E-Music: Online company brings carnatic guru home

Chennai, July 11 (UNI) 'Gurukulam,' the age-old tradition of learning, has come of age with a dotcom company offering to teach carnatic music on internet under the guidance of maestro 'Neyveli' Santhanagopalan.

Indiamusicinfo.com, an online music company, has launched the interactive carnatic music learning with the slogan 'Take guru to your home.' The curriculum would start from the basics of carnatic learning to the most advanced and also assured of making the learner a performer of high standards, company founder Bharath Subramaniam told a press conference here.

He said approximately four hours of lessons would be offered each month under the learning programme. The lessons would have in-depth information about various aspects of a particular song like 'ragam' and 'swaram' singing for that particular 'krithi/raga,' he added.

Currently, four modules are available, each containing lessons of approximately four hours. The lessons in these modules could also be purchased individually. Each module is priced at Rs 450.

The lessons would be available as downloads directly from the portal www.indiamusicinfo.com/elearning in Windows Media Audio (WMA) format. There would be a sample of each lesson, which could be heard before the purchase.

Exuding confidence that the programme would take carnatic music across to every part of the world, Santhanagopalan said an evaluation system had been planned on the lines of Trinity College in London so that programme certificates were recognised globally.

To facilitate a successful learning programme, Indiamusicinfo.com in association with a New Zealand-based company called Springdoo had developed an entirely web-based audio and video feedback system that lets the learner to record his/her voice and video message in real time.

Mr Subramaniam said the students could simply record their voice singing in real time and send it as a feedback for the guru to listen. The guru would provide informative feedback to learners about how they could improve their performance.

The programme would also ensure a high degree of interactivity and participation to stimulate learner participation and interaction by using small group discussions, one-to-one exchanges, interaction among learners and experts via the internet using email, newsgroups, multi-user discussions, fora and conferencing, he said.

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