Carnatic Music also known as Karnataka Sangeetham is one of the two main categories of Indian Classical Music. Karnataka Sangeetham focuses more on vocal rendering than instruments. 'Karne Adathi Ithi Karnatakam' - which effectively means ' Soothing to the ear ' is one of the early phrases of Carnatic Music. It is also believed that Carnatic music is originated from Karnataka, a southern state in India. Sri. Purandaradasa is considered to be the Pithamaha (father/grandfather) of Karnataka sangeetham. Karnataka sangeetham lessons generally follows a syllabus, prepared by the maestro Purandaradasar.
The ancient phrase of carnatic music "Shruthir Matha Laya Pitha" symbolizes Shruthi as Mother and Layam as Father of a song. The important elements of Karnataka sangeetham are Nadam , Swaram, Shruthi, Ragam, Thalam. A very high level definition of the elements of carnatic music is given below. As students learn carnatic music they would acquire in-depth knowledge on these elements.
Nadam - Any musical sound pleasing to the ear.
Swaram - The term Swaram was believed to be originated from the words 'Swayam' & 'Rajayathi'. Swaram lays the foundation of Karnataka Sangeetham with 7 base musical notes namely : 'Sa', 'Ri', 'Ga', 'Ma', 'Pa', 'Dha', 'Ni'. These 7 notes forms the sapthaswaras of Karnataka sangeetham.
Shruthi - Based on which dhwani a person sings which is also called Aadhara shadjam.
Ragam - A set of Swaras used for building a melody.
Thalam (Layam) - Tala is defined as series of rhythmic hand gestures which measures the musical time.
Students start with "Swaravali" in the Ragam Mayamalavagowla. "Mayamalavagoulasthu raganamuthamothama" which denotes Mayamalavagowla as finest among all the Ragas. As students continue the studies they would acquire knowledge about "Varishas" and "Thalavarishas (Alangaram)". Once the foundation is set, students start learning other Ragas through "Geetham", "Swarajathi", "Jathiswaram", "Varnam" and "Keerthanam".