TAMIL INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

Instrumental music is a medium for many people to de-stress themselves and soothe their frenzied minds and nerves. Tamil instrumental music is usually classical Carnatic instrumental music the mp3 of which can be downloaded for free online. Many instrumentalists are now also experimenting with fusion music mixing Tamil Carnatic instruments with western instruments or North Indian instruments that is Hindustani instrumental styles.

Instruments per se can be either stringed instruments or wind instruments. The ancient Tamil instrumental music was basically for devotional purposes when the instrumentalists provided a base for the singers or played Tamil or Carnatic devotional songs dedicated to the different deities and gods like lord Rama, lord Krishna, lord hanuman, lord Vishnu and many more.

During the sangam period instruments like Seeriyazh which is similar to the veena, flute, murasu or the drum, muzham also a drum were very popular. Today Carnatic music has a varied collection of instruments which are used in concerts. Violin is one of the most popular instruments which is played solo or is usually always present to support a vocalist, veena along with the flute are the other common instruments used in old Tamil music or Carnatic music, the mridangam, ghatam, kanjira and morsing are other percussion instruments. Another important instrument is the tanpura.

Nowadays electronic tanpuras or sruti boxes have taken its place. It’s basically an instrument which helps the singer to maintain his pitch.

Acclaimed violinists include Chowdiah, Venkataswamy Naidu, TN Krishnan, Lalgudi, Gopalakrishnan, Kanyakumari, Ganesh to name a few. Famous veena players are Balachander, Iyengar, Veena Dhannamal, Jayanti Kumaresh etc. Popular mridangists are Thiruvarur Vaidyanathan, Embar S. Kannan, Karaikkudi Mani, Umayalpuram, Guruvayur Dorai, Mannargudi Easwaran, I. Sivakumar etc.  N Ramani, Sikkil Sisters, Atul Kumar, Suresh are popular flute players. The mp3 of most of these instrumentalists is available online for free download or after playing a small fee.