Carnatic Music For Beginner Level

For a beginner, one of the very first lessons that a Guru teaches is Sruti. Sruti plays an integral role in the music. This is considered as the 'key' in western music. Eventually, Sruti is known as the soul of Carnatic Music. One of the very first forms of Carnatic music is the Saralivarisai. This is also known as the exercise that makes people extremely familiar with the Swaras and the Sruti. This assists in learning various combinations of the Swaras that are possible. Then it comes to the Jantavarisai which is the next level of Saralivarisai. In this specific exercise, you are going to be trained properly on how to sing with Sruti and what is the major way of handling the Swara correctly. After that, the Guru teaches Swarajathi. It is known as the whole combination of Swaras and songs.

Students will also learn the history of music.  They will be introduced to Sapta Swaras as Sa(Do), Ri(Re), Ga(Mi), Ma(Fa), Pa(So), Da(La), Ni(Ti).  Then the teacher will proceed further to teach with Janta Varisai, Dhattu Varisai, Mantra Sthayi Varisai, Thara Sthayi Varisai.  Then the teacher will introduce students to Thalams, Thalams is stated as Alankaram.  Students will also be practising alankaram with different ragas.

As we know Carnatic music is the base for singing our favourite songs & film songs too. Without knowing raga, rythm correctly it won't be nice even to hear and the feel also will not be soothing for listeners & viewers too. Students need to be practice to get raga & thala correctly. Once the base is set perfectly then you can learn any time of krithis easily & perfectly. In the first few lessons itself, you will know how to approach single notes & should emphasize on different raga's. In the first few lessons, the teacher will teach the students how to stress & support even a certain note. 

Ranjitha Harish is an energetic and devoted Carnatic Vocalist and a Veena player. Her interest in music started at an early stage, where the basics of music were taught by her Aunt Smt. Bhageerathi Hariharan. She received formal training from various gurus named Vid Smt H Rathnaprabha, Smt Rani Vinoth, Smt Saraswathi Srinivasan and Sri Parvatheepuram H.Padmanabha Iyer Sir. She had been awarded various accolades in state and national level competitions & also from Neelakanta Sivan Sangeeta Sabha trust. She has performed various genres of Carnatic Music in Thyagaraja Aradhana Festivals (Nagercoil & Trivandrum), Chembai Music festival (Guruvayoor) and Navaratri Mandapam (Thiruvananthapuram) as a small concert. Besides her training in Carnatic vocal, she has also gained training in playing musical instruments such as Violin and Veena under the guidance of Veena Vidushi Smt N. Lalitha Mahadevan teacher and Smt. Kala Raju.

Apart from her passion for music, she is a software developer by profession. She has hosted a website related to music which provides a platform for young upcoming musicians, music composers and artists to upload their recorded songs in different genres. This is a big opportunity for music lovers where they can listen to different genres in music to expand their knowledge to the next level, where it will help the next generation to know about the roots of the music and to embrace the different manifestations and ethos of our culture through our music. She is currently preparing for AIR B high grade in Carnatic vocal. Ranjitha is continuing her passion by giving Facebook live concerts recently. She was taking music classes for school students for the past 5+ years. Preparing them for competitions & individual performances also. Nowadays, lots of opportunities are open to exploring music. It will be helpful for musicians like her & students too.

Ranjitha is an energetic Carnatic musician, lover and trainer. She has 15+ years of teaching experience in Carnatic music. She has a unique style of practising from basics to advanced for voice modification, theoretical concepts of music, practising gamaka’s, raga alapana's for better performances & perform even in small programs & concerts. She had thought of sharing her experiences & knowledge with the upcoming generation of young aspirants & geniuses. According to her, for each & every genre, the base is everything. Sruthi matha & Laya pitha means when sruthi & thala merges, every krithi will be soothing. Recently, she also had done 2 Facebook live concerts and recordings too. She has performed in various programs from a very younger age. She is supporting everyone for their better performances.