Welcome to eMridangam.com

Your online resource for online Mridangam and Konnakol lessons that includes on-demand lessons over the web and phone, notations, video lessons that include best practice visuals and prompt teacher responses to student questions and more.

email - info@eMridangam.com Learn the art of Mridangam & Konnakol

Instruction Methods

We offer audio and video lessons with easy to follow lesson sets with notations. Lessons can be availed in the following ways:
Online– Where an instructor is available online to guide you through the lesson sets. There will be a text file and Audio file associated with each lesson. Video files are available for beginning lessons
Offline– Where pre-recorded material is sent to you and great detail provided such that you can learn at your leisure. You can contact us for clarifications. An appointment can be set with the instructor for feedback and general comments.
On-site – If there are sufficient students in your area. We can arrange for an instructor to conduct a weekend workshop on a periodic basis. This method will be combined with any of the above instruction methods.

About the instructors

The lead instructor and creator of this course has over 15 years of teaching students and performs with top notch musicians world over. The team also consists of well trained junior instructors whose fingering techniques and lessons have their bedrocks in the Palghat Mani Iyer school of mridangam playing.

Need more information?
Email info@emridangam.com with your name, phone number and location. We will soon get in touch with you. Upon registration, we will provide a portal for you to access lessons, videos and other features tailored to your needs.

About the Mridangam

Mridangam is a percussion instrument mainly performed in South India. The mridangam is a percussion instrument from South India. The word "mridangam" is derived from the two Sanskrit words "Mrid" (clay or earth) and "Ang," (body). Early mridangams were indeed made of hardened clay. Over the years, the mridangam evolved to be made of different kinds of wood due to its increased durability.
Listen to the Mridangam
The mridangam is a double-sided drum whose body is usually made using a hollowed piece of wood about an inch thick. The two mouths or apertures of the drum are covered with leather and laced to each other with leather straps around the circumference of drum. These straps are put into a state of high tension to stretch out the circular membranes on either side of the hull, allowing them to resonate when struck. These two membranes are dissimilar in width to allow for the production of both bass and treble sounds from the same drum.

About Konnakol (Indian BeatBoxing)

Konnakol is the drum language from South India. The syllables and phrases resemble the patterns played on the drum. Loosely referred to as "Indian Beatboxing", konnakol is how teachers verbally communicate patterns to their students. The practice of konnakol helps percussionists solidify and converge the beats with their body rhythm. It also helps the percussionist understand the minutia within the phraseology by leveraging certain joins between the timing and pattern. Complex patterns involve combination of phrases and measured pauses (silence) and have "off" beats though the entire pattern adds up to the number of rhythmic cycle used.
Listen to Konakkol The Konnakol lessons start with vocalizing the beginning beats and phrases, later leading to simple kinds of compositions called theermanams, korvai and mora. Further along in the course, the simple compositions are vocalized in various time cycles followed by advanced level korvais. In parallel, you will learn the different vocal sounds that resemble the same drum sound to provide better effects for concert phrasing. Also, You will learn what syllables to stress in a composition for maximum effect and adjust pitch when vocalizing with a percussion group.

eMridangam.com is dedicated to excellence in mridangam and konnakol education and performance, whether you are a beginner or at an advanced level.

email - info@eMridangam.com Thank you for visiting eMridangam.com