Concert Platform

Normally, all Music Concerts are held on a stage which is raised a little bit above the floor level. There will be enough space to accommodate the main artist and the accompanying artists.If it is a vocal Carnatic Concert, the main artist occupies the middle position and Violin and Mrudangam artists occupies the position of either side of the main artist facing each other. Violin and Mrudangam artists occupy either left or right side of the main artist depending on whether the Mrudangam artist is left handed or right handed.

Thambura artist occupies the position just behind the main artist. Some singer prefers to have two Thamburas. In this case the Thambura players will be sitting behind the main artist on either side.This is the general seating arrangement of the artists on the stage for a Carnatic Music Concert.

There are concerts where many more accompaniments such as Ghadam, Kanjeera, Konnakol,Morsing etc. ,accompany the main Vocal artist.These artists occupy the position behind the main artist.Konnakol is an art of performing the percussion syllables vocally in the concert.

Some Vocal artists prefer to have another vocalist- preferably his student- for Vocal support. The supporting artist sings only the songs along with the main artist and may not participate in Manodarma portion of the concert.

If the main artist is a Violin player, then the Mrudangam player occupies left or right side and other accompaniments as described above.Normally, there will be no violin accompaniment in Violin concert. There are concerts where there will be two or three main Violin artists.

For Veena and Flute concert there will be Mrudangam and/or Gadam and/ or Kanjeera and/or Morsing accompaniments.

For Nadaswaram concert, Thavil, the percussion instrument, is the accompaniment and there may be two Thavils in some concerts, the artists sitting on either side of the main artist(s) facing each other. The Sruthi or Drone instrument is the "Oththu " which is similar to Nadaswaram but a little smaller in size.The artist playing this instrument sits behind the main artist(s). Sruthi will be provided by this Artist throughout the concert.The Talam is maintained by the artist playing a specially made Cymbal , sitting behind the main artist(s). This artist plays the Cymbal producing continuous ringing tone for the beat and damped tone for the wave of the Talam. There will be no tone for the finger counts.

The above descriptions are normally seen in Carnatic music concert stage adhering to tradition or Sampradaya and of course, there are exemptions and deviations.

In the group singing or fusion music concerts or in Carnatic music orchestras, the seating arrangements are decided by the group leader.