Thursday, January 20, 2011

About Us

Namaste!

I am Mohini Joshi. My husband Chandrashekhar and I both love music. We have been involved as main performers or accompanists in music events that have taken place in Chicago for the last 40 years. We have also been hosts to many artists visiting from India. Both of us sing and teach light music mostly based on Raagas. We were fortunate to learn Indian classical music at home from my mother-in-law Leela W Joshi who performed on “All India Radio” for 50+ years as a Singer in Indian classical music.

For several years, my husband and I have tutored music students in Chicago area. We created this blogspot for music lovers who do not have resources available to learn music in person from a Guru. This blogspot is a team effort. Our friend Prashant Desai has provided the technical skills to create this blog in a very short amount of time. Our friend Milind Panat helped us create digital recordings. Our friends and relatives are the main reason we started this project.

Now it is up to all of you to give us your comments and feedback. That will help us improve our blog as we expand it. We know that whatever knowledge of classical music we have is like a drop in the Ocean of Indian classical music, but sharing the knowledge is mutually beneficial.


Thank you and
happy singing!!


We would also like to acknowledge the contribution of the authors of following books which we have used during our lessons.

BookAuthorYear of Publication
Prathamik SangeetLate Prof. Shankar Ganesh Vyas1959
Raag BodhProf. B.R. Deodhar1981

31 comments:

  1. Came to know about this website via an e-mail from your nephew Dr. Sushil Karmarkar of Walnut Creek, CA.

    To say the least, it was very fortunate for me that Sushil wrote about your website. Excellent.

    Arun Jatkar

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    1. I too found this by chance.....EXCELLENT and best of all I think They are not charging any $$$.....cheers from Toronto....

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  2. Namaste Mohiniji,what a wonderful idea to have begun this site.I have been practising singing film songs for the past 3 years,reside in Mumbai,married and a mother of two.I am a softskills trainer by profession and have been advised by many of my listeners to learn classical music to improve my singing.Since i spend a lot of time online, i find it extremely suitable to have access to a site such as yours where i can learn about the various raags by listening to them.I have uploaded a few of my singing attempts on a site called Muziboo.I would be delighted if you would spare sometime to listen to my renditions at http://www.muziboo.com/Sheelaaa_2/music/order-2/
    I was listening to raag bhoop and it stopped midway~~thought i would bring it to your notice.
    thank you so much for your lovely initiative....warm regards Sheelaaa

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  3. Loved the site..

    Great job Prashant!

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  4. What a wonderful way to contribute to the online music teaching community. I loved going through the website and look forward to more additions. It is great to hear the voice that I became so familiar with since childhood now teaching online.

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  5. thank you very mcuh...this stuff is extremely useful fo music lovers like me....my best wishes are always there for you...

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  6. I can't express how wonderful this website is, but anyhow I would just like to thank all of you who are working to share this knowledge. I was wondering if eventually you guys would be putting up downloadable handouts (like with the ragas w/ respective swaramalikas, lakshan geet, and bandish). If so, that would be spectacular. Once again thank you very much!

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  7. Great job going on the field of Indian Hindustani Sangeeth, E-learning process which should continue for ever.
    From India Nag

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  8. My heartful thanks for this website... music is never ending...

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  9. Beautiful site Mohini and ChandrashekharJi. I live in Mississippi and as such we are deprived of live programs of artists who come to USA. We love classical music.God bless both of you to keep giving us tips using the new technology.

    Barun Pani, Ridgeland, MS

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  10. Amazing site Mohiniji! You have and are already doing a lot. Had one more request. Can you publish an article that outlines the steps to pick up ANY Raag in general? Rather than a particular raag? Here's the reasoning:
    - Many times, we learn the notations, paltes, of raags and even pass exams. But we cannot 'present' the raag ourselves
    - This frequently leads to 'Has-passed-5-exams-but-can't-sing-a-simple-song beautifully' syndrome

    One part of learning a raag is knowing its notes, aaroah, avroh etc...but how do we pick up its mood, present it in our own style.

    In marathi, its basically 'Raag maahit aahe, pan maandataa aala paahije'

    Where in Chicago are you guys at? I was in Downtown from 2005-2008! :-)

    Regards
    Vijayraj

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  11. Great resource, lot of information for musically inclined or new at learning Indian Classical music. The language is easy to understand and vocals are so clear to hear and sing along. I also agree with gentleman's comments above, it is one thing to learn something and another to learn, understand and apply that knowledge in any singing situation. However, your website is greatly appreciated and your efforts are truly humbling. Thank you!!

    Chetna
    Toronto

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  12. You have done something wonderful for this Universe. Your contribution is very important because this is the way we connect to God. If each one of us have this sharing and unconditional attitude this world will be 1000 times better then now. May God give you endless stream of happiness. And thank you very much for enriching me

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  13. Thank you very much for providing Hindustani music.It is very useful to learners. my daughter is 5 year old,she is learning through your lessons.

    Krishnamurthy Hegde.

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  14. I am learning to play Flute and to start with Indian Classical music theory your lessons are amazing. Thank you for this noble blog.

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  15. thank you so much for helping us live a long life God may bless you

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  16. Hats off to you Mohini Ji and your team. Feeling lucky after coming on your site.

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  17. Namaskar. I came to know about this website while I was searching for a good website from where I can start learning Indian Classical Music. You have done a great great job by sharing this kind of knowledge to the people like us who don't know anything about Indian Music. It is really a great help for people like us who are eager to learn. God bless you and Thanks a ton again..

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  18. Absolutely wonderful website. I can't even put in words how delighted I was to find this website. Had been dying to learn classical music but it never happened due to lack of resources. I am almost in tears with joy to find the details here :) Thanks a million for creating this :)

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  19. Dear Mohini Joshi Ji! First of except my heartiest congratulation for creating such a nice blog.
    I am a poet & thought of reciting my poetry but my voice was not so effective. So I am advised by one of friends to go for vocal training. When I started learning vocal here. I also started searching on the web to learn & practice bit fast. I got your site & I am amazed & started realising that it will be big support to me in achieving my wish. Right now I am 64. Fully accomplished in my life. Congrats again & thank you so much for your contribution to the world of music. Amrit Pal Singh Gogia. Ludhiana, India

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  20. I am from Bengaluru, India. I chanced upon your site when I was trying to sing some Raaga Yaman Kalyan based hindi film songs. I also wanted to ubderstand a bit about this raaga and was looking for a short video on youtube.com for the "Aaroha /Avroha"for this raag.I have subscribed for your channel from where I got your blog URL.

    Thank you very much for your blog and videos lessons. I really appreciate your efforts.

    Malathi

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  21. God Bless you !
    dhananjay vaidya from Ajara,Kolhapur

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  22. Very soothing and melodious voice. Thanks for this amazing blogspot. Girija

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  23. Namaskar Mohiniji & Chandrashekharji

    What a wonderful idea! I am a beginner learning To play Harmonium. Your website helps to give wholesome picture of each raga. Very useful to learn singing and playing harmonium at the same time. It is hard to find a good teacher in Australia. Mohiniji Thank You very much !!!

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  24. Dhanyawaad for providing basics of raaga!

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  25. Hi Mohini Joshi ji, your blog is really very useful for me. I am following most of your videos for Bandishi. It will be great if you can share Prathmik Sangeet and Rag Bodh pdf since I am currently appearing for Pravesheeka Poorna exam and notation is important for me from exam point of view. I searched both books in market but I didn't get it. It will be my great pleasure if you can help on this.

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  26. Indian classical music is ancient musical culture which is based on the treties.

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  28. Very good blog. Today accidentally saw this and was very glad. Can we get sargam aalap Rane etc in Devanagari lipy? It will be great if so.

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  29. Excellent work...no wording enough to express about your work...it is superb and very help full. My father was classing singer, I always wanted to learn vocal classing singing, excellent resource I came across by Google search. Do you give the classes on line, I am in CA.

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