Pianoपियानो

You can learn Indian classical music on the piano with KalaSudha online and in workshops, and beginners start at Foundation level. That stage covers hand position and the layout of the 88 keys. Children learn with us as well as adults, so ask us about a starting age and about an instrument size for a younger learner.

Pianists coming back after a long break can start again where they left off, because our courses run in levels. Your teacher reviews where you stand first.

Hindustani music is closer to the piano's equal temperament than many assume. A quantitative study of sung performances found that Hindustani tuning mixes equal-tempered and just intervals, with substantial equal-tempered influence, while Carnatic tuning sits close to 5-limit just intonation. The same study found no strong evidence that the 22 shrutis are used as distinct pitches.

The harmonium, the usual accompanying keyboard of Hindustani music, sounds each reed for as long as a key is held and the bellows push air through it, so it can sustain a sung line. On the piano a felt hammer strikes a steel string. Both have fixed, equal-tempered keys, so neither can glide between notes as a singer does.

The Piano Technicians Guild advises tuning a piano often enough to hold its pitch between A439 and A441. It recommends stable conditions, around 20°C and 42% relative humidity, away from vents, fires and direct sun. Regulation of the action is a separate job: it adjusts the parts to compensate for felt compression and wood movement so the touch stays even.

Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655 to 1731) invented the piano while employed at the Medici court in Florence. A Medici inventory of 1700 describes his new arpicembalo that makes soft and loud. His key invention was the escapement, which lets the hammer fall away from the string after striking so the string can vibrate. His 1720 piano in the Metropolitan Museum is the oldest surviving piano.

The Piano Technicians Guild recommends keeping a piano in stable conditions of about 20°C and 42% relative humidity. Keep it away from vents, fires and direct sun. A piano's humidity history, along with the condition of its soundboard, pinblock and action, drives restoration costs, so have us inspect a used piano before purchase.

London music retailers were exporting pianos to British Calcutta in the late 18th century, and the pianoforte replaced the harpsichord in Anglo-Indian homes in that period. Humid tropical conditions damaged keyboard instruments in British India. Between about 1840 and 1910, firms in India, Sri Lanka and Myanmar produced tropical pianos built to withstand heat, insects and humidity.

Pianists who play Indian classical music today include Utsav Lal, Anil Srinivasan, who has brought the piano to Carnatic raga, and the raga pianist Deepak Shah.

Have us inspect a used acoustic piano before you buy. The condition of the soundboard, pinblock and action, and the piano's humidity history, drive the cost of any restoration. The Piano Technicians Guild recommends stable conditions around 20°C and 42% relative humidity, away from vents, fires and direct sun.

When buying a piano for Indian classical music, start with tuning: the piano locks each note to equal temperament, while a raga can shade notes away from it. A digital piano needs no tuning. An acoustic piano can be retuned note by note. In 2020, the raga pianist Utsav Lal told the Indo-Asian News Service that he retunes a few notes to find Yaman's gandhar, its third degree.

On either kind, look for an action that feels even across the keyboard. Pianists suggest a meend, the glide between notes, with quick figures through the target note. KalaSudha sells digital and acoustic uprights and mid-range grands. Ask us for a quote, or for a piano made to order.

You can buy a piano for Indian classical music from KalaSudha, by quote or made to order, and we deliver worldwide. We pack every instrument for international shipping, so ask us about cases and insurance before it travels.

We service and repair any piano in any country, wherever you bought it: ask us. We also supply strings and spare parts. After the sale, help comes through the chat on any page or by email to [email protected]. Ask us as well about gift vouchers and class sets for schools, or a flight case if your instrument travels with you.

A good gift for someone learning an Indian classical instrument suits the instrument they play and the stage they have reached, so ask their teacher if you are unsure. An instrument of their own, or a better one, also makes a gift: KalaSudha sells every instrument by quote or made to order. For something smaller, ask us for a case, or for strings and spare parts to suit their instrument.

Lessons make a gift as well. KalaSudha teaches online and in workshops, and beginners start at Foundation level: see our courses.

Ask us about gift vouchers.

You can book an Indian classical pianist through KalaSudha for a concert, event or recording. Tell us what you are planning through our page to book Indian classical musicians. To hear our artists first, try KalaSudha's recordings and concert videos.

Pianists who play Indian classical music include Anil Srinivasan, who grew up with Carnatic music and studied Western classical piano, and the raga pianist Utsav Lal. Amjad Ali Khan has worked with pianists, setting slow Hindustani alap beside Western slow movements.

In film music, S. D. Burman and R. D. Burman made the piano a core voice by the 1960s and 1970s, and A. R. Rahman made it a centrepiece from the 1990s.

Not exactly: a piano locks each note to equal temperament, while a raga can shade a note away from it. Bhairavi's komal gandhar sits a shade below E-flat, and Yaman's tivra madhyam a shade above F-sharp.

Pianists still play ragas within those limits. Some choose ragas that suit the fixed grid, and others let the piano's sustain carry the line.

Both keyboards fix each note to equal temperament, while a raga can shade notes and glide between them. A harmonium reed sounds for as long as the key is held and air flows, a steady tone that blends with the voice. That is why the harmonium became the default accompanist of Hindustani singing.

A piano note is struck, and touch sets its volume. In India the piano's main settings are Hindi film music, Carnatic and Hindustani fusion and contemporary composition.