Indian Classical Music vs Western Classical Music The Classical Story

Indian Classical Music is all about ragas. A raga portrays a mood, a sentiment, expressed through a microtonal scale. There are a number of ragas, each with its own mood and its own corresponding microtonal scale that is based on the natural harmonic series – the natural law of vibrations.
Today, Indian Classical music is influenced by a foreign tonal system that is not based on the natural harmonic series. This is the Western tonal system that has had a big influence on Indian Classical music. Many Indian Classical musicians, nowadays, make use of Western instruments such as guitar and drums.
Most Western audiences find Indian Classical music to be quite exotic. Two major reasons are the differences between the two traditions in tuning and scales.
The subtle differences
Let’s straightaway delve into the differences between these two vast genres of music to get a better idea:
Indian Classical Music (ICM) is primarily homophonic, which means that it focuses on creating melodies using a sequence of notes, whereas Western Classical Music (WCM) is to an extent polyphonic, which means multiple notes are played/sung together, where the counterpoint, harmony, and texture created using multiple voices is very important.

WCM is composed, whereas ICM is improvised. WCM compositions are formally written using Staff Notation, and performers usually follow that. But in the case of ICM, the Teacher-Student tradition of learning leads to each performance being an improvisation.

ICM uses “Taal”, where Taal is a cycle of beats that is centered on “Sam” that repeats itself. In the case of WCM, there aren’t any complex beat cycles.

WCM is modal and so has a chord for each note of the scale. On the contrary, ICM is tonal and, hence, is based on a single scale (a single drone, chord, and key).
Fusion all the way
But then again fusion is a growing concept in India. So, their differences and some similarities make fusion music even more interesting and challenging. If we take a deeper look, we will actually find a number of similarities. Today, “guitar” has acquired prime position and popularity in Indian Classical Music with Indian Ragas being played on guitar.
There are two types of Guitars that is used for fusion in India: Spanish guitar and Hawaiian guitar.A wide variety and mix of instruments ranging from Guitar, Drums, and Saxophone to Sitar, Tabla, and Flute are used for fusion music/concerts.
My band, known as Kaivalyaa, is also a fusion band, where we fuse various western genres with Indian Classical music. The Western and Indian instruments we use include Guitar, Drums, Keyboards, Mouth Organ, Bass Guitar, Harmonium, Flute, Sarod, Tabla, and a number of percussion instruments. Some of the big names in the Indian fusion scenario are Indian Ocean, Avial, Advaita, Raghu Dixit Project, Mother Jane, Tabla Beat Science, and Bandish Fusion. With varied influences, experiments, scales, tones, and sounds, fusion is the next big thing. So, if you want to know more about the Indian Classical scales/Ragas, you are at the right place.

Bollywood Music Maestro Daler Mehndi Mania Now Goes Online

Stepping into the Bollywood music scene in the 90s, Punjabi music maestro Daler Mehndi not only infused a new leash of life to the music of that era but also in a way salvaged it from degradation. At a time when latest hindi songs were a crass remix of the old Bollywood Music, Daler introduced to the world a new genre called Indipop.

The dynamic Daler is not just a talented musician but is also a versatile personality and constantly reinvents himself. So when the entire music scene was shifting towards listening to songs online, how could he stay behind? Now you can access and buy Daler Mehndi Indian pop songs and ringtones and listen to hindi songs online from the website http://www.dalermehndi.com/store_music.php.
You can listen to and buy a wide variety of new Punjabi songs like Tunak Tunak Tumba, Mojaan Laen Do, Eh Lai 100 Rupaiya, Sha Ra Ra Ra to the devotional and sufi numbers like 300 Saal Guru De Naal and Allah Teri Shaan. Mehndi is often regarded as a singer with an intelligent mind by many for giving to the music album world a new genre of music known as Rabbabi and also infusing rock beats into bhangra to give an interesting twist to new Punjabi songs.

With this craze of listening to music online catching up fast amongst young and old alike, also started the mad scramble for authentic websites that could offer you just the right kind of Latest Hindi Songs that you would want to listen to. Therefore, having a dedicated website which gives you the luxury to look no further is an advantage Daler Mehndi shall have over his contemporaries and it shall only add to his ever soaring popularity.

Inheriting music as part of family legacy, Daler Mehndi rocked the 90s Indian pop music scene with his high voltage numbers like Tunak Tunak Tun and Bolo Ta Ra Ra. Proving his versatility, he has since 1995 recorded many successful Punjabi music albums and has sung as a playback singer for several Hindi movies. His albums have gone on to become double platinum in terms of sales and he can easily be called the creator of a new music genre called Indipop.

The Extra Terrestrials Show At Chennai Music Academy

The Premiere of the show Extra Terrestrials was held today at the Music Academy.

The show began with a performance by the Golden Power- the two men Sandor Vlah and Gyula Takacs who were painted in gold displayed an amazing combination of strength, skill and art by effortlessly performing hand balancing acts and taking on each other’s weight.

The audience was still recovering from the wonderful feats performed by them, when Wolfgang Bientzle the German Wheel Acrobat, came up with an awesome performance on the wheel to exclamations of ‘wow’ in the audience.

Erik Ivarsson’s antics on the unicycle left the audience speechless with amazement, while Jerome Murat a mime, illusionist and ventriloquist captivated the audience with his act. Watching him was like watching a magic performance- should be watched to be believed.

The audience was enthralled by Anton Monastyrsky as they watched him get in an out of the hula hoop and spin circles around it until the hoops almost became a blur. No wonder he is also called The Lord of the Rings.

Not only was Roma Hervida’s performance spell binding but her very presence was magnetic. Her dazzling performance had most of us in the audience at the edge of our seats!

The final performance by Laser man, Theo Dari who was bending, cutting and restoring laser points to create a visual display that was truly enchanting. You can take it from us-we did not want the performance to end!

What else can we say about the performances other than ‘Wow’?
You have to watch the show to believe how good it is.

The shows are taking place on February 3,4,5,6 and 7, 2010 thrice a day, at Music Academy.

How Does Music Influence Our Daily Life

We cant deny that music can affect our state of mind, influencing our daily life, and the reason for this is mysterious. We always look for a music that is something livelier while doing some physical work or exercises or out socializing on a larger group and keep listening to relaxing music for a nice and quiet romantic dinner. An increased rate of car accidents ican be caused by listening to fast music while driving and based on recent studies the Mozart effects claim to increase intelligence. We might have heard of farmers who increase their production by playing music to their animals. Below are the main aspects of music and their facets in turn that influence our daily life.

Tempo & Rhythm

Pitch Melody and Harmony

Music suggests movement as it moves in time. Tempo and Rhythm is combined to have an immediate physical impact on our perceptions. The rhythm of an object suggest more or less frequent movement to qualify the repetitive nature of the underlying beat, even though the tempo of a piece of music might be slow and relaxed. The tempo of a piece of music roughly equates with the heartbeat associated with corresponding state or emotions that the music suggest. A high frequent of notes can suggest a degree of contained excitement within that relaxed state. Music tends to have a steady tempo to it, often measured in beats per minute “. Most of the music based on simple observation is in the range of 50-200 beats per minute, the same as the extreme range of our heartbeats.

Anything in the range 60-80 beats per minute is calm and relaxed, less than 60 often very relaxed, introspective or even depressed. 80-100 is moderately alert and interested. 100 upwards is increasingly lively, excited or agitated and, since we crave some degree of excitement from our entertainment, 80-120 is quite a common tempo, and even 120-160 is common in some energetic situations, since there is a strong degree of suggestion between the heartbeat and music tempo. Music moves in time and suggests movement, and we tend to associate music unconsciously with movements made by our bodies while talking, walking, running, dancing, riding, etc.

Pitch, Melody & Harmony

Pitch on its own affects our perception. It depends on how we perceived sounds and music providing a basic scale from high= light, happy, carefree” to low = dark, sad, ominous.” We must find a large thing more threatening than a smaller one as part of our evolutionary heritage. In general bigger objects make deeper noises whether long column of air or long strings in a musical instrument, big chest, large animal footsteps, or large objects banging together. Conversely smaller instruments, short columns of air, short strings, small animals or objects make higher pitch noises. A Melody can be preferred if sounds are reasonably close together with a variety of nice harmonious intervals between them and a rhythm is similar to that of speech. A good melody (even if it doesn’t have words) is often one that we could hum, sing or whistle. Generally melody consists of a linear sequence of tones. The notes should have durations which are not too short and not too long, and should not be in an extreme range or shouldn’t have large awkward jumps between them. Although instrumental musical can stretch those boundaries a little, melodies in its way are very similar to sentences that our brains are designed to speak and listen to.

Harmony is the combination of tones with different pitches, Even though some are seem to be close to the combination of notes is completely the natural set of different notes produced by something vibrating and easily demonstrated musically of brass instruments. Those natural (without keys) instruments such as bugle, octaves, fifths and thirds produced are a series of notes. That is so well together to make harmonious ” sounds like major chords. String instruments can be demonstrate the lowest notes of the harmonic series by playing the strongest ” harmonics” of the strings which divide the length into fractions like halves, thirds, quarters, fifths, etc. All that varies in degrees within all notes, and their proportions help to make sounds their unique color or tones, is always presented by harmonic.

Repetition is the simplest form of PATTERN. If we see something familiar, then it triggers memories and related thoughts are sometimes consciously and unconsciously. The repetition need not to be exact but “similar” enough to trigger familiarity. The aspects of our intelligence allowed us to adopt in so many different climates and conditions that make the best use of available shelter and resources, to build language and culture to communicate to each other in succeeding generations. It also allow us to appreciate and to create pattern for its own sake in the form of visual and aural arts which human brains particularly seem to have a highly developed and flexible pattern recognition capability.

The Different Types Of Spanish Music

Salsa

One of the more well-liked varieties and entertaining to dance to is the salsa type. Its rhythm can be detected the moment it’s heard which makes a person to want to begin dancing and moving toward vibrant sound. It’s very easy to find and is available on many different variety albums making it simple to attempt. There are also a multitude of sites where a fan can enjoy free online music, which fortunately won’t cost them nearly anything but some time. Having some of this great dancing music in your collection is going to be fantastic for your dancing footwear and thus consider downloading free music-get some tunes without paying!

Tejano Music

Another wonderful type of Spanish music is often a type that began on the Texas border and frequently blends both English and Spanish words. The sound is similar to rock, rock country and R& B. The term Tejano refers to a number of the Spanish community that resides in Texas. They’ve got their own traditions and ideals that come across evidently in their music. Although it borrows from both Mexican and American music it is unique and has its very own essence. Among the most well-known singers known for applying this style on many radio channels was Selena and her music is still appreciated today.

Nueva Cancion

This Latin American music borrows influence from Chile and Cuba giving it an individual sound that is both soulful and delightful. There are many folk style variety groups that an individual can enjoy as well as individuals who make this style known and pleasant. It is often a progressive, very lyric influenced type that typically offers social commentary along with wonderful tunes.

Styles That Are Imported

There is a really wide variety of different types of Spanish music all originating from the various nations which use Spanish as their primary language. From Spain you will find Rumba, Pasodoble, and Flamenco. All three of these types have made it into the many other nations that use Spanish and are enjoyed for both dancing and hearing enjoyment. It is also quite feasible to find them as free online music. Consider downloading free music and try Argentine Rock or Chilean Rock for a little bit of lively fun. Both Cuba and Mexico offer their own make of Hip Hop that is a hit on American dance floors and incredibly gratifying.