Harmonium or Reed Organ is a musical keyboard instrument similar to a pipe organ. It consists of reed pipes and sound is produced by air being pushed or sucked over reeds resulting in a sound similar to that of an accordion. The sound from a harmonium is produced, as with the accordion family, by a stream of air being blown (or sucked in the case of an American Organ) through a reed.

However, harmonium is a keyboard, and so these lessons apply equally to the harmonium as well as to the electronic synthesizer keyboard. The important difference between keyboard and harmonium is that you can - and do play the keys with your left hand also; but for harmonium, your left hand is used in pumping the bellow to force air under pressure into the inside of the harmonium.  In keyboard our left hand is used for chords. An ordinary keyboard is sufficient to master all the lessons that will follow. If you already have a keyboard, you do not need to buy anything else as of now. For solo performances, you may use a synthesizer keyboard or a harmonium, depending upon your taste, convenience and availability. Harmonium traditionally suits better for accompaniment during performance of Ghazals, Thumri, Indian Pakistani classical music, and some other types of Indian music.

Natural notes (pure or major) are called Shudh notes which are shown as S, R, G, m, P, D, N. The notes, or swars, are Khraj/Shadj, Rekhab, Gandhar, Madhyam, Pancham, Dhaivat and Nikhad. When singing these become Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni, and sargam stands for "Sa-Re-Ga-Ma". Only these syllables are sung, and further designations are never vocalized. When writing these become, S, R, G, m, P, D, N. A sign of apostrophe on the right side of a letter (S') indicates the octave higher, a sign of apostrophe on the left side of a letter ('S) indicates the octave lower. Re, Ga, Dha, and Ni may be either shudh or komal; Ma may be either shudh or tivar and is then called tiver Ma. Sa and Pa are immovable (once Sa is selected),

Don't think there is anything that you can practice that will have as much an impact on your playing as sargam. Take the sargam challenge. Play the sargam every night for one month and then re-assess your playing skills afterward.

In other words Sargam is the collection of music notes or the swar of the scale.  It has been mentioned earlier how notes of the sargam relate to the western scale. Practicing to play sargam in music is bit like weight training. Basic rules of weight training are to start with simple exercises with lightweights. As you get comfortable with lightweights, you increase repetitions or increase the weight you are lifting. You also focus on muscle group you work on. You go to heavier and more complex exercises after you feel comfortable with the basic exercises. When we say sargam, we don't just mean a scale of notes but it means the act of playing the sargam. Playing the sargam is the single most important thing you can do when you are learning harmonium or keyboard. When beginning to learn harmonium, the teachers should not stress the playing of the sargam too much or enforce it. After all, there is nothing joyous about playing one note after the other in succession, over and over again. Students tend to hate sargam for this very reason. Getting students into sargam is a challenge.

Sargam fixes everything. If your right hand is not strong enough, sargam fixes that. If you are not confident in class, sargam fixes that. If you don't know where the notes are at the beginning, or how to sit properly for long periods of time or need discipline or you are trying to increase your speed or clarity or timing or rhythm or etc; sargam fixes all. Sargam needs great practice, but it doesn't have to be boring. Nothing is more boring than playing the same notes over and over again, so spice up your sargam with some of the variations. This will sound like you are actually playing something.

There are various books written on harmonium or keyboard but no suitable book is available on basics. These books were for advance learning and lessons were difficult to follow. This lesson of sargam is the first effort to produce sargam lessons in easy and with simplified exercises. With these lessons you will be able to play and sing-along with your harmonium or keyboard. All the exercises are produced with simple diagrams and notations. Thanks to great music composer Nisar Bazmi Sahib and all those colleagues who cooperated with me in compiling these fundamental lessons.

Learn keyboard and harmonium in desi style with raga based songs. Ebooks available. desi keyboard, keyboard in desi style, free harmonium lessons, teach yourself piano,  pakistani piano, E.books