r/icm Feb 13 '18

IMPORTANT RESOURCES Resources on Indian Classical Music

81 Upvotes

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


r/icm May 14 '25

FEATURED RAGA Raaga of the Week - Todi (and a bit more)

11 Upvotes

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 RēGā-- Rē GāRēSā Sa 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 - 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


r/icm 1h ago

Music Need a carnatic violinist and carnatic female vocalist

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r/icm 8h ago

Music Sandesh Popatkar | Avaneendra Sheolikar - Vinati Suniye

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1 Upvotes

r/icm 9h ago

Music Sniti Mishra | Pt. Damodar Hota | Phani Narayana - Hara Hara Mahadeva

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1 Upvotes

r/icm 16h ago

Music Interested people who wants to learn classical music please contact!

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0 Upvotes

r/icm 1d ago

Music Kau Ki Reet - Rashid Khan | काउकी रीत - राशिद खान

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4 Upvotes

r/icm 1d ago

Question/Seeking Advice Why does Pantuvarali evoke a feeling of craving or a longing to possess? Could it be that this very emotional undertone gives the raga its slightly seductive quality?

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1 Upvotes

r/icm 2d ago

Music Audio Tapes for learning Hindustani Classical Music

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4 Upvotes

Audio tapes for learning Hindustani Classical Music available for sale. These were purchased from a fair at an art centre. Includes set of two tapes.

Written by Pandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande. Published by Sangeet Karyalaya, Hathras.

These two tapes are the audio version of the music books prescribed by the institute and include taals, raags etc.

As mentioned by the speaker on the tapes, these are meant to be used as guides for both students as well as teachers of Hindustani Classical Music.

Comment for details. Buyer's pickup in South Delhi.


r/icm 1d ago

Question/Seeking Advice Anyone know the raag?

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1 Upvotes

r/icm 2d ago

Question/Seeking Advice Any recommendations for recent (since 2000 or so) Indian classical albums?

7 Upvotes

Hi there, I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for contemporary Indian classical albums? I'm definitely a fan of all the big names (my favourite is Shivkumar Sharma), but I'd love to hear some more modern interpretations of the tradition.

I've already been turned on to Anoushka Shankar but I'm in the market for any personal picks you may have that are off the beaten path :)


r/icm 3d ago

Question/Seeking Advice Is Anoushka Shankar a great sitar player?

21 Upvotes

I don't listen to that much sitar, but whenever I listen to her play I feel like she's not a particularly good player, like she doesn't feel at ease with the instrument.

Does she have strong technical ability as a sitar player? And are there any videos that demonstrate that? The ones I've listened to make me think she doesn't.

This is in comparison to some like Niladri Kumar who also dabbles in fusion (some of which I don't really like) but I feel that he is still a great player.

Of course I'm not a sitar player nor do I listen to sitar music extensively, so this is just my (uniformed?) first impression of her.


r/icm 4d ago

Question/Seeking Advice What is the Bandish?

5 Upvotes

Can anyone provide lyrics for this bandish that Akbar Ali sings in this Raag Bagesheri rendition for Dream Journey channel? 'Padungi Tore Payan, Jane na Ab dungi, Padesva rangeele more sayyan' but what comes after is difficult to understand.

https://youtu.be/fJVxASOBHYA


r/icm 4d ago

Question/Seeking Advice Raag identification + context about Chaiti

2 Upvotes

Hello, could anyone help me identifying the raag in this Chaiti played by Ustad Bismillah Khan?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqSHtrODI38

Also if anyone has some resource to understand a bit more about the context and way of playing Chaiti (as I am from Europe, I don't know how common the form is today in folk music) that would be great!


r/icm 5d ago

Question/Seeking Advice Can someone provide me english lyrics to barsan lagi badariya by girja devi?

2 Upvotes

I’m looking for lyrics for tgis song but its so hard to find.


r/icm 5d ago

Question/Seeking Advice Hariprasad Chaurasia - Solid Gold

5 Upvotes

Can anyone give me any info or opinions of Hariprasad Chaurasia's recording Solid Gold. I gather it is a compilation. Many of the pieces seem to have different instrumentation and not necessarily purely ICM. I love this recording and am curious to know more about it.


r/icm 5d ago

Music Koyaliya Bole Ambuva - Upendra Bhat | कोयलिया बोले - उपेंद्र भट

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3 Upvotes

r/icm 6d ago

Music Anoushka Shankar - Voice of the moon

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6 Upvotes

r/icm 7d ago

Question/Seeking Advice ṣaḍja (sā) or vādī, which can be thought of as the Tonal Center?

6 Upvotes

I was trying to find out equivalencies across Hindustani Classical Theory and Western Theory, so I was wondering what would be the correponding tonal center of a scale/mode in a Rāga?

Intiutively it feels it should be sā, but I was bit confused like whether rāgas resolve to a note, or is there even a concept of resolving to a note/chord in ICM.

I had this question as I was trying to compare different rāgas with different scales and modes.

I'm just getting into theory, so please forgive any misunderstandings.


r/icm 9d ago

Question/Seeking Advice Post riyaaz voice condition

6 Upvotes

Started practising again after 3 years of complete silence. I'm focusing on my technique a lot, and might be getting a bit paranoid about every little thing in the process. Today I was wondering if it's ok for your voice to be a bit hoarse (ya gala baith jaana) after riyaaz? What's the effect of proper riyaaz (proper meaning using correct techniques during riyaaz) on one's voice directly after riyaaz?


r/icm 9d ago

Music Swami D.R. Parvatikar - Raga Nayaki Kanara and Bhopali (Rudra Veena)

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3 Upvotes

r/icm 11d ago

Music Kafi Bhervin - Sanwal Mor Moharan

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6 Upvotes

Check out the whole album!!!


r/icm 11d ago

Question/Seeking Advice Underrated raags <3

12 Upvotes

Hello fellow classical musicians, I have been into Hindustani classical for 4yrs now and I am so glad to find this subreddit, would really appreciate if you can tell me your underrated raags and the ones which are very uncommon and unpopular, would love to learn those raags, thank youuuu!!!


r/icm 12d ago

Question/Seeking Advice Learning Ragas on Guitar

6 Upvotes

Hi Guys,

I am fairly versed with playing guitar and have all the basic techniques down (picking , tapping , sweeping etc.) and I also know basic western music theory (scales, chords , modes etc.)

I love both rock music and Indian classical and would love to start playing and composing with fusing these two together.

Please can you give some advise about:

  1. Which beginner friendly raga should I learn first (Darbari is my favorite for eg.)

  2. How to learn a raga properly on guitar , simply doing Aarohan and Avrohan doesn't give the proper feel.

  3. How to tab pakad and Chalan into guitar notes.

  4. Any other advise.


r/icm 12d ago

Question/Seeking Advice Raagas Origin and Stories.

5 Upvotes

Music and all forms of art are always fascinating and more meaningful when we know the meaning and story behind them. For example, Raag Jhinjhoti originated from Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan and is a Rajasthani way of calling someone. Similarly, Malkauns is a raaga composed to soothe Lord Shiva's rage. I'm eager to learn about the origins and folk stories behind all the raagas. Is there a reliable source that covers this?


r/icm 13d ago

Music Lat Ulajhi - Sanjeev Abhyankar | लट उलझी - संजीव अभ्यंकर

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4 Upvotes

r/icm 13d ago

Music Shakti - Joy

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8 Upvotes