HaLoH meets Harmonica Amateurs, Baroda.

Dear Harmonica Lovers,

Recently, I came across a photo of Shri Mahendra Gala who is from HaLoH. He had visited Baroda and met two harmonica lovers from Harmonica Amateurs,Baroda - Shri Apoorva Bhatt and Amjad bhai. The trio had a good time during the meeting.

HaLoH wishes to see them in Hyderabad in their upcoming events.

We breathe harmonica!

Bangalore Harmonica Festival-2013.

Bangalore Harmonica Festival, 15th September-13.

Below is the agenda for the first Bangalore Harmonica Festival.

BHF Agenda:-

10am - 10.15 am- Inauguration
(Lighting the lamp, invocation, introductory speech or welcome speech)

10.15am - 10.30am - Presentation on early history and development of mouth organ in India.

10.30am - 11am- Children's choir from Ravi Shankar Vidya Mandir, Vidyaranyapura.

11am - Tea Break.

11.15am- 11.30am - Narration of classical genre with AV.

11.30am - 12am - Carnatic Classical recital by Saitejas Chandrashekhar.

12pm - 12.30pm - Short Workshop on types of harmonica, and routine maintenance of harmonica with AV.

12.30pm - 1pm - Narration on the Versatility of the instrument along with 2 demonstration by members of Harmonica Lovers.

1pm -2pm - Lunch.

2pm - 2.15pm - Narration on western music on harmonica with AV.

2.15pm - 2.45pm - Western (blues)Harmonica recital by Vasudev Prabhu.

2.45pm - 3.30pm - Vocal and harmonica recitals on western Music by club members and other artists.

3.30pm -4pm - Harmonica recital by an invited artist.

4pm - 4.15pm - Tea break.

4.15pm - 4.30pm - Narration on Bollywood songs on harmonica along with AV.

4.30pm -6pm - Performances by club members on Bollywood tracks.

6pm -6.15pm - Vote of thanks.

Please Note: The registration fee for the festival would be Rs 250 for an individual and Rs.400 for couple, which will include lunch, hi tea, water, venue charges, sound and light charges and all the miscellaneous expenses involved in it.

Any further information or registrations please contact:
https://www.facebook.com/sonidomusicalsinc

SONIDO MUSICALS(Brigade Road)

78, Brigade Road, Bangalore - 560 025.

Ph: 080 - 41511948, Land Mark : Near Croma

Rendezvous with Magnificent Harmonica Player-Shri Gautam Choudhury

Harmonica Lover of Hyderabad Ramana was longing to meet Shri Gautam Chodhury aka Gautam da who inspired him to play the harmonica seriously for quite some time.  He could meet Gautam da this week at Bengaluru.

Love with Harmonica

Most of us know who Gautam da is. He is an IT consultant turned serious harmonica lover who has settled in Netherlands after traveling to a couple of European countries. It all started during his boyhood days when he came across a strange musical instrument with beautiful sound through a school kid who refused to part with his instrument. Later he purchased one tremolo harmonica and started playing some songs by ear. He fell in love with this instrument because it could be carried anywhere, anytime, made other people happy with its beautiful sound and helped him make more friends.

After picking up the harmonica as a boy in Patna he trained himself over the years. He came into his own in Kolkata, playing with many popular musicians at Trincas and Blue Fox, and had a band. He started playing music for films after meeting music director Salil Chowdhury, whom he regards as his mentor. He plays Indian Bollywood music, Bengali songs as well as Western music on harmonicas.  Given below is the musical journey of Gautam da in his words.

My Musical Journey

Sojourn at Kolkata

“I have always been an admirer of Salil Chowdhury's music. I remember back in my university days in India I would organize groups and we would all sing Salil's compositions such as 'O aalor patha jaatri'  in harmony but much before that, I mean during my early teens I was absolutely amazed with the compositions such as 'Jaa re ja re ude  jaare paakhi' or ' Naa jeo naa' by Lata or 'Moner janaala dhore' by Hemanta Mukherjee. That was when I started playing harmonica and guitar. Salil's songs were in one hand a great challenge to play but they were also our great inspiration and musically very educational. In those heady days nearly everybody, at least most of my musical friends talked and argued about the complex chord progressions and the complicated harmony in Salil's songs. We would wait like hungry children for any new Salil song to arrive in the shops and would just devour it. I am not ashamed to admit that my musical taste, knowledge and thinking changed completely after I started getting into Salil's compositions. I knew then that I had to meet him. After I finished my master’s degree I moved to Calcutta and started working for an oil company. My main interest however was to get into the music circle as soon as possible. This is when I formed a harmonica group playing popular western music in clubs and restaurants. We got our gigs through an agency run by an Englishman called Toby who cheekily named us 'The Bloworms'. I guess I was the first in India to play the two-foot long Chord Harmonica in those days. Our gigs at the local Park Street restaurants and some clubs were organized by Toby. We played popular western and latin songs for the lunch and the evening crowd. I also joined Calcutta Youth Choir as one of the singers and played the rhythm guitar with the group. It was then that I also got opportunity to play guitar as a session musician in some Bengali films. The four years I spent in Calcutta was wonderful and I really learned a lot. I can't say that I was much impressed with my job. It was then that I decided to leave India and travel around a bit.”

European Experience: The Harmonica Movement

“After I left India I settled down initially in the UK and decided to join the IT industry. In those days IT wasn't so much in favour, but I quite enjoyed it anyway. Besides I got really involved with the harmonica movement, joined several UK and European harmonica clubs and frequently traveled around Europe playing and attending harmonica festivals. I met some freelance film makers working on behalf of BBC TV who were planning to make a film on harmonica and I traveled with them all over Europe. The result was an 8-hour documentary, beautifully shot but after editing ended up as a film called 'Playing the Thing' - a 30-minute docu-story on harmonica. It has been shown all over the world and had received critical reviews.”

“After a few years I left UK and worked in Germany, Spain and Belgium before returning to the UK, got married and left for Holland. This is where I live now. Before I moved to Holland I used to know quite a few harmonica players in Holland who helped us to make the film 'Playing the Thing'. One of the harmonica groups I knew asked me to join them as a Bass player. Since I could not play Bass at all I had to learn reading the Bass clef first and practice day and night to master the Bass. Learning the Bass was less of a challenge. The bigger challenge was getting the right sound, using the microphone correctly and playing with the group creating a professional sound. Well, eventually I was accepted and for a few years really enjoyed playing the Bass with a harmonica group called 'The Rapidos'.”

My Guru: Salil da

“Finally I met my idol and my 'guru' Salilda in the early eighties and since then I kept regular contacts by telephone, through letters and annual visits to India until the last days. I talked to him only a few days before he was taken ill and I was devastated when I heard that he has left us. I was very fortunate to meet him in the UK and in the US in the early '90s a couple of times.”

“I recorded some of Salil's songs in my harmonica and talked to him about it. He agreed to help me to record some songs in his studio in Calcutta. The result was the album 'A tuneful tribute to Salil Chowdhury' released by HMV. Since then I have released a few more albums. After Salilda's sudden and untimely death, I decided to record another CD of some of his most memorable Bengali songs. This album is called 'Durer Thikana' and was released by EMI.”

“In 1998 I decided to host a website in his honour and at the same time search, find and digitally record all his compositions. My dream is to try and preserve all his compositions electronically for the coming generation. I know this is not going to be easy but that is my goal. The website www.salilda.com was launched on his 3rd death anniversary - September 5, 1998.”

“Since then, I have been busy perfecting the content of the website, adding new information, hosting songs and answering hundreds of emails I receive. I had no idea that out there, there are so many Salil admirers. It's a wonderful feeling sharing Salil's songs.”

Words of Wisdom to all serious Harmonica Lovers

Gautam da believes that Harmonica is a very versatile and a complex instrument. It is also comparable to any other orchestral instrument. To play it well, one must learn it well. It is very easy to play a harmonica badly and it is very difficult to play it well. His advice to budding harmonica lovers is that one must develop one’s knowledge about the harmonica, the music theory and also develop one’s ear. A good player must have a good ear and must be good at reading notes, understand various key (scale) structures. He should be familiar with the basic chord progression and in general prepared to work hard to master the instrument One may also listen to other International Harmonica players such as Jerry Murad, Larry Adler, Tommy Reilly, Toots Thielemans etc (all to be found in YouTube) and study their tone, their harmonica holding, their techniques etc.

He advises harmonica lovers to take harmonica seriously as a musical instrument. One must first try to get clean single blow-draw notes instead of tongue slapping which creates noise. One may play in Octaves but that needs practice and the harmonica should be perfectly tuned. One must learn to play a song in different keys apart from ‘C’ on a ‘C’ harmonica rather than going for chromatic harmonicas of different keys.  One must learn to read notations. One may use the Internet to increase one’s knowledge on Harmonica, how to maintain it, how to repair it etc. but must avoid the trap of randomly playing a song and uploading it online for popularity.

Favourite Harmonicas

Gautam da feels that it doesn't matter which model one is playing. If the harmonica is in tune and is airtight with a smooth slide action, it is good enough. A good player makes any brand sound great. A bad player will find an excuse to blame the brand/model etc. He plays Hohner and Hering. He likes the Hering because he likes its mouth plate (being slightly narrower it fits my mouth better), it is airtight (no air leakage) and it sounds wonderful. Besides his 4-Octave Hering, he prefers the 3-Octave Hohner - not the 4-Octave Hohner due to its slightly fatter mouth plate.  All this is his personal preference. He uses only the C-Harmonica to play songs of different keys.

Gautam da has participated in numerous Harmonica Festivals and knows many International Harmonica Players quite well. He is a member of IHL and SPAH. He is available online at www.salilda.com and various other forums like ‘Harmonica India’ in Yahoo Groups and Facebook. He is always ready to help harmonica lovers by giving them valuable tips on improving their harmonica skills.

HaLoH thanks Gautam da for sparing his valuable time for Ramana and sharing his experience.

We Breathe Harmonica!

Harmonica Lover of the week: Rajeev Shrivastava

HaLoH introduces to you a die-hard Harmonica lover from Mumbai whose passion towards Harmonica is just 18 months old. It all started when Rajeev Shrivastava, an aircraft engineer (electronics & electrical) was searching for a video song “Bhanwre ki gunjan hai mera dil” on youtube and came across an upload by our very own Ajay Vijh from Singrauli whose article has been published earlier on our blog. After viewing this upload, Rajeev was impressed by Ajay Vijh.

He then purchased a harmonica from a music store to try playing hindi melodies on his own. After repeated unsuccessful attempts for 2 months, he realised that his harmonica lacked that Chromatic button and on Ajay Vijh’s recommendation, he had purchased Hohner 270 harmonica to play hindi melodies. He practiced hard to play the songs. After 5 to 6 months of struggle, he could play a few songs. He also tried playing blues on the diatonic harmonica. He started learning to read western staff notation, solfa notation and later switched over to Bhatkhande (Sargam notation). He’s now mainly interested in Bollywood melodies and first tries to play a song on a keyboard before trying it on the harmonica.

Rajeev has a good collection of harmonicas which include Hohner 270 in 10 keys, Hohner 270 Deluxe, Hohner 280C, Hohner CX 12, Suzuki SCX 48C, SCX 48G, SCX 56, Hohner Marine Band in all scales, Tremolo etc. His all-time favourite harmonica is Suzuki.

Rajeev Shrivastava  used to communicate regularly with Ajay Vijh and Ramana (HaLoH). His first mass interaction with harmonica lovers throughout India was at Indian Mouth Organ Players’ Meet (IMP Meet), Kolkata. After this meet, his passion for harmonicas became more intense. He practices for hours daily to improve his harmonica skills. There were instances when he would reach his office 1 hr to 1 ½ Hrs late due to his late night practice sessions which lasted till 2 AM or 3 AM.  Apart from his interactions with harmonica lovers who attended IMP meet, he also met harmonica lovers at Baroda, Delhi, Lucknow, Pune and Hyderabad. He also participated in Indian Harmonica Day celebrations at Hyderabad on 22nd November 2012.

HaloH wishes him all the best in his future endeavours.

We breathe harmonica!

Steve Baker trains Harmonica lovers

Recently, a crash course on harmonica was organised jointly by HOHNER and FURTADOS at Furtados, Bangalore. The event was aimed to impart training to Indian harmonica Players to explore Blues music as well to overcome the limitations of diatonic harmonica.

In all creative arts, it is important that the guru is able to pass on the knowledge to the student, in person. Steve Baker did a wonderful job by having one-to-one interaction with the participants and by answering all the queries very patiently.


Steve expressed that he intends to conduct advanced crash course for all the participants in this work shop in a reasonable interval.

The harmonica Lovers who completed this crash course and received “Certificate of Achievement” by Steve Baker are..

Giridhar Kamesh

Dr Nikhil Kandurwar

Vasudev Prabhu

Ravi Shankar

Vinayak B

Ramana K

Ishan Bakshi

Debashis Dutta

Naveen B L

Nazarius Manoharan

Shreyas Parthasarathy

Chandrashekhar Khare

Mahesh Lakshmanswamy

Kapilesh Kale

Aashish Sharma

Vaibhav Aphale.

We Breathe Harmonica!

HOHNER & FURTADOS present harmonica Crash Course by STEVE BAKER.

Furtados  is conducting a 2-day crash course of Harmonica by ' World Renowned Harmonica Player ' and easily the most influential in the modern Harmonica scene, the international living legend, Mr. STEVE BAKER  from Europe.

Start the year with this legend harmonica player Steve Baker who for the first time is on a visit to Bangalore. He has been playing professionally since 35 years and has developed an instantly recognizable style which is both expressive and lyrical.. He is also regarded as one of the players who has revitalized the instrument.. His style draws on the blues tradition with a fusion of country, folk, soul and jazz.

Steve is also a highly regarded author of harmonica literature and has written a number of instructional books. "The Harp Handbook" is referred as the "harmonica player's bible". In 2000 and 2003 he published volumes 1 & 2 of his series "Blues Harmonica Playalongs". Alongside these activities, Steve conducts regular clinics in music stores and is one of the most active figures in harmonica education in Europe. Despite the initial skepticism of the organizers, his crash course was rapidly booked out and the harmonica course has subsequently become an essential part of the event. 

The 2-day crash course will benefit the Harmonica players, as it covers different modules and techniques.. The registration has begun and the course fees for 2 days is Rs.2000, which includes food & beverage as well.. All the participants will be given a certificate at the end of the course...

Dates & Venue

12^th&13^th January 2013

Timings:  11 am-5 pm

Furtados Bangalore

No. 116/C-1, 5th Block, KHB Colony,

Koramangala, Bangalore-560095
When:  January 12th & 13th

So be a part of this workshop and get to learn from the legend himself! It is once in a lifetime opportunity.. Don't miss it.. For registrations or quries contact on the number given below. 

Mob: 9980698008

An Evening at DGQA Officers’ Mess, Secunderabad.

On the eve of the New Year 2013 Harmonica Lovers of Hyderabad paid its tribute to the mighty Indian Army, along with a select few members of the defense personnel at DGQA Officers’ Mess, Secunderabad under the aegis of Col. C P Sri Ram.

HaLoH members played the immortal songs that enthused the sense of love and respect for fellow beings.  The association of harmonica with soldiers was recalled, the days of the world wars when soldiers died fighting for their country with the harmonicas by their hearts.  The fact accepted by the world that the educational and character building qualities of this pocket orchestra and its relevance in today's deteriorating society was once again impressed upon the young audience by Mr Vinayak.  The gathering resolved wishing the New Year 2013 will dawn in a new era of peace, equality and prosperity for all.     

We breathe harmonica!

Bangalore bluesman Vasudev Prabhu jams with Hyderabad band PHOENIX.

HaLoH met Vasudev Prabhu on December 28th at Park Hotel, Hyderabad. Harmonica Lovers of Hyderabad Vinayak, Ramana and Aram Lakhotia enjoyed a fabulous musical evening by Vasudev and PHOENIX.

Vasudev has also recorded harmonica parts for several movie tunes and radio sports. He has collaborated with international musicians such as Chris& Izzy (USA) and Jimmi Hocking (Australia)

Currently, Vasudev is one half of a unique acoustic duo called “By2Blues” which also has Ananth Menon on vocals & Guitar.

By2 Blues:

By2Blues is one of the few acoustic duos in India that sings and presents the blues in its simplest format. It’s just two musicians – Ananth Menon and Vasudev Prabhu, with an abiding passion for a genre of music that is deeply and subliminally connected to almost every form of Western music that one hears today. 

A classic ‘guitar-harmonica duo’, Ananth and Dev have set out to pay their tribute to the blues, in many ways the ‘haiku’ of the West, in their own home-grown style. Ananth lays down the gritty grooves with his guitar and tops it with a voice that is like fine whisky – smooth, mellow and welcome. Over this potent combination, the wailing harmonica dances like country rain on a tiled roof… drizzling steadily and gently, and bursting into a fierce downpour at times.

By2Blues is a Bangalore-based duo influenced as much by the classic post-war era music as by other genres like R&B, Country Blues, Soul, Blues-rock, Gospel, Funk and Rock n Roll.

By2Blues works best in a setting that is personal and mature; Ananth and Dev have performed at several festivals individually and as a band, as well as at popular watering holes in Bangalore. Although a young band (comprising seasoned musicians) By2Blues is fast garnering a fan base that includes curious 17 year olds, appreciative 70 year olds, corporate execs with an evolved taste in music and just about anyone who’d like to hit the ‘pause’ button for a while, and sit back for some meaningful, easy-on-the-ears, uncluttered entertainment in the middle of a hectic life.

Harmonica our Passion!

Performances :: Indian Harmonica Day Celebration'12 at HaLoH

Sayonara Sayonara- Ravi Babu


O hansini meri hansini- V S Shirali & Ramana


Ye jo mohabbat hai- V S Shirali


Kya hua tera wada- Kailashnath


Jare ud jare panchi- V S Shirali, Swarup Mitra


Mere naina sawan bhadon- Swarup Mitra


Janeman janeman- Swarup Mitra


Ramayya Vastavayya- G Rajkumar


Ye dil hai mushkil- Mahendra Gala


Lakhon hai nigaon mein- Inderjit Singh Soni

Raat ke hum safar- V S Shirali

Bhanwre ki gunjan- Ashwin Betai

Tum bi chalo hum bi chale- Rajeev Srivatsava


Gata rahe mera dil- Ravi Babu


Wada Karo Nahi- Swarup Mitra


Dil hoom hoom Kare- Avinsh Singh

Kya yahi pyar hai: Avinesh Singh

Nadia se daria: Swarup Mitra

Inteha hogaye- V S Shirali

Vandemataram-Kailashnath:

Please watch this space for  more videos..

HaLoH celebrates Indian Harmonica Day 2012.

HaLoH team celebrated Indian Harmonica Day on 22nd November at Hyderabad. 22nd November was the 82nd birthday of Father of Indian Harmonica-Late Shri Milon Gupta. Milon Da popularised this cute little instrument with his melodies and taught to play Harmonica to many Harmonica Lovers.

Harmonica Lovers of Hyderabad organized a Karaoke musical nite of Bollywood classics on the Harmonica. Two guest players-Shri V.S. Shirali (Mumbai), Shri Swarup Mitra (Raniganj, West Bengal) and other members of Team HaLoH mesmerized the audience with Bollywood classics on that evening for two and half hours. This event was sponsored by M/s Virtusa. Harmonica Lover-Colonel C P Sri Ram was the impeccable Master of Ceremony for the evening.

The audience enjoyed the performances of all the Harmonica Lovers. They clapped along and enjoyed the renditions. The first rendition was our National Song-‘Vandemataram’ by harmonica lover Shri Kailash Nath. The last rendition was our National Anthem ‘Jana Gana Mana’ by harmonica lover Shri G. Rajkumar. Some of the guests had tears of joy and hugged the performers. The guests comprised 120+ Music Lovers Including our Maharajah of Pithapuram Shri RVMR Ratna Rao garu, Our Mentor Shri Kantha Rao garu, C.Ramana Play back singer, Shri Kalaga Krishna Mohan AIR Hyderabad Station Manager, Shri Rajeev Srivastava from (Mumbai,) Dr Sita Ram Cardiologist of Apollo, Dr Prasad.


Harmonica Lover of Hyderabad Col C P Sri Ram anchoring the show.

Shri Vinayak (Vice President) speaking about HaLoH, Milon Gupta and Indian Harmonica
Scenario.

Mrs DarshnaPai, Head-Virtusa Hyderabad lighting the lamp.

Media Coverage by AADRI TV (will be telecasted shortly) 

Mrs Darshana Pai addressing the gathering

Maharajah of Pithapuram Shri RVMR Ratna Rao garu felicitating M/s Virtusa on behalf of HaLoH.

Team HaLoH 

Details of the performances are given below.

Vande Mataram --- Kailashnath

Raat ke hum safar--- V S Shirali

Nadia se daria--- Swarup Mitra

Ramayya Vastavayya --- G Rajkumar

Inteha Hogayee --- V S Shirali

Dil hoom hoom kare --- Avinesh Singh

Gata Rahe Mera Dil---Ravi Babu

Wada Karo nahin---Swarup Mitra

Pal Pal Dil Ke Pas---Ramana

Ye Jo Mohabbat Hai--- V S Shirali

Kya hua tera wada---Kailashnath

Tum bi chalo hum bi chale--- Rajeev Srivatsava

Janeman Janeman---Swarup Mitra

Ye dil hai mushkil--- Mahendra Gala

Jeevan Se Bhari--- V S Shirali

Bhanwre ki gunjan--- Ashwin Betai

Mere naina sawan badon--- Swarup Mitra

Kya yahi pyar hai--- Avinesh Singh

Kahin dur jab--- Vijay Konda

Lakhon hai nigaon mein--- Inderjit Singh Soni

O Hansini--- VS Shirali & Ramana

Mere Sapno ki rani --- Nityam Bhimani

Ye dil mujhe bata de--- A Rajkumar

Jare ud jare panchi--- V S Shirali & Swarup Mitra

Sayonara Sayonara--- Ravi Babu

Jana gana mana--- G Rajkumar

The joy on the faces of Harmonica Lovers is inexplicable. HaLoH plans to celebrate Indian Harmonica Day every year.

Harmonica Our Passion!

Team HaLoH

Indian Harmonica Day 2012 Celebration

Dear Harmonica Lovers,

HaLoH team is glad to announce that we are celebrating Indian Harmonica Day on 22nd November at Hyderabad. 22nd November is the birthday of Father of Indian Harmonica-Late Shri Milon Gupta. Milon Da popularised this cute little instrument with his melodies and taught to play Harmonica to many Harmonica Lovers.

We will be organising Karaoke musical nite with Bollywood classics on Harmonica by 2 guest players and other members of Team HaLoH on that evening to celebrate Indian Harmonica Day for the first time in India. Details of the programme are given below.

Programme     : Indian Harmonica Day 2012 Celebration-Karaoke musical nite with Bollywood classics

Guest Players        : Shri V.S. Shirali (Mumbai), Shri Swarup Mitra (Raniganj, West Bengal)

Date                        : 22nd November 2012

Time                       : 19:00 Hrs to 21:30 Hrs

Venue                     : SNEHSHISH GUEST HOUSE, 

                                  Lane opposite Lifestyle, Green Lands,    Begumpet, Hyderabad-16

Entry                       : Free

RSVP                       : halohteam@gmail.com

All those who wish to enjoy the programme are openly invited. Please extend this invitation to other Harmonica Lovers on our behalf.

Jai Harmonica!

Harmonica Our Passion.

Team HaLoH.

Carnatic Harmonica :: Saitejas Chandra Shekar Part-II

The carnatic harmonica concert by Mr Saitejas Chandra Shekar was organized by HaLoH successfully on 13^th September’2012. The harmonica lovers enjoyed the harmonica recital by Saitejas. This was followed by interactive 'question and answer session' by all the participants wherein they could learn more about Carnatic music and its application using the harmonica.

The Team :

Harmonica - Saitejas Chandrashekar

Violin - Vidwan Bhatti Pawan Singh

Mridanga - Vidwan C Ramakrishna

List of items performed.

1. Vattapi Ganapatim bhajeham : One of the most popular compositions in the Carnatic Music repertoire. Composed by Sri Muthuswamy Dikshitar in the Raga Hamsadhwani [a creation of his father Sri Ramaswamy Dikshitar] and set to Aadi Tala [a cycle of 8 beats]. The composition is on Lord Ganesha and also gives a very auspicious beginning to any Carnatic concert.

Scale of the Raga [ Key C]

Arohana - C D E G B C[hi]

Avarohana - C[hi] B G E D C [This is a penta-tonic Raga]

2. Entha muddO entha sogasO : A composition of Sri Tyagaraja Swamy in the Raga BindumAlini, set to Aadi Tala.

Refer : http://sahityam.net/w/index.php/Enta_muddo

Scale of the Raga [Key c]

Arohana - C E C# E F G A# C[hi]

Avarohana - C[hi] A G E F G E C# C

3. Raghuvamsha sudha : Another very popular Carnatic number composed by Sri Patnam Subramanya Iyer in Raga Kadanakuthuhala [a creation of the composer himself] and set to Adi Tala. The number is a favourite of all Carnatic Instrumentalists. It is believed that the composer conceived this Raga, having been inspired by the tunes and melodies of the English bands.

ScaLe of the Raga [Key C]

Arohana - C D F A B E G C[hi]

Avarohana - C[hi] B A G F E D C

Refer : http://sahityam.net/wiki/Raghuvamsa_sudhambudhi

4. RagasudhArasa : Saint Tyagaraja's composition in Raga AndhOLika and Adi Tala - 2 kaLe - cycle of 16 beats. This was the first ever composition in Andholika and remains to be the most popular one in this raga even today.

Scale of the Raga [Key C]

Arohana - C D F G A# C[hi]

Avarohana - C[hi] A# A F D C

Refer : http://sahityam.net/w/index.php/Raga_sudha

5. PalukE bangAramAyana : a lovely composition of Sri Bhadrachala Ramadasa in Raga Ananda Bhairavi and Adi Tala, opularised by Dr. M Balamuralikrishna. Ananda Bhairavi is a gamaka laden raga and one of the very important Carnatic Ragas

Scale of the Raga [Key C]

Arohana - C D# D D# F G A G C[hi]

Avarohana - C A# A G F D# D C [This is just the skeleton of the melody. Since this a a very heavy Carnatic Raga, there are many subtleties with regards to the notes in the Raga which can only be demonstrated practically]

6 ManavyAlagincharadaTe : Another Tyagaraja masterpiece in Raga NaLinakanti and Adi Tala.

Scale of the Raga [Key C]

Arohana - C E D F G B C[hi]

Avarohana - C[hi] B G F E D C

Refer : http://sahityam.net/w/index.php/Manavyala_kincha

7. Jagadodhdharana : Sri Purandara Dasa's masterpiece tuned in Raga KApi and Adi Tala - 2 kaLe. Purandara Dasa, often referred to as "Karnataka Sangeeta Pitamaha", is said to have composed this song at the ApramEya temple in MaLoor [near ChennapaTna, Karnataka]

Scale of the Raga [Key C]

Arohana - C D F G B C[hi]

Avarohana - C[hi] A# A A# G F D# D C

Refer : http://krithis-theirmeanings-thestories.blogspot.in/2011/02/jagadodharana-adisidale-yasode.html

8. BrahmamokkaTe : one of the most popular compositions of Sri TaLLapAka Annamacharya. Tuned in Raga BhowLi and Tishra Nade Adi Eka [cycle of 4 beats with 3 counts per beat]

Scale of the Raga [Key C]

Arohana - C C# E G G# C[hi]

Avarohana - C[hi] B G# G E C# C

Refer : http://www.karnatik.com/c1107.shtml

9. The English Note : one of the most popular tail-enders in a Carnatic Instrumental Concert. Was composed by Dr Harikeshanellur Muttayya Bhagavathar, the court musician of the Wodeyars of Mysore, when someone asked if he could compose something that would appeal to Westerners. This was later popularized by his disciple Sri Madurai Mani Iyer

This number is based on Raga Shankarabharana [The western mhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya5fDVfmx_g

10. Bhagyada lakshmi baramma - Sri Purandara Dasa's popular composition tuned in Raga Madhyamavati [often rendered at the closing of a Carnatic concert as mangaLa raga] set to Adi Tala. This song is in praise of Goddess Lakshmi.

Scale of the Raga [Key C]

Arohana - C D F G A# C[hi]

Avarohana - C[hi] A# G F D C

Refer : http://www.karnatik.com/c1146.shtml

Harmonica used in the concert - Suzuki Songstar - SCN 48 [24 holes Chromatic Harmonica]

Raga Shankarabharana [Ionian Mode] The regular chromatic tuning.

Scale - Key C

Arohana - C D E F G A B C[hi] and back. [played songs 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 and 9 on this harmonica]

Harmonica maestro Brenden Power has customized 3 Songstars for me in different modes. The common element in the tuning of these harmonicas is that the press of the slide bar on any note [both blow and draw] will take me to the next note in that raga[mode]

1. Raga MayamALavagowLa (Double Harmonic Scale)

Scale : Key C

Arohana - C C# E F G G# B C[hi] and back [played song 8 on this harmonica]

2. Raga HarikambOji [Mixolydian mode]

Scale : Key C

Arohana - C D E F G A A# C[hi] and back [played songs 4 and 10 on this harmonica]

3. Raga Kharaharapriya [Dorian Mode]

Scale : Key C

Arohana - C D D# F G A A# C[hi] and back [did not use this harmonica in the concert]