Hindustani Classical Music – free recordings of Master Players

This is a collection of classical recordings from the Master players of Hindustani Music (North Indian Music), which is worth to listen to, and which I also will use as subject in my teachings. The recordings streamed below are very helpful to learn Hindustani Classical Music.

Support for (Online) Bansuri Lessons

Especially for Online Lessons on the Bansuri (North Indian Flute) it is very usable to work with those examples. Best is to get the audio offline on your device, and then use tools like the “Audipo” player to work on them.

Also, as a musician, I also want to encourage everybody to go and look to buy those recordings somewhere. You will have them at a better quality, and to work efficiently with them you need to have them offline stored on a device!

Too bad that most services like GooglePlay or iTunes constantly try to bind us to their specific apps or even to the cloud … But there are ways to get the files out of their systems to be able to load them in the player of your convenience. Take the effort, it is worth doing so. With players like “Audipo” you have options like pitch shift, speed change, markers and looping whatever section you choose – great learning tools, you will see!

Rupak Kulkarni: Raag Ahir Bhairav (Alaap-Jor-Jhalla, Matta Taal, Tintaal)

This was the recording because of which I was drawn into the Hindustani Music on the Bansuri so much. Till today my very favorite recording. Please, value the art and try to buy the album somewhere …

This piece is not necessarily the first one to learn as a beginner, but to get inspired I think it is the best recording to listen to. The playing and the sound quality are both just perfect, and the length of the Raag presentation is not too long, but also not too short to have everything in it.

Please enjoy!

0:00 Alaap-Jor-Jhalla
14:58 Matta Taal
29:56 Drut Tintaal

Vilayat Khan: Raag Yaman (Vilambit Tintaal)

This is a Gat in slow Tintaal in Raag Yaman. The scale of Raag Yaman is the easiest on the Bansuri, as there is no half-covered whole needed.

Also the key Vilayat Khan is playing in is quite close to the C, therefore also suitable for beginners who start learning on a smaller Bansuri.

The Raga Guide: short Alaap & Gat in Ektaal by Hariprassad Chaurasia

“The Raga Guide” is a must-have book plus CDs for Hindustani Classical Music. It is a large collection of very short Raag presentations by four different Indian Maestros, and the intent is to give learners a quick insight and feeling for the essentials of each Raag.

The Alaaps are transcribed in the book (western and Indian notation!), but also the Gats are great to learn. Here is the audio example for Raag Bhoopali:

0:00 Alaap
1:30 Gat in Ektaal

Hariprassad Chaurasia: Raag Bhoopali (Alaap, Jhaptaal, Tintaal)

This one is good to learn for beginners. The Tintaal is not too difficult, especially when the speed is reduced a bit, and Bhoopali is always great for a beginning. In Western improvised music we also learn the Pentatonic scale first.

0:00 Alaap
13:14 Gat in Jhaptaal
26:08 Gat in Tintaal