‘YouTube and Skype’ for The Hindu, NxG

Today, Internet plays a very important role in all our lives. There is not a day that goes by without us using the internet as a source of information and learning. Especially when it comes to music, internet today has risen to become a huge source of information across all genres. When we look at the internet with specific reference to Carnatic Classical Music, two things come to our mind immediately – Skype and YouTube.

YouTube is the largest worldwide video sharing community that we have today. We can find a number of Carnatic Music related videos up there that the whole world is watching. I also have many friends and relatives from abroad tell me that YouTube is their only source and connection to Chennai. All the Margazhi Videos and other updates are up within minutes. The best thing that I personally like about YouTube is the fact that anyone from the world can just randomly stumble upon a Carnatic Music video and get introduced to a new classical art form which is phenomenal. And the number of Vintage recordings of our past masters encourages students and youngsters and brings back fond memories to rasikas. It also has its negatives with respect to the quality of streaming and audio but overall, it is a good addition that brings another dimension to our music.

There are recent trends of learning music online through Skype and other effective web programmes. This has its uniqueness and shortcomings. Through this, many students across the world are given a chance to learn from experienced teachers. This is also time and cost effective as compared to travelling to learn music. But on the other hand, I believe this is an indirect and impersonal method of training and that the one-to-one rapport and connection may go missing. Skype is also a hit with many people for its easy navigation and user friendly interface. This helps even a novice to understand and use Skype effectively. Skype classes can also be flexible depending on availability and time differences. This helps people schedule accordingly and make valuable use of it. Ultimately, it is part of a learning culture with the west today and we need to see how best we can use that for our system of music without any compromises.

On the whole, the impact of YouTube and Skype is very evident in today’s world and it is up to us to make the best use of it and try to take this wonderful form of art far and wide.