The Harmonium comes to India via the missionaries. The original form was that of a pedal organ. Religious Christian hymns were often accompanied with this instrument. It was easy to move and it kept its tuning, unlike its popular counterpart, the piano, that were notorious for being hard to transport and keep well tuned.

Indian musicians must have shown a facination for this instrument since the day it first arrived. One has to just imagine and visualise the first encounter of an Indian musician with the pedal organ. The whole experience of having to sit in a chair, pedal, and play with both hands must have seemed intriging but strange. Ofcourse it would not take too long for some genius to convert this instrument so they can play it in a squatting position at ground level :-)

There was a trade off to this. The pedals were moved to the back of the instrument thus having to devote one hands to the constant pumping of air. The other hand then can be used for playing.

This didn't seem to matter as the one playing hand was plenty for playing the melody. Singers found this very helpful and powerful. Each note provided a strong yet soft tone that filled the air in unison with their voice.

So it is that this became an industry. There were serious outcrys from the traditional music faternety. But the Harmonium was headed towards a successful co-existence with the traditional instruments as more and more singers showed preference for its versitility.

Many experiments were done to make it more compatible with the Indian music traditions. Including creating Harmoniums that were tuned to just intonation and even hybrids of just and equal temperament. Some even tried to tune them with the 22 shruti octave. The traditional system of tuning in Indian music. All these basically fell by the wayside. Today's Harmonium retains its equal temperament Western tuning. They get around this some what by adding 2 or three reeds per note and detuning them around the actual frquency. This creates a shimmering effect to th tone and also hides the true pitch. This is often the case in tuning the piano also.

Self Accompaniment on the Harmonium

The good news is that persons from all the above categories are endowed with the sense of perception and comprehension. All they need is a good and well tuned harmonium.

Here are some steps when taken, would usher them in the door of technical knowledge, after learning which they can self accompany themselves to what ever they are singing.

(Note: For learning to play on the harmonium, please consult the video specially made by the institute in this connection).

Before playing, the harmonium instrument can be either placed on a stool along side of which the vocalist may sit on a chair of the equal height. Or if the gathering of listeners is organized in the Indian style of sitting position, on a carpeted floor, the instrument may be put in front of the vocalist.

• 1. First of all, open the front pegs of the instrument, which will allow air to travel from the different bellows, placed inside and outside towards the ducts leading to the reed board.
• 2. Unfasten the clip or latch from the bellow, attached to the instrument structure, fastened in a closed position. This unfastening of the clip will push the upper portion of the bellow outside, when the air enter the bellow automatically with the help of a spring inside this bellow.
• 3. The bellow is now ready to be pulled towards the player. With the very first pull, the air is going to push inside the other bellows in the box of the instrument.
• 4. At this point, before pushing the bellow further, place one of the fingers of the playing hand on the note you wish to play.
• 5. Only after pressing the key on the keyboard, you should negotiate a pull on the bellow. Consider the coordination like the clutch and gear stick of a car. The pressed note in this case will allow air to pass from the key hole. Now gently pull the bellow towards your self and you will get a clear sound of the note you have pressed.
• 6. After a little basic knowledge of how to play on the harmonium, it should not be difficult for a vocalist to find the Tonic (Sa) key, suitable for his singing gamut of notes on the key board. As a general rule, an area of about two octaves can do the job of self accompaniment. What you need is really four notes in the lower octave from your chosen Tonic note, and another four notes farther from the upper Tonic note (taar shadaja).
• 7. With the key of the Tonic note pressed, pull the bellow gently towards yourself, with the left hand (if you are a right handed or vice versa), to get the sound of this note.
• 8. Along with the sound of this tonic note, try to sing your song at this moment, by aligning the tune with the tonic note, exactly as you would if you were playing on the tanpura. Make a mental assessment of the pitch of the song in high as well as low places on the key board.
• 9. Feel your way while singing, by touching the relevant keys on the harmonium those notes which are related to the song you want to sing. At this point, the touching of fingers will produce two kinds of sounds. One kind, which resemble the elements of your song and the second kind, which do not resemble. In fact those tones will sound jarring as well as boring, so it should not be difficult for you to avoid and skip over them. Inculcate this in your memory that the unwanted notes, once found out and deciphered are not to be played altogether.
• 10. As with solo playing of the harmonium, the fingers are made to skip over the notes besides other techniques, with self accompaniment, the same fingering is done by a method called legato in modern musical terminology which implies constantly keeping pressed, one of the relevant keys along with singing, like a continuous flow of sound tones, exactly as a church organ or a Scottish bag pipe.

  With a little practice and a little indulgence, the fingers will get accustomed on their own, to coordinate with the vocal sounds controlled by the mind.

  Knowledge of the technique of playing the harmonium, before the actual accompaniment can be helpful. Also a teacher, if available in the vicinity, can help a lot to give a fairly good start to the project.

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