I'm new to Indian classical music. Where do I start?

Indian classical music for beginners starts with listening, and you do not need to know any theory to enjoy it. Hear one raga at its hour, come to a concert and start lessons with a live teacher in the KalaSudha Academy at any age.

You do not need to know the theory to enjoy it

Is Indian classical music difficult? To listen, no. You do not need to recognise a raga or count a taal to follow a concert. Two words help all the same.

• A raga is a set of notes and the way a melody moves through them. Each raga sets a mood, and the musician improvises inside its rules.
• A taal (also written tala) is a rhythmic cycle with a fixed number of beats. Each cycle ends by landing on its first beat, the sam.

Both classical traditions, Hindustani in the north of India and Carnatic in the south, build on raga and taal. For the next words you meet, keep our Indian classical music glossary open.

How a performance unfolds

A Hindustani performance starts in free melody and builds to rhythm. On the sitar, for example, it runs in this order:

1. The alap opens the raga note by note, slowly, with no rhythmic cycle and the drums silent.
2. The jor follows, still without the tabla. The player quickens the tempo, and the melody takes on a steady pulse.
3. The composition arrives, and the tabla joins to mark the taal. On the sitar it is a gat. Singers call theirs a bandish.

Vimla Patil, in her notes to a Monitor Records sitar album, calls the composition "the only precomposed part of the performance". The musician improvises the rest within the raga.

Start by listening

Our guide to listening to Indian classical music leads to the recordings and concert videos we make with our artists. Use it with three habits.

• Choose a raga for the hour. In Hindustani music each raga has its own time of day, its samay. Bhairav belongs to the early morning. Yaman is an early-evening raga.
• Start with the alap, and give it time before the tabla comes in.
• Stay for the composition, and listen for the sam, where the cycle comes round.

Before you press play, read the raga page.

Go to a concert

A concert lets you hear the music at close range. Our concerts follow the baithak, a seated gathering where musicians and listeners sit close. The events page lists the concerts on sale.

• A KalaSudha concert lasts about two to two and a half hours, in two halves with an interval. Each event page gives the exact times. All ages are welcome.
• Arrive before the start time so you hear the opening. If you are late, come in quietly at a natural pause.
• Phones and cameras stay down while the musicians play, and photos and short clips are welcome at the end of the concert.
• Clap at the end of each piece.

Where the seating is unreserved, a seat near the front lets you watch the hands of the musicians. See Choose your seats and Ticket types: early bird, general, student and day tickets.

Start learning, at any age

Can you learn Indian classical music as an adult? Yes. The KalaSudha Academy teaches adults as well as children, in live one-to-one lessons with a vetted teacher, in every discipline of music and dance. Adult beginners start at Foundation, which assumes no experience.

If you learned before and stopped, your teacher reviews where you stand and you start again at your level. Read Which level should I start at? to choose.

You can also learn Indian classical music in your own language. We translate the course material into 22 languages besides English, and your teacher teaches you live in their own language.

Keep going

Practise with our free tanpura, which plays a steady drone in your browser to sing or play against. When you are ready for an instrument of your own, the instruments page leads to guides to instruments such as the sitar, and you can buy through the site.

For every route on the site, read What can I do on KalaSudha? To ask us which course or concert suits you, see Contact us.