for students and lovers of Carnatic music
In Tanjore as a Seat of Music (pp. 420-426), S. Seetha explains the scope envisaged by Venkatamakhi when presenting his mela arrangement >> Venkatamakhi while justifying the derivation of 72 melakartas by permutation and combination interestingly remarks that countries are many with people having variety of tastes and it is to please them ragas have been … Read more
Have you been looking for a fun way of memorizing the 72 melakarta names and numbers, finding them “mind bending” rather than “mind boggling” until now? Here’s one method that may work – if you are ready to practice it for a few minutes every day; like passing time while waiting in queues or commuting, … 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
A challenge to enjoy on a daily basis (30 min.): Select a popular melakarta raga to get into the “flow” >>(e.g. the 65th Mecakalyani) before exploring others (01 to 72) in 36 daily sessions, over and over again – Happy Flowing! Spread out over a longer period of time, start your practice sessions with a mela … Read more
raagam: mAyAmALavagauLaAa: S R1 G3 M1 P D1 N3 S | Av: S N3 D1 P M1 G3 R1 S raagam: shankaraabharaNam Aa: S R2 G3 M1 P D2 N3 S | Av: S N3 D2 P M1 G3 R2 S raagam: kalyANiAa: S R2 G3 M2 P D2 N3 S | Av: S N3 D2 … Read more
Colours, moods and feelings have been favourite subjects in the context of raga, literally “colour, beauty, pleasure, passion and compassion”.1 Explore this wonderful realm in imaginative ways – always in accordance with your own creativity and feelings Suggestions for widening the scope for the “Flow”-exercises offered in this course: To get going, click on “Details” … Read more
Akshara Samskriti is the daughter of Carnatic musician Kiranavali and scientist-philosopher, Vidyasankar Sundaresan. This video was recorded on Nov 1, 2013, when Akshara was 4 years old. It was originally in multiple parts for educational video compilation, and has been put together as a single video here. The 72 Melakartas are regarded as the parent … Read more
a = middle octave (madhya sthayi)‘sa = higher octave (tara sthayi) The above svara pattern may be sung, hummed or practiced silently with any svara variants: those you are already familiar with (e.g. raga Mayamalavagaula, mela 15, raga Dhirasankarabharanam, mela 29, raga Mecakalyani, mela 65) or any other you want to practice. Enjoy practicing by … Read more
Gouri Dange, The Hindu, 11 May 2019 | Read the full article here >> Every kind of music has a protocol for ‘beginners’ or ‘learners’. Students must practise paltay, alankaras, scales, études, tonalisation exercises, depending on the kind of music they pursue. […] However, here’s the rub: for many learners, these ‘early’ ragas get translated … Read more
The Kaṭapayādi sūtra is an aid to memory or “mnemonic system”. Its name corresponds to a “thread” (sūtra), here provided by the initials of four sets of letters within the Sanskrit alphabet: Ka Ṭa Pa and Ya A total of 33 letters are distributed among ten numbers including 0 (zero): K (1st) to 9 (nava = 9) + … Read more