Music from India

Listen to music from India.

Music from India became popular in the 1960s when George Harrison learned to play the sitar from Ravi Shankar, the well known sitar master. There are two main styles: music from northern India and the southern style, called Carnatic. Actually every region has its own styles and songs in their local languages.

Classical music from India is always based on two elements: “Tala”, rhythm and “Raga”, melody. Two of the most used Indian instruments are the sitar (a string instrument) and the tabla ( one of the Indian drum types). Sitar masters known in the West are Ravi Shankar an Nikhil Bannerjee. Tabla masters are Allah Rakha and Zakir Hussein.

Apart from tabla and sitar, there are many more instruments used in music from India. Some of them are: sarangi, tampura, mridangam, veena (typical for the south of the country). Songs from Hindi films are extremely popular in the whole country and beyond, although not in the West. Bhangra, on the other hand, is popular in some western countries.

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