Born in a musical family, of Mahalingam Pillai and Seethalakshmi Ammal at Thanjavur, Thanjavur M. Theagarajan inherited the expertise and legacy of his great grandfather (bharatanatyam) and grandfather (mridangam), who were both asthana vidwans at Baroda and his father, a leading mridanga vidwan. Theagarajan states that members of his family [...]
In the heart of Manhattan, tucked quietly amidst the chaotic surroundings of New York is the Bhakthi Center, a temple and community center, set up and run by the devotees of the ISKCON. Friday and Sunday were my dates for music workshops and Saturday and Sunday for Indira [...]
One of the most important learning for a student of Carnatic is the mastery of Jatiswarams and Swarajatis – the stage of singing swaras (notes) to rhythm. A student feels the joy of discovering of singing more than one note to a beat. This brings out of the essence of [...]
The Nottuswaras are the finest example of Carnatic music adapting to western influence. These are composed with Sanskrit lyrics on the Western C major scale, whose pitch intervals correspond to the Shankarabharanaraga. These simple melodies were inspired by Scottishand Irish tunes. The lyrics (sahitya) are entirely Indian and devotional. This [...]
If you are interested in a concise introduction of Karnatic music; like an understanding of the Thala, famous compositions, a firsthand feel of seven basic notes as it appears in various combinations as Swaravali, Jhanti, Alankaras. We also guide you on fitness and health through yoga. This course is mainly [...]
Swarajathis are similar to Jathiswaras (SwaraPallavi) but with a critical difference: Swarajathi includes the Sahitya (lyrics) that a Jathiswara does not. These are learnt after learning Geethas and before Varnams. These are scholarly compositions and their Dhathu has the Raga Bhava. So this gives a student a feeling of having [...]
Jathiswaras, also called Swara Pallavis are more sophisticated than Geethams. They are compositions in AbhyaasaGaana where students get to sing for the first time phrases where more than one swara are sung to a beat, or example two and four. These compositions help the students in improving their knowledge of [...]
Hi friends, while I was surfing the net I was able to find some research points about how music affects our mental health. I felt that I should share them with you all. — >Few Researches on Affect of Music on Mental Health: • According to research at Tufts University, [...]
The strength of a building depends on how strong the foundation is. Any learning starts from alphabets, progresses to simple words, before common sentences are introduced. Didn’t all of us not learn basic colours, or animals or vegetables at school where colourful charts started to make sense? So is Swarasththana [...]
Some voices simply spark the divine in us. Like MS? Yesudas? Muhammad Rafi? Adele? There is a quality about a voice that haunts us, remember Lata Mangeshkar in that “Tera Saaya, Mera Saaya”. Every great performing singer had the basic voice ingredient; pitch, amplitude, flexibility, voice control, bright, breezy, resonance [...]
