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Nadaswaram, Nadhaswaram, or Nagaswaram

by David Courtney working tools

Nadaswaram, large south In­dian oboe

Nadaswaram is a South In­dian version of the shehnai.  It is also called nagaswaram.   It is sub­stan­tially larger than the shehnai and has a simple double reed rather than the more comp­lex quadruple reed.  It is con­si­dered a very auspicious instrument and is found at temples and at weddings.  It is normally accompanied by a sur peti, ottu, and a tavil.  There is a smaller version of the nadaswaram which is played in folk music and is known mukhavina.

Nadaswaram Reed
Nadsawaram Reed (Photo courtesy of Joseph Lucido)
THESE BOOKS MAY NOT BE FOR YOU
A superficial exposure to music is acceptable to most people; but there is an elite for whom this is not enough. If you have attained certain social and intellectual level, Elementary North Indian Vocal (Vol 1-2) may be for you.

This has compositions, theory, history, and other topics. All exercises and compositions have audio material which may be streamed over the internet for free.
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Other Sites of Interest

Bharatiya Sangeet Vadya (Review)

Catalogue of Indian Musical Instruments

Fractal dimension analysis of audio signals for Indian musical instrument recognition

Natural synthesis of North Indian musical instruments

Recognition of Indian Musical Instruments with Multi-Classifier Fusion

The Tagore collection of Indian musical instruments

Improvement of Audio Feature Extraction Techniques in Traditional Indian Musical Instrument

East Indians musical instruments

Yantra kosha; or, A Treasury of the Musical Instruments of Ancient and of Modern India, and of Various Other Countries