Indian vs Western music

Indian music originates from India while Western music comes from multiple western countries belonging to Europe, Americas. Indian music has a history that dates back thousands of years while Western music has its history of only a few centuries.

India is a country with 18 official languages. All the folk music is based on all those languages. India's most folk and classical music consist of main instruments like Tabla, Mridangam, Dolak, Tampura, Clarinet, Harmonium etc.

Western music includes Pop, Jazz, Rock etc. Western music is based on rock instruments like Guitar and soft instruments like the Violin.

Indian music can be divided into three basic types that are Classical, Semi-Classical and Folk. Classical is further divided into the common forms of music which people know. These are Hindustani music and Carnatic music.

Western music has no specific divisions of music but some popular ones are Classical, Jazz, Country, Pop, Rock etc. Western music is either a rock song or a smooth one if mainly instrumental.

Hindustani music is popular from times of the Vedas. It is known since 1000 BC but was developed much later in the 13^th and 14^th centuries by influences of Persian music. Hindustani music has mainly developed from the north part of India and also from some other countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh etc. Some common Hindustani music types are Dhrupad, Tarana, Sadra, Dhamar, Khyal etc.

Carnatic music has originated from the south part of India. And classical music of the states like Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh is part of Carnatic music. Carnatic music has been dated back to about 15^th and 16^th centuries. There are originally 7.2 million (7200000) ragas in Carnatic music from which 300 are still used today.

Western music is nothing but the folk music of European countries and Americas. If we want to make our own divisions, we can divide Western music into rock music consisting instruments like Electric guitar and smooth music having instruments like Violin. There are various other types of music as mentioned earlier.

We know that music was never invented. Music was discovered by humans long ago. But, music has taken its form only a few millennia ago. Indian music has been known to be there from the BC times. But Western music has been known only from the medieval ages like about 4^th or 5^th century. Music has been developed in different parts of the world in different ways. Western music is usually known for its rock type songs but the fact is that their instrumentals are sometimes softer than Indian music.

As Indian and Western music are both different types of music, there will definitely be differences but there are a few similarities too between them.

In Indian music, one has to understand the beauty of the rhythm and the words of the song or any other type of the music. Whereas, in Western music, one needs to have an adaptation to a tune to understand it. In that case, Indian music is more difficult to understand than Western music.

In Western music, the music is first composed and then the background music is played in synchronization. In Indian music, the background music and the song are played and recorded together.

In Western music, the instruments have doubles, meaning that while playing the music, chords are also played by the left-hand giving the background music a special effect. In Indian music, the instruments usually used are very simple and the usual ones seen are harmonium and tabla which do not have chords in specific. Western is polyphonic while Indian is monophonic.

Western music is based on equal-tempered scale while Indian music is based on the 12 Swaras (7 full-notes and 5 semi-tones) and Taal (has pressure on start point Sam and releases on Khali).

One common thing in Indian and Western music is that, rhythm is the base of both the types of music. Another common thing is that the way of writing compositions in both Indian and Western music are the same. The lyrics are written first and then sung.

The songs are non-stop. It is not like a song starts and is interrupted by another and is returned back to first one. Both the types of music have same kind of structure. The notations in both Indian and Western music are same like Sa-Do-C, Re-Re-D, Ga-Mi-E, Ma-Fa-F, Pa-So-G, Dha-La-A, Ni-Ti-B.

DO RE MI FA SO LA TI

SA RE GA MA PA DHA NI

Some Indian instruments are Sitar, Sarod, Tabla, Flute, Shehnai, Veena, Chenda, Harmonium, Mridangam, Gettuvadyam, Nagaswaram. Some Western instruments are Guitar, Piano, Violin, Tambora, Saxophone, Drums, Trumpet.

Most of the Indian instruments come from the Trumpet and Drums family. Astonishingly, Trumpet and Drums are Western instruments. These days, the Bollywood songs are adapting to the Western instruments and are getting rhythm from Drums. Most of the Indian instruments provide rhythm and background while the Western instruments are part of the music or song.

From all my study, I derive that these two types of music have evolved differently. I can say that, Indian and Western music are both very different. They have very few commonalities and similarities in them.

Suhas

1 July 2012

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