Music of India

Teaching Program – 30 minute sessions

1
Introduction to a range of Indian music
To understand that there is a range of different music from India
To find words to describe a personal response to music

Play and discuss samples of clips (you don’t have to play each one in full and you
can be selective – you don’t have to play them all):

You might want to play the music and actually not show the videos at this point as it
might actually distract them from listening but you let them watch the videos later.

Indian Film Music Naushad Ali

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x_l8lU9uqg

Carnatic Classical Music (South)– Ravi Shankar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JctKjVHmo2g

Bhangra music (Punjabi folk)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFGkYI5ouE8

Hindustani Classical Music (North) Ustad Rashid Khan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfvRoNLtiLA

Qawwali music (Muslim devotional music)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYj8xcws16k

Modern film music (Jai Ho) – mixture of everything

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z32SCbI4dNU

Anglo-Indian modern music Najma Akhtar/Talvin Singh

Modern Anglo-Indian Najma Akhtar/Talvin Singh

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qp2kchqIPWg

Indian influenced hip-hop

British Tamil rapper M.I.A. Galang which also uses Jamaican slang
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCL1RpgYxRM

2.
Introduction to Indian Instruments

Recognise a range of instruments from different cultures

Classify instruments – percussion, string, wind, keyboard etc

This is a video displaying Indian classical music instruments both how they look and how they sound
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOxD77LDUQY
http://www.indianmelody.com/musicinstruments.htm

Has more.
Remember to ask the children what types of instruments they are – percussion, string,
wind, keyboard etc?
Do a google search for Indian Musical Instrument and see how many they can name!

3.
Melody - Indian sol fa (swarmas/sargam)

Sing notes along with a pitched instrument

Learn about pitch – higher and lower
What is improvisation?

European solfege http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtLIAWAI0EA Sound of Music

Doh re mi fa sol la ti doh

Demonstrate by singing/playing scale on instrument e.g. CDEFGABC

In India use swarmas or sargam to sing different names
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RrKEaCvYbA
child sings
In India use sa, ri, ga, ma, pa, dha, ni, sa = do, re, mi etc
Sing along with instrument CDEFG sa ri ga ma pa

GFEDC pa ma ga ri sa

CGAGC sa pa dha pa sa

Listen to example
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etyQLn5Ou_4

Example of child improvising using syllables

What does improving mean?

4.
Rhythm: Indian Rhythmic Mnemonics
Perform and devise repeating rhythmic patterns
Link with Maths

In India they also have syllables to represent the beats.

Basically (each syllable one beat):

 Thom - 1 Beat
Ta Ka - 2 Beats
Ta Ki Ta - 3 Beats
Ta Ka Di Mi - 4 beats
Ta Di Gi Na Thom - 5 beats

From these you can make patterns which are then repeated e.g
3.2. – Ta Ka Ta Ki Ta

3.3.3.2
Ta Ki Ta Ta Ki Ta Ta Ka Ta Ka

Can they make up different ways of making 8 – e..g. 3 3 2, 3 2 3, 5 3?

Indian musicians can improvise Konnakol using this like a kind of Indian beatbox

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lINneylEo0U
is a great example – fun!

5.
Melody part 2 Raags/Ragas

Sing melodies
Associate music with mood atmosphere
Improvise or compose sequences of notes
Learn about pitch – higher and lower

Classical Indian Music has scales called raags/ragas.

They are sequences of notes like scales.

In India each one is associated with a time of day and a mood.

There are hundreds of different ones.
Listen to some:

Go to –
http://www.soundofindia.com/raagas.asp
Make sure whiteboard is not on!
Click on any raag name
Click on the sound file (icon of speaker)
Listen to the raag.
Ask children to identify mood and time of day
Check back on the first page

It’s easy to get children to improvise using a sequence of notes

Make up your own Raga by giving children 3 or 4 chime bars then get each group to
improvise using their own Raga (what notes they have)
6
Indian Film Music

Identify aspects of music and dance

Identify musical instruments by sound
Learn about famous non-Western composers

Where is Hollywood?
Why is it associated with films?
What country makes the most films?
Answer is India.

Indian Film industry known as Bollywood.

Why do you think they called it that?

Indian people love films and around the world…even in parts of Africa, Indian films
are very popular.

They often feature a lot of music and dancing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vewp4vJojac
is a great example
Aishwarya Rai Hindi Bollywood Dance (Nimbooda - Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam)

Talk about the instruments they hear and the dancing…what do they notice?
Did they hear the Konnakol (lesson 4)?

AS Rahman is a famous film music composer – known in the UK for Slumdog

Millionaire.

NB “had sold more than 150 million records of his film

scores and soundtracks worldwide,[3][4] and sold over 200 million cassettes,
[5]
making him one of the world's all-time top selling recording artists.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._R._Rahman for picture

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCEMB5Eqbc4 is a top 20 of Rahman’s songs

What do they hear in Rahman’s music? Is it al Indian instruments?

If we can find it play end dance sequence of Slumdog – Jai Ho

Maybe http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRC4QrUwo9o but I might find a better

clip.