Carnatic Classical

Carnatic instrumental music is the classical music of South India, Carnatic (also written Karnatak), as played on the veena, violin, venu (bamboo flute), mridangam and other instruments. Indian classical music has two systems, Carnatic and Hindustani.

Instrumentalists play the same ragas (melodic frameworks), talas (rhythmic cycles) and composed songs as singers. The tradition expects a melodic instrument to follow the voice, an ideal called gayaki (singing style). A solo instrumental concert renders kritis, the main song form, without the words. Hindustani instrumental music, by contrast, has compositions of its own, called gats. Melodic players produce gamakas, controlled oscillations and glides on and between notes, which mark each raga's identity.

In a typical concert a singer or melodic instrumentalist leads, with the violin as accompanist. The mridangam, a double-headed barrel drum, carries the rhythm, and the ghatam (clay pot) or kanjira (frame drum) may join it. The nadaswaram (nagaswaram), a double-reed pipe, leads its own ensemble with the tavil drum at temples and auspicious occasions.

By tradition, learners begin with graded exercises (sarali and janta varisai) and short songs called gitams. Varnams, compositions practised at two speeds, and kritis follow, then improvisation such as alapana, an unmetred exploration of the raga. Tuning the instrument to the performer's pitch is a basic skill. Percussionists learn spoken rhythm syllables (sollukattu) alongside the drum.