Singing with Harmonium or Synthesizer

[Vipul Gore]

Hi All

I have been a keyboard/synthesizer player for 15+ years now. I started
singing recently (approx 1-2 years). I had a question. Is it better to
practice singing with harmonium or with a synthesizer. I have Yamaha
PSR-410 synth and a traditional harmonium too.

Thanks

Vipul

[Ek Tanhaa]

Post by Vipul Gore
Hi All
I have been a keyboard/synthesizer player for 15+ years now. I started
singing recently (approx 1-2 years). I had a question. Is it better to
practice singing with harmonium or with a synthesizer. I have Yamaha
PSR-410 synth and a traditional harmonium too.
Thanks
Vipul

------------------------
Hi Vipul Bhai,

In my childhood I use to fool around with the family harmonium but
never took it seriously. I use to sing movie songs , bhajans and
developed a taste for classical music. But used the harmoniun as a
tanpura. I wasnt very proficient with the harmonium.

20 years later here in the USA my son wanted to play piano in school
and so I got a Casio CTK-601 Keyboard. Later, his interested changed
from the Piano to singing Western Medieval Choir, and I took to the
keyboard with gusto for singing Ghazals.

Of course I play the keyboard as a harmonium with one hand quite well
and use it as an accompaniment fo singing ghazals. I can play a
harmonium too , but I have much greater fluency with the keyboard.

With that background, my obversations are as follows:

Keyboard/Harmonium:

Pros: The keys on a keyboard are soft to touch and large enough for
convenient positioning of the fingers. The keys dont make the
mechanical sound of harmonium keys which can be picked up by
microphones. The notes of a keyboard are very accurate.

Cons: The sounds available in the keyboard dont have the richness of
the Harmonium air flow reeds. The volume cannot be changed while
singing. e.g. while singing a ghazal, and reciting a sher, with a
harmonium modulating the air modulated the volume fo the sound. The
attack and decay of the sounds when keys are pressed and released are
fixed. With the harmonium, air pressure and degree of key movement
allows control of the attack and decay.

Overall:

Next time I go to India, I will try and order a custom harmonium with
keys of the size of a keyboard. The operation surfaces of the keys
should be coated with teflon to remove sticking and mechanical sound.
The sound box to be of teak and the bellows of traditional materials.

If that is not possible , then, I'll stop using the keyboard and just
develop fluency with a standard harmonium.

The biggest advantage of a harmonium is that it is available every
home where people singa nd enjoy Indian songs and Bhajans.

Tanhaa

[Vipul Gore]

Thanks for the response.

Post by Ek Tanhaa
Pros: The keys on a keyboard are soft to touch and large enough for
convenient positioning of the fingers. The keys dont make the
mechanical sound of harmonium keys which can be picked up by
microphones. The notes of a keyboard are very accurate.

What do you mean by accurate?

Post by Ek Tanhaa
Cons: The sounds available in the keyboard dont have the richness of
the Harmonium air flow reeds. The volume cannot be changed while
singing. e.g. while singing a ghazal, and reciting a sher, with a
harmonium modulating the air modulated the volume fo the sound. The
attack and decay of the sounds when keys are pressed and released are
fixed. With the harmonium, air pressure and degree of key movement
allows control of the attack and decay.

Do you have "Touch Response" in your keyboard? If so, you can probably
regulate the volume of your keyboard sounds by varying pressure on
your keystrokes.

Post by Ek Tanhaa
Next time I go to India, I will try and order a custom harmonium with
keys of the size of a keyboard. The operation surfaces of the keys
should be coated with teflon to remove sticking and mechanical sound.
The sound box to be of teak and the bellows of traditional materials.

I am sure this is very difficult. The reason is that the harmonium air
reeds are more compact than synth key span and so it will be hard to
design a wider key span on harmonium. But you can try and let me know
if it works. I got a new harmonium custom designed this summer in
India and requested the harmonium maker to design key span equal to
that of a keyboard - he simply could not do it due this reason.

Post by Ek Tanhaa
If that is not possible , then, I'll stop using the keyboard and just
develop fluency with a standard harmonium.
The biggest advantage of a harmonium is that it is available every
home where people singa nd enjoy Indian songs and Bhajans.

My question was on the quality of the sound. Can you tell the
difference while you sing if the sound is natural (from air flows in
harmonium) or electronically generated (from digital keyboard). How
does that impact one's singing with it?

Thanks

Vipul

[Surma Bhopali]

Post by Vipul Gore
Thanks for the response.

Good question Vipul.

Post by Vipul Gore
[snip]
My question was on the quality of the sound. Can you tell the
difference while you sing if the sound is natural (from air flows in
harmonium) or electronically generated (from digital keyboard). How
does that impact one's singing with it?

Well, I am no expert in the science of instruments nor in classical
music, but I do have experience of mucking around with harmonium as
well as keyboard. I personally don't have any problems while
practising with a keyboard. Of course I had to choose a voice that
plays a note as long as you keep the key pressed. I prefer to sing
with Strings/String Ensemble as it is closest to harmonium in terms of
sound quality among all the voices I have on my keyboard. IMO the idea
behind singing with an instrument is to guide your voice along a
definite frequency pattern and avoid deviation. It might not be good
though to keep changing the instrument you practise with.

[Ek Tanhaa]

Post by Surma Bhopali

Post by Vipul Gore
Thanks for the response.

Good question Vipul.

Post by Vipul Gore
[snip]
My question was on the quality of the sound. Can you tell the
difference while you sing if the sound is natural (from air flows in
harmonium) or electronically generated (from digital keyboard). How
does that impact one's singing with it?

Well, I am no expert in the science of instruments nor in classical
music, but I do have experience of mucking around with harmonium as
well as keyboard. I personally don't have any problems while
practising with a keyboard. Of course I had to choose a voice that
plays a note as long as you keep the key pressed. I prefer to sing
with Strings/String Ensemble as it is closest to harmonium in terms of
sound quality among all the voices I have on my keyboard. IMO the idea
behind singing with an instrument is to guide your voice along a
definite frequency pattern and avoid deviation. It might not be good
though to keep changing the instrument you practise with.

Surma ji,

In the beginning I used the string ensemble, but later I discovered
that a combination of French horn and Tuba on a Casio-601 is the
nearest to a harmonium sound. Try it. You'll be surprised by the
harmony that brings.

Tanhaa

[Ek Tanhaa]

Post by Surma Bhopali

Post by Ek Tanhaa

Post by Surma Bhopali

Post by Vipul Gore
Thanks for the response.

Good question Vipul.

Post by Ek Tanhaa

Post by Surma Bhopali

Post by Vipul Gore
[snip]
My question was on the quality of the sound. Can you tell the
difference while you sing if the sound is natural (from air flows in
harmonium) or electronically generated (from digital keyboard). How
does that impact one's singing with it?

Well, I am no expert in the science of instruments nor in classical
music, but I do have experience of mucking around with harmonium as
well as keyboard. I personally don't have any problems while
practising with a keyboard. Of course I had to choose a voice that
plays a note as long as you keep the key pressed. I prefer to sing
with Strings/String Ensemble as it is closest to harmonium in terms of
sound quality among all the voices I have on my keyboard. IMO the idea
behind singing with an instrument is to guide your voice along a
definite frequency pattern and avoid deviation. It might not be good
though to keep changing the instrument you practise with.

Surma ji,
In the beginning I used the string ensemble, but later I discovered
that a combination of French horn and Tuba on a Casio-601 is the
nearest to a harmonium sound. Try it. You'll be surprised by the
harmony that brings.
Tanhaa

Tanhaa Ji ,
Can you suggest some basic books to play tunes on keyboard.
I have a small keyboard CASIO - SA 39.
Regards,
- kp

-----------------------------
Kp Bhai,

i have never used any book so I cant recommend any. But I think if
you check the internet, you will find many sites where the notes and
the music is available of some popular songs.

I learnt by playing the Indian national anthem a couple of hundred
times.
it uses only the pure notes

Sa Re Ga ma Pa Dha Ni Sa. in Hindi notation
C D E F G A B C in western notation

Ask any one to tell the sequence of the notes of the National Anthem.

Once you can play this, the notes sit in you mind and you
subconsciously make the connection between the music in your mind,
what you hear while playing, and the fingers that play the notes.

After that you need practice by trying the songs you know. Oc course
the best course is to get a Guru. A Teacher is very important to teach
you some of the good habits.

But remember, that you can only play what you can sing. So always hum
in you mind of even sing out loud and match the your voice frequency
with the keyboard farequency. When the two are in harmnony its
"heaven"

Good luck.

Tanhaa

a

[Ek Tanhaa]

Post by Vipul Gore
Thanks for the response.

Post by Ek Tanhaa
Pros: The keys on a keyboard are soft to touch and large enough for
convenient positioning of the fingers. The keys dont make the
mechanical sound of harmonium keys which can be picked up by
microphones. The notes of a keyboard are very accurate.

What do you mean by accurate?

The frequency of each note of a keyboard is mathematically correct.
Where as in a harmonium, its manually adjusted at the time of making.
The ratios of the frequencies may be reasonably accurate , but key for
key, a harmonium may not be in unison with a keyboard.

Post by Vipul Gore

Post by Ek Tanhaa
Cons: The sounds available in the keyboard dont have the richness of
the Harmonium air flow reeds. The volume cannot be changed while
singing. e.g. while singing a ghazal, and reciting a sher, with a
harmonium modulating the air modulated the volume fo the sound. The
attack and decay of the sounds when keys are pressed and released are
fixed. With the harmonium, air pressure and degree of key movement
allows control of the attack and decay.

Do you have "Touch Response" in your keyboard? If so, you can probably
regulate the volume of your keyboard sounds by varying pressure on
your keystrokes.

Post by Ek Tanhaa
Next time I go to India, I will try and order a custom harmonium with
keys of the size of a keyboard. The operation surfaces of the keys
should be coated with teflon to remove sticking and mechanical sound.
The sound box to be of teak and the bellows of traditional materials.

I am sure this is very difficult. The reason is that the harmonium air
reeds are more compact than synth key span and so it will be hard to
design a wider key span on harmonium. But you can try and let me know
if it works. I got a new harmonium custom designed this summer in
India and requested the harmonium maker to design key span equal to
that of a keyboard - he simply could not do it due this reason.

Post by Ek Tanhaa
If that is not possible , then, I'll stop using the keyboard and just
develop fluency with a standard harmonium.
The biggest advantage of a harmonium is that it is available every
home where people singa nd enjoy Indian songs and Bhajans.

My question was on the quality of the sound. Can you tell the
difference while you sing if the sound is natural (from air flows in
harmonium) or electronically generated (from digital keyboard). How
does that impact one's singing with it?

Overall, a Ghazal performance with a good and accurate harmonium
sounds sweeter than that with a keyboard.

Post by Vipul Gore
Thanks
Vipul