Indian classical music refers to the art music of the Indian subcontinent. The origins of Indian classical music can be found in the Vedas, which are the oldest scriptures in the Hindu tradition. The Samaveda was derived from the Rigvedaso that its hymns could be sung as Samagana. These hymns were sung by Udgatar priests at sacrifices in which the Soma ritual drink, clarified and mixed with milk and other ingredients, was offered in libation to various deities. This chanting style evolved into jatis and eventually into ragas. Indian classical music has also been significantly influenced by, or syncretised with, Indian folk music. Bharat's Natyashastra was the first treatise laying down fundamental principles of dance, music, and drama.

Indian classical music is both elaborate and expressive. Like Western classical music, it divides the octave into 12semitones of which the 8 basic notes are, in ascending tonal order, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni Sa for Hindustani musicand Sa Ri Ga Ma Pa Da Ni Sa for Carnatic music, similar to Western music's Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do. However, Indian music uses just-intonation tuning, unlike most modern Western classical music, which uses the equal-temperamenttuning system. Also, unlike modern Western classical music, Indian classical music places great emphasis on improvisation.

Indian classical music is monophonic in nature and based around a single melody line, which is played over a fixed drone. The performance is based melodically on particular ragas and rhythmically on talas. Because of the focus on exploring the raga, performances have traditionally been solo endeavours, but duets are gaining in popularity.

instruments The most often heard instruments in Hindustani, or North Indian classical music. HARMONIUM A harmonium is a keyboard instrument similar to an organ. It blows air through sets of free reeds, producing musical notes. The harmonium sounds like an accordion.There are two sorts of harmonium. In a foot-pumped harmonium, the player pumps a foot pedal which operates a bellows that sends the air to the reeds.A hand-pumped harmonium has a hand bellows that blows the air. It is used in music of India, Pakistan, Nepal and Afghanistan.                                                                                                 TABLA The tabla (or tabl, tabla) (Hindi: तबला, Bengali: তবলা, Urdu: طبلہ‎, Arabic: طبل، طبلة‎, Persian: طبل‎) is a membranophone percussion instrument (similar to their Afro-Cuban/Latin-American drum-based relatives bongos), which are often used in Hindustani classical music, invented by the Indian Sufi saint Amir Khusro. It is still used in the music behind folk and sufi poetry. It later became a part of Hindustani music industry. The instrument consists of a pair of hand drums of contrasting sizes and timbres. WIND INSTRUMENTS A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator (usually a tube), in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set at the end of the resonator. The pitch of the vibration is determined by the length of the tube and by manual modifications of the effective length of the vibrating column of air. In the case of some wind instruments, sound is produced by blowing through a reed; others require buzzing into a metal mouthpiece.                                                                                          STRING INSTRUMENTS String instruments are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings. In most strings instruments, the vibrations are transmitted to the body of the instrument, which also vibrates, along with the air inside it. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones. PERCUSSION INSTRUMENTS A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater (including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles); struck, scraped or rubbed by hand; or struck against another similar instrument. The percussion family is believed to include the oldest musical instruments, following the human voice. The percussion section of an orchestra most commonly contains instruments such as timpani, snare drum, bass drum,cymbals, triangle and tambourine. However, the section can also contain non-percussive instruments, such as whistles andsirens, or a blown conch shell. On the other hand, keyboard instruments, such as the celesta, are not normally part of the percussion section, but keyboard percussion instruments such as the glockenspiel and xylophone (which do not have piano keyboards) are included.                                                                                               DHOLAK The dholak (Punjabi: ਢੋਲਕ, Bengali: ঢোলক, Hindi: ढोलक; Dutch: dhool in the Netherlands and Suriname) is a South Asian two-headed hand-drum. It may have traditional cotton rope lacing, screw-turnbuckle tensioning or both combined: in the first case steel rings are used for tuning or pegs a twisted inside the laces. The dholak is mainly a folk instrument, lacking the exact tuning and playing techniques of the tabla or the pakhawaj. The drum is pitched, depending on size, with an interval of perhaps a perfect fourth or perfect fifth between the two heads.