Tools for the understanding of
Carnatic Classical Music

Hereunder the tools are briefly presented, according to a suggested order for the study of the related musical concepts. A more detailed explanation about their functions and use is available by accessing each tool.

Note: These tools still are work in progress and might experience some malfunctions. For an optimal performance, it is advised to use it in a computer (its use in tablets and cellphones might be too slow and cause synchronization problems) and with the browser Chrome. When accessing the webpage of a tool, it is possible that it takes several seconds to be fully loaded.

Tāla laboratory

This "laboratory" allows to dissect, explore and interact with some of the most representative tālas used in Carnatic classical music.

Tāla visualizer

This visualizer allows to observe how the tālas studied in the laboratory are used in the real performance of a kriti.

Rāga and tāla visualizer

The melody in any kriti performance is determined by the rāga, whose correct and moving expression is the main goal of the singer in this genre. This visualizer allows to follow the melodic progression through a rāg in real performances of kriti, as well as the progression of the tāla cycles.

Rāga visualizer, with a focus on characteristic melodic phrases

A key element for identifying a particular rāga is a series of characteristic melodic phrases. The aim of this visualizer is to guide the listening attention to these characteristic phrases in real performances and how they are rendered every time they are performed, as well as to browse a particular recording in terms of these characteristic phrases.