About Harmonium

About Harmonium

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.