Naadam, Naadarupaya,
Naadabindhu, Kalathmaham,
Naadantham, Chabothantham,
Ganeshaya, Namo Namaha
Thus begins our journey to search the secrets of an ancient art of music. It is explaining the unexplainable in a language as old as age and as universal as the universe itself.
India as we know is a country that homes many types of arts and culture. There are thousands of scriptures, myths and legends that gives us many valuable teachings. Carnatic Music among one of them. Developed from the ancient India, the art of musicology still survives until today.
Although the Carnatic Music had gone through many evolutions, it still maintains its original aspects and functions as its still the crown jewel of the music world. There are stylistic differences, the basic elements of śruti , swara , rāga and tala form the foundation of improvisation and composition in both Carnatic and Hindustani music.
Carnatic music is usually performed by a small ensemble of musicians, consisting of a principal performer (usually a vocalist), a melodic accompaniment (usually a violin), a rhythm accompaniment (usually a mridangam), and a tambura, which acts as a drone throughout the performance. Other typical instruments used in performances may include the ghatam, kanjira, morsing, veena & flute.
A raga prescribes a set of rules for building a melody - very similar to the Western concept of mode. It specifies rules for movements up (aarohanam) and down (avarohanam), the scale of which notes should figure more and which notes should be used more sparingly, which notes may be sung with gamaka, which phrases should be used or avoided, and so on. In effect, it is a series of obligatory musical events which must be observed, either absolutely or with a particular frequency.
Tala refers to the beat set for a particular composition (a measure of time). Talas have cycles of a defined number of beats and rarely change within a song. They have specific components, which in combinations can give rise to the variety to exist allowing different compositions to have different rhythms.