Hacker News Reader

Comment by dartharva | Hacker News Reader

This honestly feels incredulous. Every single music teacher I've had in school (or even otherwise) in India uses a harmonium. It's a staple across instructors and pros alike, as far as I know.

View on HN

No classical music teacher (especially Karnataka classical) uses harmonium though, which is the point of this article I guess.

I'm puzzled by this though -- my music teacher definitely used a harmonium when I was learning Carnatic classic vocals and it didn't seem particularly incongruous to my (admittedly naïve) ears.

well you got a bad teacher mate, probably in ur neighbourhood whose side hustle is teaching music.

I was confused by your response and all the comments here, so I checked with my parents and I've just plain misremembered a shruti box!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shruti_box

Shows how much my disinterested self-involved 7-year-old self gave a shit about learning music :-D

Not true at all. My next-door neighbour is a Carnatic teacher. I am subjected to the harmonium at odd hours. Just look on youtube for "carnatic harmonium" and you will find plenty of examples. The other European instruments that are common in Carnatic are violin and mandolin.

Violin and mandolin are indeed popular (and so is saxophone), but harmonium isn't. The top few hits on Youtube are either some sort of Hindustani/Carnatic fusion or solos by a hobbyist. I did find a few real performances though, but never seen it in real life. Caveat: I am not a trained musician myself, but quite a few family members are. The instruments I am used to seeing are mostly tamboori, veena, ghatam, mridangam, flute and violin and never harmonium.

However I stand corrected for having said "never".

You're a Kannadiga, right? Have you ever seen a harikathe performance that was not accompanied with a harmonium? While harikathe is not classical music of any kind, the instrument is solidly established as an accompanist instrument in villages too. It might also the second most popular instrument for janapada geeta, the first being tabla of some sort.

Not contesting harmonium being popular. It IS very popular, I was just trying to interpret what the article is trying to say that the Indian classical music purists have a thing against it.

It used to be more common a few decades ago, even in Carnatic, to use the harmonium to accompany basic lessons (sarali, Janta, geerhas): the notes are easier to distinguish. Once the music moves beyond this to actual raga-based compositions, however, it's more of a hindrance than a help

Reply on news.ycombinator.com