Indian Classical music and recorded them. This marked the end of my training and I could now confidentially play the three instruments and Indian classical music.  A little about Raag Bhoopali: Raag Bhoopali, also spelled Bhupali is an Indian classical music piece which is usually taught to beginners learning Indian classical music. It only consists of five notes from the sargam (all excluding "ma" and "ni").  Piano: I played raag Bhoopali on the piano at Indxx's annual celebration 2020. Where Mr.  Rakesh Chaurasia  was chief guest and around fifty people were a part of the audience.  Harmonium:  I played Raag Bhoopali on the harmonium along with the flute with my teacher in his classroom. Tanpura: I sat down with my teacher's father, Mr.  Harsh Wardhan (who introduced my teacher to music) and played the tanpura alongside his flute.  Below attached are videos of me playing t...

  Practicing accompanying the flute is something that was an ongoing step throughout the project. This is because after every step, I practiced with the flute as well because I knew that this was what my final video was going to have. Plus I had to keep the practice as I had to perform in front of a live audience as well on the annual day s. T hese images are just a few examples of my practice. The first one (left) is when I was practicing the harmonium with the flute for the first time. This was also the first day I learnt raag Bhoopali, and practicing it on that day itself gave me a benchmark to understand how much practice I will need. The second image (right) is a dress rehearsal that Indxx conducted before the final celebration, this practice allowed me to understand both the setting and structure of the show, which helped boost my confidence and play to the best of my ability on the final day. The last image is a picture of me practicing raag bhoopali before the final recordi...

Learning the sargam: To play an Indian classical piece, I had to first understand the notes and the Sargam in that style, for that my teacher gave me a sheet of paper with the Sargam and another printed sheet with the notes for raag Bhoopali. Even though this took me around an hour and a half to fully understand because I wasn’t used to such types of music notations, when I got the hang of it I was able to play the raag easily on the piano as I am familiar with that instrument. The only challenging part was the first phase of understanding and getting used to such notations. First time playing the harmonium: On the other hand, while playing the same on the harmonium would sound easy, it wasn’t. I started off by re-doing the sargam once again on the harmonium so that my hand was used to the keys, but around 5-7 minutes of playing later my left hand, which is supposed to pump air into the instrument from the back started to hurt and I took a break for some time and played the piano. This...

  Strumming the Tanpura requires patience, concentration and a sense of rhythm. The same four strings have to be repeatedly strummed at the same pace over and over again. A little bit of timing fault can result in disruption of the melody.  Personally, the first time strumming the tanpura was pretty hard and painful as I was not used to strumming anything at all. But instead was used to pressing keys on the piano which doesn't really hurt the fingers. However in around 30 minutes of playing, I got the hang of it and could do it easily. But i still had to work on my timing and posture. The second day of me strumming the tanpura was much easier than the first as my hand had gotten used to the strumming and the practice really helped. Below is a video showing my progress. My teacher then told me that since I already play the Piano, learning the harmonium is a good idea and I should also do that. Which is what I will be doing as well now and will talk about it in my later blogs. ...

  Holding the Tanpura for the first time sure does sound easy, however its quite complicated in real life. At first I thought that learning how to hold it wouldn't take must time but it did.  How to hold it: Your dominant hand, (right hand for me) should be strumming right at the middle of the neck for the perfect sound and aura, the other hand can either be resting separately or under the Tanpura for support, your back has to be straight and you have to look presentable while holding it and sit in a criss cross position.    My teacher who also happens to be my mother’s cousin, told me on the first day that there are mainly two types of tanpuras, a small one and a big one, the big one is rarely played nowadays as it is harder to carry so learning the smaller one made more sense. He also showed me the parts of the tanpura such as the beads and threads (as seen in the above image) and also showed me how he tunes the instrument with the help of it. He also told me ...

  I mostly play western or exam pieces on the piano, Bollywood songs are something that I've never really tried because most of them are such that they cannot be played on the piano alone. But now I've decided to learn and play both styles of songs and compare them. I will be dividing them into two sets, one & two and three & four. This will not only show my progress but will also allow me to have a variety of songs in both categories.  Below is set one, for this day, I played the Kuch Kuch Hota Hai theme music for the Bollywood song and My heart will go on by Celine Dione from the movie Titanic (theme). These two songs are old but super popular, which is why I put them together on one day in one video, comparing the two, I feel like I was more comfortable playing the titanic theme and was just feeling that song more if that makes sense. Also I was able to play the titanic theme for a much longer time compared to the Kuch Kuch Hota Hai theme without getting very repeti...

  There are mainly 3 parts of a tanpura, the top, middle and bottom. These three parts are then further divided into multiple other parts.  The picture below is a labeled image showing different parts of the tanpura, I will further be explaining what these parts are and why they are important as well. About the parts: Tuning pegs-  - There are 4 tunings pegs of a 4 string tanpura, and they help in tuning the strings to get the desired sound. - When rotated, these pegs either tighten or loosen the strings, and which then creates the sound of the required single note (each string is a different note). Dand-  - It is also known at the neck of the tanpura, when playing the tanpura one is supposed to strum from the middle of the dand to get the perfect aura.  - It is the longest part of the tanpura. Strings- - Tanpuras can either have 6 strings or 4, however four strings are much more commonly used. - Each of these strings play a different note from the sargam  ...

  A tanpura is an instrument majorly used in all forms of Indian classical music. Whether it be singing, tabla or flute, the tanpura is a must use. The tanpura doesn't create a melody in itself so it cannot be played separately but it helps the musicians to find their melody.  What it does: The tanpura produces the base note of the melody, also known as the 'adharaswara' . Each string of the tanpura are different notes and have to e tuned frequently. These notes create an aesthetic ambience in the atmosphere of the room.  How does it work? The tanpura is a string instrument with a hollow body and it creates sound when the strings are plucked. It is polished by hand and made from Spanish Cedar (tun wood), which according to multiple sources is the best material to use. Organizer: below is a graphical organizer that sums up points included in the above blog, making it more concise.