Better Music City: Madurai or Chennai?

dimklosser

I am very interested in Carnatic music and would like to try to learn some music when I am in India in the future. I know I won't have enough time to become a master or anything but it would be great to at least learn some basics....then I can take what I've learned home and continue learning from a teacher here.

Which city would be best for music? Madurai or Chennai?

I want to go to a city with great live music and also with many oppurtunites for a foreigner to learn. I know where to find teacher in Chennai but is it easy to find teachers in Madurai? Like at music shops or something? Madurai seems more interesting to me than Chennai but I'd like to know more about the music there.

Also, I love seeing street musicians. I've seen a lot of street musicians in Northern India but are there many in Tamil Nadu? What kind of instruments do they play?

Thanks.

n kumar

chennai is the capital of carnatic music, you can find a lot of music classes and live concernets in chennai than madurai.

Nick-H

Chennai, absolutely. There are concerts every week in Chennai, and, as the summer wears off, that becomes every day, working up to the "December Season" (mid-Dec to mid-Jan) where there will be dozens of performances every day. I'd recommend taking that the other way around. Find a teacher at home, then, if you get the opportunity to spend time with a musician in India, it will be better spent. Your teacher is likely also to have contacts, maybe make arrangements for you. I doubt that many musicians have short "visitor" packages.

When are you coming and for how long?