North Indian Classical Music
– Raag (Raga), Taal (Tala) & Bandishes –

 

The Sound of Bamboo - Various Styles of the Indian Flute

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This webpage is designed especially to introduce western listeners and musicians to the topic of classical Indian music, and in specific the so-called “North-Indian Music”, or “Hindustani Music”. You will find all the theory background knowledge about the most common rhythms (taal, tala) and the melodic concepts (raag, raga). This should also serve as a practical guide, especially for western musicians who want to start to explore this field of music.

I will provide useful information in the sake to make the access as easy as possible.

By myself I first am a player of western Jazz- and Rock Music, but I got attracted to the Indian Music more and more and picked up the Indian bamboo flute, the Bansuri, as a second Instrument.

With this background I design this website to provide some information, which I found not too much in the libraries or on the internet. So there will be a constantly growing collection of famous bandishes, but also the system of raag (raga) and taal (tala) will be presented in a systematic way.

 

Raag – Raga

The raag in the classical music of India is more than a system of scales. Every raag has it’s own scale, but further there are common phrases and specific ways of ornamentation. All this is in order to pronounce specific moods, like those of special daytimes, but also human emotions.

Literally the word “raag” means “colouring the mind”.

 

Taal – Tala

This is the system of rhythms in Indian Music. A complete presentation of a raag (raga) is build up in mainly 2 parts: first the raag is introduced by the melody player, playing alone with only the drone from the tanpura.

In the second half the percussion is coming in, and this is when the taal (tala), the rhythm cicle, starts.

 

Bandish

“Bandishes” are those small themes which are used by the professional players. They are used as the basis of improvisations, and they always follow the rules of the raag and the taal.

I will present a collection of them in a way that they might easily be tried out by western musicians.

 

So please just go to the blog-section of this website, and sign up for the newsletter to get updated on further publications.I wish you good inspirations discovering this amazing kind of music!

 

All the best,
Michael

 

 

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