--- url: 'https://kalasudha.com/en-pk/instrumental/carnatic-classical/guitar' title: 'Guitar: Carnatic music on the guitar' author: name: Anonymous updated: '2026-11-05T23:59:27+00:00' type: website summary: 'Carnatic guitar is South Indian classical music on an electric instrument, played since the 1970s. Its test is the gamaka, the pitch movement of a raga.' tags: - 'Carnatic Classical' image: 'https://kalasudha.com/themes/custom/music_agency/assets/icon/logo.svg' published: true og: site_name: KalaSudha 'image:url': 'https://kalasudha.com/themes/custom/music_agency/assets/icon/logo.svg' 'image:secure_url': 'https://kalasudha.com/themes/custom/music_agency/assets/icon/logo.svg' 'image:type': image/svg+xml 'image:alt': KalaSudha --- Specific Discipline # Guitar गिटार The standard electric guitar, playing the gamakas of Carnatic ragas Western Instrument Electric Guitar Carnatic guitar is South Indian classical music played on a standard electric guitar, introduced by Sukumar Prasad in the 1970s and carried forward by R. Prasanna. [ Explore Courses ](/en-pk/courses?discipline=167) [ Show interest ](/en-pk/instrumental/carnatic-classical/guitar/show-interest) [Sign in to follow](/en-pk/user/login?flag_anon=follow_term-167&destination=/en-pk/markdownify/taxonomy/term/167) [ Share ](/en-pk/share/term/167) ## Know the instrument Explore its sound, construction and care in the instrument guide. - [ Guitar ](/en-pk/instrument/guitar) ## Overview **Carnatic guitar** (Carnatic music on the guitar) is the classical music of South India performed on the guitar, most often a **standard electric guitar** played on its ordinary frets. **Sukumar Prasad** brought the instrument into [Carnatic music](/en-pk/instrumental/carnatic-classical) in the 1970s. **R. Prasanna**, known as Guitar Prasanna, followed him, and in 1999 set out in writing how the guitar can meet the music's demands. For a guitarist the central demand is the **gamaka**, the ornamental movement of pitch on and between notes that shapes each raga (melodic framework). Prasanna holds that the electric guitar can produce virtually every gamaka a singer can, and that how finely it does so depends on the player's understanding of both the music and the instrument. Some ragas resist the fretted guitar more than others. The guitar is one of several Western instruments taken up in Carnatic music in modern times, alongside the [clarinet](/en-pk/instrumental/carnatic-classical/clarinet), the [mandolin](/en-pk/instrumental/carnatic-classical/mandolin) and the saxophone. The violin arrived far earlier and is now a fixture of the Carnatic concert. Fretted instruments such as the guitar and mandolin reached Indian classical music about a century after the violin and harmonium, and the scholar Andre Elias found standard guitars still rare in South Asian traditional music. Part of **Carnatic Classical**: Carnatic instrumental music is South Indian classical music played on veena, violin, flute and mridangam. Instrumentalists play the same songs as singers, in a singing style. ### Quick Facts Pioneer Sukumar Prasad (1970s) Instrument Standard electric guitar, fretted Key Exponent R. Prasanna (Guitar Prasanna) Key Text Prasanna, The Guitar and Carnatic Music (1999) ## History & Evolution **Sukumar Prasad** introduced the guitar to Carnatic music in the 1970s. **R. Prasanna** took the electric guitar further into the tradition, and the ethnomusicologist Andre Elias credits him with considerable advances there. Prasanna began by ear. He worked out Carnatic pieces on the guitar while listening to his sister's vocal and veena lessons. Her veena teacher, Tiruvarur Balasubramaniam, had never seen Carnatic music played on a guitar and doubted the idea at first, then took him on as a student. His longest training came from the Carnatic violinist **A. Kanyakumari**, whom he names as his guru for 26 years. Neither teacher played the guitar, so Prasanna learned the music from voice, veena and violin. In 1999 he wrote that senior musicians (vidwans), critics and discerning listeners (rasikas) had come to accept his playing. 1970s ### Sukumar Prasad takes up the guitar Sukumar Prasad starts to play Carnatic repertoire on the electric guitar, the first musician to bring the instrument into the tradition. Prasanna's 1999 paper and Elias's 2016 study both place the start in this decade. 1999 ### Prasanna's Chembur paper The Chembur Fine Arts Society in Mumbai holds a two-day conference on stringed instruments in Carnatic music. Its second day covers instruments of Western origin, and R. Prasanna presents a paper on the guitar and its gamakas. 2016 ### Fretless guitars and microtonal bends A 2016 Vintage Guitar review of a fusion album describes microtonal bends and slides in R. Prasanna's playing. He plays fretted and fretless guitars, electric and acoustic, and draws on jazz, blues and rock technique. 2016 ### Andre Elias's dissertation Andre Elias's University of Washington dissertation on slide guitar in India finds the standard guitar still rare in South Asian traditional music. It names Sukumar Prasad and R. Prasanna as the exceptions in Carnatic music. ## Technical Aspects ### Gamakas on Tempered Frets Carnatic guitarists play the gamakas of each raga on ordinary frets. A guitar's frets follow Western **equal temperament**, twelve even semitones to the octave. R. Prasanna argued in 1999 that Carnatic music uses more than twelve pitches to the octave, and that every Carnatic instrument reaches the extra ones through gamaka. For this reason he named **Todi**, Varali and Bhairavi as ragas that are hard to play on the guitar. He held that a player who commands the authentic gamakas will find Todi no more impossible than Mohanam. Andre Elias takes a narrower view. He argues that fixed frets and a flat fingerboard hold most guitars to the twelve-tone system, with string bending allowing slight deviation, and he notes scalloped-fret models from the 1970s that allow more bending. ### A Standard Electric Guitar Sukumar Prasad and the Carnatic guitarists who followed him adopted the **standard electric guitar** without significant modification, according to R. Prasanna's 1999 paper. Prasanna's own position is that neither Carnatic music nor the guitar needs changing to suit the other. Hindustani musicians took a different route. They play forms of modified guitar, among them the [Indian slide guitar](/instrumental/hindustani-classical/indian-slide-guitar), and Prasanna suggests the changes aim to bring the sound closer to the sitar and sarod. Elias finds that slide has made little headway in South Indian music, and the slide guitarist Poly Varghese told him he senses little interest in it, even among players of the gottuvadhyam, a South Indian instrument also played with a slide. The standard guitar has limits of its own. Elias observes that it lacks the long sustain and the open-string drone chord valued in Indian music. ### Tone, Effects and Fretless Guitars In his 1999 paper R. Prasanna described colouring his tone with digital effects such as **chorus, reverb and delay**, along with compression and gating. He drew on technique from jazz, blues and rock, and held that what came out was still Carnatic music. He urged musicians to keep up with advances in instruments, sound processing and recording, pointing out that without technology Carnatic music could not be heard in large concert halls. His fusion work goes further. On All Terrain Guitar, a jazz and Indian fusion album reviewed by Vintage Guitar in 2016, he plays fretted and **fretless guitars**, electric and acoustic. A fretless neck lets pitch move without steps under the finger. That album sits outside Carnatic concert practice, which for Prasanna rests on the standard electric guitar. ## Journey to Mastery Follow this structured journey to master this discipline 1. 1 ### Graded Exercises Carnatic training begins with the graded exercises credited to Purandara Dasa: sarali and janta varisai, then the tala alankaras, set in the main talas, or rhythmic cycles. Much of this material is in the raga Mayamalavagowla. Students spend many months on it while the teacher checks each pitch, phrase and ornament. 2. 2 ### Gamaka by Ear Learn each raga's gamakas by listening to singers. R. Prasanna advises Carnatic guitarists to hear as much Carnatic vocal music as they can. He asks the same of guitar music across genres, from Django Reinhardt to Paco de Lucía, and suggests playing it too. Only then, he argues, does a player learn what the guitar can offer Carnatic music. 3. 3 ### Geetams, swarajatis and varnams Move from exercises to compositions. Gitams, simple songs used in teaching, come first, and the beginners' sequence ends with swarajatis and varnams. The tana varnam presents its raga in full, its ornaments and characteristic phrases, and often opens a concert. 4. 4 ### Kritis and heavy ragas Build a repertoire of kritis, the three-part song of pallavi, anupallavi and charanam, the main concert item since the early 20th century. Prasanna holds that a Carnatic musician should play heavy ragas such as Todi and Bhairavi with the same ease as lighter ones. In a 2012 interview he named Yadukula Kambhoji, Dhanyasi, Ritigowla, Kedaragowla and Sahana among those he finds hard on guitar, for the same reasons they are hard in general. 5. 5 ### Performance Practice Prepare a kutcheri, a Carnatic concert. A tana varnam often opens it, and composed pieces alternate with improvisation: raga alapana (unmetred exposition of the raga), niraval (variations on a line of text) and kalpanaswaram (improvised sol-fa passages). The tani avartanam, the percussion solo, is a conspicuous feature. The lead guitarist plays with a violinist and percussionists, the mridangam (barrel drum) leading them. ## Media Gallery Audio and video performances [ Live Performance 13:46 ### Raag Madhuvanti Alaap \| Debasis Chakroborty & Giuliano Modarelli 7 months ago ](/en-pk/video/raag-madhuvanti-alaap-debasis-chakroborty-giuliano-modarelli) [ Live Performance 8:50 ### Raga Unison \| Indian Slide Guitar & Guitar \| Debasis Chakroborty & Giuliano Modarelli \| Edinburgh 9 months ago ](/en-pk/video/raga-unison-indian-slide-guitar-guitar-debasis-chakroborty-giuliano-modarelli-edinburgh) ## Featured Artists Renowned performers of this discipline ## [Giuliano Modarelli ](/en-pk/artist/giuliano-modarelli) Giuliano Modarelli is an internationally acclaimed Italian guitarist and composer, celebrated for his distinctive blend of Indian classical, jazz, and contemporary world music. Based in London, he has Guitar [ ](https://www.facebook.com/GiulianoModarelliMusic "Facebook") [ ](https://www.instagram.com/giulianomodarelli "Instagram") [ ](https://x.com/GiulsModarelli "Twitter") ## Frequently Asked Questions How can a beginner, a child or a returning guitarist start learning Indian classical music on the guitar? To start Indian classical music on the [guitar](/en-pk/instrumental/carnatic-classical/guitar), learn with KalaSudha online or in a workshop, beginning at **Foundation** level. The first stage settles your sitting position and right-hand technique, whether you fingerpick or use a plectrum. We teach children as well as adults: ask us about a starting age and about a guitar size for a younger learner. Guitarists returning after a long break start again where they left off. Our [courses](/en-pk/courses) run in levels, so your teacher reviews where you stand first. Can a Western guitarist, violinist or pianist learn to play Indian classical music? Yes, a Western guitarist, violinist or pianist can learn Indian classical music; KalaSudha teaches it online in live one-to-one lessons from **Foundation**. We add workshops and summer camps where enough learners sign up. The new part is the **raga**, a melodic framework of set notes, stressed notes and characteristic phrases. On the [Hindustani violin](/en-pk/instrumental/hindustani-classical/violin), fingering and bowing join the notes. On [Indian slide guitar](/en-pk/instrumental/hindustani-classical/indian-slide-guitar), a bar glides between them. The [piano](/en-pk/instrumental/hindustani-classical/piano) cannot glide, so pianists learn to suggest **meend**, the glide between notes. In South Indian music, Ludwig Pesch writes, each note's ornament, its gamaka, depends on its melodic context. How do I find a good Carnatic guitar teacher? To find a good Carnatic guitar teacher, or guru, look for one who can tell you who they learned from. From your first lesson, a good teacher checks your sitting position and right-hand technique, whether you fingerpick or use a plectrum. On KalaSudha, each teacher's lineage is on their profile. Pick one yourself, or ask us to match you. Lessons are live and online, from £30 / $30 an hour, set by each teacher. If you have played before, your teacher first reviews where you stand. Where enough learners sign up, we also bring workshops and summer camps near them. [Ask about Carnatic guitar lessons in the Academy](/en-pk/academy). How much do Carnatic guitar lessons cost? Carnatic guitar lessons with KalaSudha are from **£30 / $30 an hour, set by each teacher**, and shown in your currency on the teacher's booking page. Every lesson is live and one-to-one, online, booked in your own time zone. Each teacher's lineage is on their profile: pick a teacher, or ask KalaSudha to match you, then choose a length and a time and pay at checkout. Have more questions? Contact our support team and we'll be happy to help! ## Past Performances [ ](/en-pk/event/norwich-ragas-slide-strum-on-the-mystic-frets) ### [ Norwich Ragas: Slide & Strum on The Mystic Frets ](/en-pk/event/norwich-ragas-slide-strum-on-the-mystic-frets) Date SAT, SEP 19 Time 6:30 PM - GM [Giuliano Modarelli](/en-pk/artist/giuliano-modarelli) • - DC [Debasis Chakroborty](/en-pk/artist/debasis-chakroborty) • - SE [Sam Evans](/en-pk/artist/sam-evans) • - RN [R. N. Prakash](/en-pk/artist/r-n-prakash) **St Andrew's Hall, Norwich** Early Bird [ View Details ](/en-pk/event/norwich-ragas-slide-strum-on-the-mystic-frets) [ ](/en-pk/event/bristol-ragas-slide-strum-on-the-mystic-frets) ### [ Bristol Ragas: Slide & Strum on The Mystic Frets ](/en-pk/event/bristol-ragas-slide-strum-on-the-mystic-frets) Date SUN, SEP 13 Time 6:30 PM - GM [Giuliano Modarelli](/en-pk/artist/giuliano-modarelli) • - DC [Debasis Chakroborty](/en-pk/artist/debasis-chakroborty) • - RN [R. N. Prakash](/en-pk/artist/r-n-prakash) • - SE [Sam Evans](/en-pk/artist/sam-evans) **Trinity Centre** Early Bird [ View Details ](/en-pk/event/bristol-ragas-slide-strum-on-the-mystic-frets) [ ](/en-pk/event/reading-raga-resonance-slide-strum-on-the-mystic-frets) ### [ Reading Raga Resonance: Slide & Strum on The Mystic Frets ](/en-pk/event/reading-raga-resonance-slide-strum-on-the-mystic-frets) Date SAT, SEP 12 Time 6:00 PM - DC [Debasis Chakroborty](/en-pk/artist/debasis-chakroborty) • - GM [Giuliano Modarelli](/en-pk/artist/giuliano-modarelli) • - SE [Sam Evans](/en-pk/artist/sam-evans) **The Great Hall, Reading** Early Bird [ View Details ](/en-pk/event/reading-raga-resonance-slide-strum-on-the-mystic-frets) [ ](/en-pk/event/raga-unison-at-edinburgh-wind-drums-and-strings-double-bill-concert) ### [ Raga Unison at Edinburgh: Wind, Drums and Strings \| Double Bill Concert ](/en-pk/event/raga-unison-at-edinburgh-wind-drums-and-strings-double-bill-concert) Date SUN, NOV 16 Time 5:30 PM - AP [Ajay Prasanna](/en-pk/artist/ajay-prasanna) • - DC [Debasis Chakroborty](/en-pk/artist/debasis-chakroborty) • - SH [Shahbaz Hussain](/en-pk/artist/shahbaz-hussain) • - GM [Giuliano Modarelli](/en-pk/artist/giuliano-modarelli) • - RN [R. N. Prakash](/en-pk/artist/r-n-prakash) **Assembly Rooms** Early Bird [ View Details ](/en-pk/event/raga-unison-at-edinburgh-wind-drums-and-strings-double-bill-concert) Stay close ## Keep KalaSudha close. Receive news of concerts, learning opportunities, recordings and the work taking shape at KalaSudha. - Concert news - ·Learning opportunities - ·Recordings and stories We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at any time.