There seem to be quite a few people asking about lessons in carnatic music. One very good source that I have used successfully is a set of Multimedia CD's available under the title "The beauty of carnatic music".

This is a 2 CD instruction set that consists of lessons from Swarams to keertanas. It is very exhaustive and nicely presented. I suggest anyone interested in carnatic music to take a look at this.

Good luck;

Hari

The Blue Lotus Informatics brought out a double album of CD-ROM which aims to teach Carnatic Music from A to Z, the learner using his/her own personal computer. This is the first effort of the Blue Lotus under the series of "Widening Horizons" and is titled "The Beauty of Carnatic Music".

This is the first time that Carnatic music was put on CD Rom for the sole purpose of teaching which introduces the student to this form of music with detailed explanations and demonstration. The package also contains an encyclopedia of about 1500 musical terms and about 2500 Ragas. It also has a live keyboard that can be played to learn all the 72 Mela Kartas. There is a built in Shruthi Box.

For further details please contact:

Blue Lotus Informatics Pvt.Ltd., 11, Block B-2, Maheswari Towers, Road No.1, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad - 500 034 e-mail:blue-lotus@indya.com glnprao@pol.net.in

Tel No. 91-40-3326818 and 6502101.

-- Hari (hvattyam@yahoo.com), September 09, 2002

Answers

I wanted to suggest an resource I have been developing over the last couple of years.

Perhaps it may be useful long-term: http://www.ecse.rpi.edu/Homepages/shivkuma/personal/music/ http://www.ecse.rpi.edu/Homepages/shivkuma/personal/music/varnams

it has online downloadable audio lessons: over 100 classes and 175 compositions at this point.

-Shivkumar

Professor, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA

-- Shivkumar Kalyanaraman (shivkuma@ecse.rpi.edu), February 23, 2003.

Hello:

How efficient is this CD or CD's in teaching my son who is 11 yrs old? What was the success rate of other students who bought this CD? Do I have to find a teacher for assisting the student to learn from the CD or is the student able to pick up from the CD without any help? Should I send my son to a Carnatic teacher personally or buy the CD? Please be open and I expect an honest answer. Also, let me know the price and volume of CD's. THANKS !

- Nina

-- nina samy (nskodiyattu@aol.com), June 20, 2003.

Hi I am the guy who has developed the Karnatic Music lessons the Beauty of Karnatic Music. I am happy to see the letter from Sr.Hari. This is an absolutely wnderful CD ROM set that has every thing one needs for learning Karnatic Music. Though I donot say it will dispense with the teacher, whereever teachers are not available this set can take the place of a teacher.This costs $55 in US and Rs 1595 in India.

we are now working on another project called Raganidhi. It will be ready in another 2 months time. This is exhaustive reference source on ragams including an advanced database with search facility. Type any swaram sequence and it will tell you which ragam has the corresponding scale. More than 200 krithis with 100 of themm with swaram notation are presented. This is an amazing product. I am looking for somebody to help me promote this world wide. Thanks my address Dr Prasada Rao BlueLotus Informatics Pvt.Ltd. 11, Block B2 Maheswari Towers, Rd 1, Banjara Hills, HYDERABAD tel 55252101 or 23326818 email bluelotusinfo@yahoo.com www.bluelotusinfo.com (to be updated)

-- Dr.Prasada Rao (bluelotusinfo@yahoo.com), September 28, 2003.

sir, i have appeared for the vidwat exams which is conducted by the karnataka state board. i am planning to take the exams in english but i am not able to get any theory books in english. will your cd help me in this aspect. please reply.

i

-- sahana radhakrishna (smile1986@sify.com), January 06, 2005.

My new Product Raganidhi is released in Hyderabad in February 2005. in the US it is lined up to be released officially during the Cleveland Aradhana Festival during March 25 to April 2nd , 2005. A set of 3 CD ROMs containing over 100 hours of recording. 400 ragas covered with arohana and avarohana sung for all of them. Alapana and swarams sung for many ragams, wherever possible. More than 150 krithis sung 70 of them with swaam notation. Word by word meanings of all the krithis given. A remarkable product never before in the world. Along with my earlier product The Beauty of Karnatic Music, thiese 2 products cater to every need for theoretical learning to sit for exams.Raganidhi is priced at USD54 in US and Rs.1800 in India.Postage extra.Please visit our site www.bluelotusinfo.com Dr.Prasada Rao

-- Dr.Prasada Rao (bluelotusinfo@yahoo.com), March 09, 2005.