for students and lovers of Carnatic music
Listen to these exercises by Kalaimamani Sri TR Sundaresan before reading on for more details. Think of each exercise as “karaoke”: simply pronounce all the syllables yourself as you listen, and fill in the pauses the teacher has left for you within each lesson. Repeat often to enter and enjoy the very “flow” which binds … Read more
Raga, Tala and Pedagogy: On the First Steps in Carnatic Music by Jeremy Woodruff The system by which any music is taught is the key to what is preserved, and how, in a musical tradition. I chose to research the basics of instruction in South India,both as an entry point for some practical knowledge on … Read more
A tala trainer for self-study by Kalaimamani TR Sundaresan (voice & lessons) & Ludwig Pesch (talam cymbals & concept) Tips for self-study For some of the basic lessons your tutor provides pauses to be filled by participants while the accompaniment of cymbals and claps continues. This is followed by yet another repetition by the tutor. … Read more
Mridanga Vidvan T.R. Sundaresan guides you along as you read and listen. Simply pronounce the syllables of each lesson – straight from the page >> Instrumental Music, pp. 105 (percussion) Tala and Rhythm, pp. 204
At first, this question seems easy to answer: just watch performers from either strand of Indian music and you’ll know Which is Which, merely going by the instruments in use, or how they dress and watching the body language involved: harmonium or sarangi vs. violin for melodic accompaniment for most vocal recitals, and tabla drums … Read more
Kapila & Sushruta, sons and disciples of Sreevidhya Chandramouli, perform “Sarasiruhasana” (Nata raga, Adi tala); a kriti composed by Puliyur Doresvami. Recorded on the occasion of Dhvani’s Carnatic Composers’ Day 2012
Dr. Srinivasa Ayya Srinivasan, a dear friend of ours, and an Indologist at University of Hamburg, Germany, passed away on May 2nd, 2019. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Pia Srinivasan, who was a student of late Rajeswari Padmanabhan. We pay homage to his great soul with a few of his favorite compositions … Read more
Swipe to view all the 16 slides in order to understand how 12 svara positions are distributed across the 72 melas. To learn more, read the following explanations and view another slide series >> Source © Ludwig Pesch | Creative Commons License >> A scale – mēla in Carnatic or thāt in Hindustani music – … Read more
Ludwig Pesch (1955) is a German-born musicologist, educator and musician. Interested in “other” ways of teaching and sharing music, he completed his Diploma Course in Carnatic Music (First Class) at Kalakshetra after serving as church organist and studying music and musicology in Freiburg (Germany). He specialized in playing the bamboo flute under the guidance of Ramachandra Shastry (1906-92) – musical heir to … Read more