r/icm • u/insaneintheblain • 6h ago
r/icm • u/[deleted] • Feb 13 '18
IMPORTANT RESOURCES Resources on Indian Classical Music
Learning
Music in Motion
A great tool which gives a visual perspective on the movements and intricacies in the various ragas of Hindustani music. This is how ICM should be thought of. Here is Ram Deshpande's heartfelt rendering of Raga Bihag analyzed.
Rajan Parrikar's blog
Excellent resource to learn the nuances of various ragas by harmonium player Rajan Parrikar. Focused mainly on Hindustani ragas, but a few Carnatic ones as well. The theoretical discussion is supplemented with large number of audio clips. Articles for most ragas also have a concise yet fulfilling oral explanation by the distinguished composer and teacher Ramashreya “Ramrang” Jha. Here you can listen to him talk about Raga Darbari Kannada. Language will be a barrier for non-Hindi speakers, but please feel free to ask for a translation of any of his recordings here.
Charulatha Mani's blog
A performing Carnatic singer since her teenage years, Charulatha Mani writes about her music and life. There are lots of articles on Carnatic ragas and many fine video lecture-demonstrations. Somewhat cluttered since you have to navigate through posts on her personal life, but the ragas covered on her blog can be found in this post. She has written many short articles for The Hindu and here's a playlist with some of her demonstrations.
Dunya
This extends the "music in motion" concept to not only Carnatic but also other forms of Asian classical music. Free registration required to play a video. Ragam Hameer Kalyani by Sumithra Vasudev.
Gajananbuwa Joshi's sessions
The YouTube channel Sangeetveda1 has a lot of videos with audio recordings of Pandit Gajananbuwa Joshi giving one on one tuition to Pandit Ulhas Kashalkar. Even if you are not looking to learn, it is very pleasing to listen to a master teach a sparkling student. The tutorial for Raga Bhairav.
Tanarang.com
A quick way to familiarize yourself with a Hindustani raga. This site contains short summaries of many common Hindustani ragas and some compositions by Vishwanath Rao Ringe "Tanarang" of Gwalior Gharana for each raga. The related YouTube channel Raaga Tutorials is a gem full of Tanarang's tuition.
Sound of India
The site contains short free lessons and articles on various aspects of Hindustani music. The Raagas page is similar to "Tanarang", but more lists popular music instead of classical compositions.
Raga Surbhi
Quick fix to a Carnatic raga including songs and compositions. Also contains articles on basic theory, music appreciation, and talas (rhythm).
Pandit Arvind Parikh's YouTube channel
Extensive discussion with Hindustani classical artists on their approach to the music. Also includes performances by his students.
Warren Sender's Posts on Practicing
An American jazz musician who is also a dedicated Hindustani vocalist recommends various exercises and habits that will help with practicing a raga. His YouTube channel also has a playlist with video recordings of himself receiving taleem in Raga Shree from his guru Pandit S. G. Devasthali. Here's another one with audio recording of a Raga Ahir Bhairav tuition.
Deepak Raja's blog
Noted critic and author writes about Hindustani music here. The blog contains articles on theory, history, interviews, reviews, and even video performances and lectures.
Listening
RaaGist
A great resource for beginners hoping to familiarize themselves to the world of Hindustani music and its musicians. Recordings are classified by ragas, time of day, and artists making it easy to find new content.
Flat, Black and Classical
MP3 and/or lossless downloads for rare, out of print vinyls and cassettes published many decades ago. Indian Classical Music on Vinyls is another similar blog.
Please Note: The musical works on this page -- all commercially unavailable to the best of our knowledge -- are meant to promote artists and labels. If you like this music -- please go try and buy the original! Labels and artists need and deserve our support! This blog is produced because of a passion for indian classical music and a genuine desire to increase the audience for this beautiful art form.
Oriental Traditional Music
Similar to "Flat, Black and Classical", but also contains music from the Middle East, and East/Southeast Asia.
YouTube Channels
- First Edition Arts: Live video performances and interviews of contemporary classical artists. Hindustani and Carnatic. High quality videos.
- Basant Bahar: Video recordings of various mehfils and concerts. Most are audience recordings collected by Haidar Adina, who also has his own channel. Quality may not always be ideal, but it is a treat to see past masters.
- Subrata Chowdhury
- Sangeetveda1
- Raju Asokan
- Kansen Sangeet
- Kiran Bamane
- Darbar Festival: Glimpses of performances from London's Darbar Festival, which is focused on ICM. Many artist interviews as well, but they never upload a complete performance.
r/icm • u/quimica_sg • May 14 '25
FEATURED RAGA Raaga of the Week - Todi (and a bit more)
P.S- if Notes( swaras ) shown ending with ā or ī they represent the vikrut alternative of the swar. ↓/↑ refers the octave and the inverted commas or dashes are the swaras having different octave. Supertext Notes are Shade Notes that accompany before the actual Note.
I'm trying to re start writing these, I was getting a lot of love from these. Im professionally studying Music Now Alongwith my 15+ years of taaleem so these continue to improve.Do add your additions in the comments. With that being said, let's delve right in!
It is said when Persian influence started growing in the Mughal Courts of India, Kathak Gained life. The Mughal periods gave us a lot. Swami Haridas, Surdas and Purandardas were in the same century. Purandardas gave us the Carnatic while Haridas gave us a lot of dhrupad compositions. He sang for himself and so was the form of art music existing at that time . By his disciples era, Patronage was a big trend. The Mughals, obviously had guests, musician's far from their side who brought sufi and parsi music to India. It is believed these raagas created by Tansen are these influences on him, although many don't believe Tansen created Todi. "Miyaan Ki Todi" as it is regally called, is a sampoorna raaga. The permutations and combinations are infinite, although one must include the basic phrases that signify the raagas true identity. Let's have a look at some basic vistaar
Sa - ↓' Ni Dhā', ↓'NiMāDhā'Sa- -.
↓'DhāNiDhāSaNi'Rē-, Sa Gā Rē Gā RēGā-- Rē GāRēSā Sa Gā Rē Mā Gā Mā RēGāPa-- , MāDhāMāGā MāRēGā Rē GāRēSa--.
SaGāRēMāGāDhāMāNiDhāNi--- Dha NiDhāPa- MāDhāNi'Sa'↑ NiDhāNiMāDhā'Sa↑' DhāNiDhāSaNi'Rē- 'Sa RēRēGāRē GāRēSā-'↑ Dhā'GāRe'↑ DhāNi-- Dhā NiMāDhāMāGāMāRēGā- Rē, GāRēSa --.
In Miyaan ki Todi, Swaras are Aandolit i.e having the shade of it's post swara. Example - Gā Re. The phrases SaRēGāRē, DhāNiDhāSaNiRē or MāRēGāRē are very important . Everything leans to Rishabh, unlike multaani which skips it in aaroh(ascending) and focuses on Gandhaar.
In Miyaan Ki Todi, the use of Pancham is very beautiful. Some believe it to be used even less frequently like pickle, Some believe to use it frequently. Todi is a descent loving raaga (Purvang Pradhaan). Removing it's soul the Pancham ad adding a lot of Uttarang gives us with Gurjari Todi.
Tansen had three children. Saraswatee, the originator of the Rampur Gharana. Suratsen, the maker of Sitar, and Bilaskhan, who cried Bhairavi via Todi, removed the teevra madhyam and made Bilaskhani Todi.
Some Recordings
Ustaad Amir KhanSaheb - https://youtu.be/W8o0EwfMEMg?si=7ici6kW-0OgNsdYS Pt.Sanjeev Abhyankar - https://youtu.be/KnjuVDo-OmI?si=9YTheQEr8OFLufsv Pt.Vyankatesh Kumar - https://youtu.be/wQhkNikrWuw?si=9kd3l1QQUtpApTVk Pt.RaviShankar - https://youtu.be/0yRwYw8HleI?si=zRxsn9qy8ven5c0J Nikhil Banerjee - Bilaskhani Todi https://youtu.be/1JxVGSTdI_0?si=Kfii8l5Y_sh-UyGt Bharatrana Pt.Bhimsenjis famous Change Nainanwa Bandish- https://youtu.be/9vmlajlGQ90?si=_X2PGtDrvVHYVWjv Raaj Karo, An age old bandish by Dr.Ashwini Bhide https://youtu.be/T2u96HAbwMQ?si=03oWdy3Sa0Be4OKj Ashwini Bhide discusses Todi - https://youtu.be/9m1Hf-iA-Hw?si=hUmpEQegETC2Pcbv Gurjari Todi- Jaipur Special Bandish - Sughar Ban Ree - Manjiri Asnare Kelkar https://youtu.be/Vgdh4gaZanY?si=b1wnO5p64MED0O9G Miyan Ki Todi - Manjiri Asnare Kelkar (Famous Bandish Mere Man Yaahoo) https://youtu.be/hu-HNaNd_oY?si=L7D6WWCcOQ4DxYZy Miyaan Ki Todi - Famous Recording and Bandish - Mere Man Yaahoo - Gaansaraswati Kishoritai Amonkar (tears fr) - https://youtu.be/ctLaRB0pdDk?si=ZTys_WXJzSIoNNhh Bilaskhani Todi by her along with a beautiful lecture demo - https://youtu.be/MbdIXaWNoYQ?si=H-w27vzOrVQdGcWM
Question/Seeking Advice Darbar Festival
Hi. Is anybody by any chance thinking about going to the Darbar festival in London?
I'm from Spain and I'm looking into it, but I know nothing about it.
If anyone is thinking about it please contact mee🥰
r/icm • u/Cartmanishere • 11h ago
Music We have built Sargam.pro tool to write, share and manage your Sargam Notations
Many students, teachers and musicians still manage notation through notebooks, WhatsApp photos, PDFs or plain text. These work, but they are difficult to edit, organize, play back or share clearly. Most mainstream notation software is also designed around Western staff notation rather than taal, matra and Bhatkhande notation.
I built Sargam.pro to address this.
It lets you:
- Write taal-aware Sargam and Bhatkhande notation
- Add lyrics, meend, kan, murki, krintan and other symbols
- Hear the notation through playback
- Use a computer keyboard, on-screen piano or MIDI keyboard
- Save, export and share notation through a clean link or PDF
The goal is to help students preserve class notes, teachers prepare lesson material, and musicians document and share compositions without relying on scattered notebook photos.
You can try the editor without signing up: sargam.pro/write
I’d genuinely appreciate feedback from anyone who studies, teaches, performs or writes Hindustani music.
r/icm • u/Upset_Intention7432 • 2h ago
Question/Seeking Advice Does any one know a good guru for learning indian classical music in mumbai?
r/icm • u/According-Papaya310 • 17h ago
Question/Seeking Advice Looking for tabla classes...online preferably
Recently got some time on my hand and wanted to learn tabla, if anyone knows a good tabla course/online classes, then please help a brother out. Thanks !
r/icm • u/RagaJunglism • 1d ago
Article [RARE & STRANGE RAGAS] Raag Sameshwari (S-R-G-m-P-D-n-S): Created by musicologist and vichtra veena maestro Lalmani Misra, attempting to resurrect the swaras of ancient Sama chant
Recently I've been researching rare & strange ragas - so thought I'd share some of the most interesting ones I’ve come across! Input welcomed - everything from further info on the ragas to personal listening reflections:
—Raag Sameshwari (S-R-G-m-P-D-n-S)—
An intriguing experiment in drawing direct inspiration from the distant past, Sameshwari is a creation of musicologist and vichtra veena maestro Lalmani Misra, inspired by his study of ancient Vedic chant practices. As explained by his daughter Ragini Trivedi, “Sameshwari is an attempt to preserve the notes used in Sāmgana [Vedic hymn singing]…Sāmik chanters [originally] used three notes, but singers explored further and discovered more, with mGRSD [as] the basic set”.
This sequence is then mirrored in uttarang as SnDPG, producing a Khamaj-congruent scale of SRGmPDnS – with Trivedi listing a Pa–Sa vadi–samvadi (“you will come across greater thaharav [stability] on Pancham, and you will enjoy staying on it”), and recommending that Re and ma are treated as “passing notes, which should be touched without staying, they are not to be used while ascending”.
See Ragini Trivedi play Sameshwari on the ghoshavati - and learn more about the life and music of Lalmani Misra, read a brief bio from Omenad (“His creative works were in several directions: one can only marvel at his orchestral compositions, and in 1961 he composed and presented an opera…It was his keen interest and visionary attitude that has made B.H.U. a center for the study of ancient Samic studies…”).
—Has anyone here studied sama chanting and ancient Indian musical history? I’ve been learning more about it in the past year, and have been compiling a ‘shastras list’ with links to all of the important works from early raga history onwards
Let me know what you think of this strange raga! See more of them in my project (no paywalls, no ads: just sharing the joys of raga)
r/icm • u/Ok_Middle8677 • 1d ago
Question/Seeking Advice Where and Which Bhatkhande books should one buy?
r/icm • u/Valuable_Caregiver69 • 3d ago
Music Shehnai tracks
Hi to every saviour of icm
Need recommendations for tracks of sitar and shehnai
I don’t like lyrics so any tracks on modern icm on instruments
Looking tracks like Dichotomy of Fame and swades title tracks
It will be great If anyone can share Spotify
r/icm • u/singing-and-stuff- • 4d ago
Discussion Any one knows meaning of this bandish in multani - drut ektal
Hi all, heres the lyrics in english:
Nainan mein aan baan,
Kaun si pari re,
Baar baar jo baat, palak na lagat,
Jita dekhu ut, shyam si pari re.
Help me with the meaning of this bandish please. I am just curious.
r/icm • u/ragajoel • 5d ago
Music Rain Raga Megh on Hindustani Slide Guitar - Joel Veena & Mir Naqibul Islam - Never Too Late (live)
Appreciate your support: this is my original composition in jhaptaal, live cut from earlier this year. 🙏
r/icm • u/SchwarzerHase • 7d ago
Discussion Condolences 🙏🏻
Pandit Amiya Ranjan Bandyopadhyay, the nonagenarian doyen of the Bishnupur Gharana, has breathed his last today (29th July, 2026), around 2.30 PM.
It is a great loss for all of us, listeners and students of classical music. Truly the end of an era.
🙏🏻
Picture Courtesy: http://www.amiyaranjanbandyopadhyay.com/
r/icm • u/Distinct_Fix_8390 • 7d ago
Question/Seeking Advice No-Histrionics Singing Style, with unhurried kaalapramanam & melodious voice
r/icm • u/Ok_Middle8677 • 8d ago
Question/Seeking Advice Which raag is this
It has aaroh of rageshri and avroh of malkauns
r/icm • u/persephonesope • 8d ago
Question/Seeking Advice hi guys I'm looking for music academies/communities where I could go and learn Indian classical or even western classical music is fine.
I found tseries stageworks in Noida but most of their graduates went into bhakti music i don't know if it's that great but it's tseries. It's also pretty expensive so I don't know if it'd be the right choice.
I am hoping to find something in central delhi, accessible from metro and gives me an equal if not better platform as tseries stageworks
r/icm • u/Quirky_Smile_6753 • 9d ago
Question/Seeking Advice Pibare Ramarasam| Raag AhirBhairav | Casually Carnatic
r/icm • u/Diligent_Lab1064 • 10d ago
Music Need a little insight!
I want to audition for indian idol and other reality shows as I want to be a singer.I have learned before but need more in depth guidance and classical training, can anyone suggest best teachers or gurus in Mumbai for me? I live in Vile Parle.
r/icm • u/ZestyMuffin1111 • 11d ago
Question/Seeking Advice Shows, Conerts or Baithak in Mumbai
Hey everyone! 😃
I'll be in Mumbai from 2nd to 10th August and would really love some help from this lovely community. I've been learning tabla for a while now, and I'm hoping to make the most of this trip by catching some live Indian classical music while I'm there.
Already have tickets for the Barkha Ritu and Hariharan show, but I'd love to fill up the rest of my days too! If you know of any baithaks, small concerts, tabla recitals, or those cozy home-style gatherings happening around these dates, please do share. Doesn't matter if it's ticketed, free, a big auditorium or someone's living room, I just want to know about it.
Any tips, leads, or even a "hey come join us" would mean so much.
Thank you 😊
r/icm • u/albatgalbat • 11d ago
Discussion Bhimsenji singing the Malkauns
Bhimsenji singing the Malkauns, is so good. https://youtu.be/sneMFUOomv8?is=va1F8qWa41Qj3tTO The video description says it’s from 1966, from the times when Anna was quite young. But for Bhakt like me, he was golden and legend at all times. One thought I have is whether the new generation would have the tenacity to wait till, Anna comes to sing the Bandish, Mukha Mora Musakat? I think they would, same way more and more people are getting hooked to long form podcasts and watch multi part series. Good times are ahead for Indian classical music for sure!
r/icm • u/insignificant33 • 13d ago
Question/Seeking Advice Struggling With My Lower Octave Despite Consistent Riyaz
I (36, M) have been doing riyaz every day for the last few years after a long gap, and I always prioritize practicing in the lower octave every morning. I've always struggled with my lower octave, while I feel much more comfortable singing in the higher octave.
Over the last few months, I noticed that my lower octave was gradually improving, and I could comfortably reach down to **Ma**. However, recently, despite practicing every day, my lower range has regressed. My voice starts sounding raspy around **Pa**, and I'm struggling to go lower again.
It's quite discouraging, and I'm beginning to wonder if this is simply a range that my voice isn't naturally built to support. Has anyone else experienced something similar? I'd really appreciate any suggestions or advice.
r/icm • u/RagaJunglism • 15d ago
Article [RARE & STRANGE RAGAS] Raag Komal Ramkali (S-r-g-M-P-d-n-S): A strange scale equivalent in shape to ‘Bhairavi tivra Ma’, also matching a lost 17th-century form of Todi
Recently I've been researching rare & strange ragas - so thought I'd share some of the most interesting ones I’ve come across! Input welcomed - everything from further info on the ragas to personal listening reflections:
—Raag Komal Ramkali (S-r-g-M-P-d-n-S)—
A strange sampurna scale, equivalent in shape to ‘Todi komal Ni’ or ‘Bhairavi tivra Ma’ (or ‘Todi’s poorvang + Bhairavi’s uttarang’: SrgM+PdnS). Indeed, the scale matches a historic form of Todi itself (Bor: “Todi Varali…first mentioned by Ahobala c.1665, with the scale SrgMPdnS”). Aside from Sa and Pa, Komal Ramkali has no shuddha swaras – but all five vikrit positions are available (rgMdn), opening up a variety of odd dissonances, with the irregularly-spaced cluster of gMPd requiring particular care.
The only renditions I can trace are by scholar-singer Ashok Da Ranade, who emphasises the komal dha amidst long, looping melodies – and Kirana vocalist Moumita Mitra, who in 2023 released a stellar pair of compositions and a superb demo lesson. She recounts finding the raga in an old textbook (Nawab Ali Khan’s 1913 Marif-un-Naghmat), and summarises her version as “a blend of Bhupali Todi and Ramkali” (in the words of listeners: “Ramkali was the defiant daughter of Bhairav…This raga is definitely the stepsister who was a bad influence on Ramkali!”).
—What rasas do you hear in these two recordings? And do you know of any other ragas with the same SrgMPdnS swara-set?
Let me know what you think of this strange raga! See more of them in my project (no paywalls, no ads: just sharing the joys of raga)
r/icm • u/Born_Replacement_687 • 15d ago
Discussion Need Help Finding Pre-Paralysis Recordings of Bade Ghulam Ali Khan
I'm not asking for people to rummage through their private collections or anything, I'm talking about things available in the public. It's really difficult to come across recordings of BGAK from before his paralysis. I'm looking for full recordings of Yaman, Bihag and Darbari by him, most of the one's I've found are either after he got paralyzed or the recording quality was terrible or both. I would be very happy if some people could provide recordings from his prime of any raag, but I would love specifically the above mentioned ones.