Play an online harmonium with your computer keyboard
This online harmonium lets you play the reed sound of an Indian hand-pumped harmonium in your browser — with the mouse, with several fingers on a phone or tablet, with your computer keyboard, or with a MIDI keyboard. Every key can show its sargam name (Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni), with komal and tivra notes marked the way Hindustani notation writes them, and you can set Sa to any of the twelve keys.
For practice and accompaniment there is a drone of Sa with Pa or Ma, a coupler that adds a reed an octave lower for a fuller sound, two sargam exercises with falling notes, recording and MIDI download. It is free, needs no download, and nothing you play leaves your device.
How to use the Online Harmonium
- Choose your Sa (scale) — for example Sa = C (Safed 1) or Sa = C♯ (Kali 1) — to match your voice or your teacher’s harmonium.
- Play with the keys A S D F G H J K for Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni Sa, with W E T Y U for komal Re, komal Ga, tivra Ma, komal Dha and komal Ni — or tap the keys on screen.
- Turn on a Drone (Sa + Pa suits most ragas; Sa + Ma for ragas without Pa) and sing along.
- Tick Coupler for a richer, two-reed sound, and adjust Volume and Room reverb.
- To practise, pick Sargam aroh – avroh or the Alankar, press Start song and play each highlighted key.
Online Harmonium features
Synthesised reed voice
Each note is built from a free-reed harmonic spectrum with a soft bellows swell, a slight pressure tremor and a second reed tuned 3 cents sharp, which gives the gentle beating of a real two-reed harmonium.
Sargam labels for any Sa
Keys show Sa to Ni with komal notes underlined, tivra Ma marked above, and dots for the lower (mandra) and upper (taar) octaves.
Harmonium key map
One row of the computer keyboard starting at Sa, so fingering stays the same in every scale; the two-row piano map is also available.
Drone and coupler
A steady Sa–Pa or Sa–Ma drone below your melody, and an optional coupler reed an octave lower.
Practice, record, export
Falling-note sargam exercises that follow your Sa, a take recorder and Standard MIDI export with the General MIDI “Reed Organ” sound.
Sa, safed and kali: choosing the scale
Indian music uses a movable Sa: the singer chooses the pitch of Sa and all other notes follow from it. On a harmonium the scale is named after the key used for Sa — white keys are safed 1–7 from C, black keys kali 1–5 from C♯. So “Safed 1” means Sa = C, “Kali 2” means Sa = D♯ and “Safed 5” means Sa = G. Men often sing with Sa around C to D♯, women around F to A♯, but find your own with the vocal range test.
Changing Sa here moves the sargam labels, the one-row key map and the drone together, much like a scale-changer harmonium lets you play the same fingering in a new pitch. To translate Western notes into sargam for any Sa, use the Western notes to sargam converter.
| Computer key | Swar | Interval from Sa |
|---|---|---|
| A | Sa | 0 (tonic) |
| W · S | komal Re · Re | 1 · 2 semitones |
| E · D | komal Ga · Ga | 3 · 4 |
| F · T | Ma · tivra Ma | 5 · 6 |
| G | Pa | 7 |
| Y · H | komal Dha · Dha | 8 · 9 |
| U · J | komal Ni · Ni | 10 · 11 |
| K O L P ; ' | taar Sa, komal Re, Re, komal Ga, Ga, Ma | 12–17 |
How the harmonium sound is made
A harmonium sounds when air from the hand-pumped bellows makes thin brass reeds vibrate. A free reed produces a bright tone rich in harmonics, and the note keeps sounding as long as the key is held and the bellows keep pressure. The hand-pumped portable harmonium is usually credited to Dwarkanath Ghose of Calcutta in 1875, adapted from European reed organs so it could be played sitting on the floor.
This page does not use recordings: the tone is generated with the Web Audio API from a reed-like harmonic series through a gentle low-pass filter, with a 40 ms attack in place of a hammer, a short release when you let go, and a slow 4.8 Hz wobble in level to suggest the bellows. It is a practice instrument, not a sample of a concert harmonium.
Practice tips
- Start with the aroh–avroh (ascending and descending scale) slowly with the drone on, listening for whether each swar sits in tune with the Sa.
- Alankars such as Sa Re Ga, Re Ga Ma train finger patterns; raise the speed once they are even.
- Keep the left hand free: on a real harmonium it pumps the bellows, here it can hold a drone key.
- Check your own singing pitch against Sa with the online tuner, and keep time with the metronome.
Online Harmonium FAQ
Can I play the online harmonium with my keyboard?
Yes. With “One row from Sa” the keys A S D F G H J K play Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni Sa, the row above (W E T Y U) plays komal and tivra notes, and K O L P ; ' continue into the upper octave. Hold Space for sustain.
Is this online harmonium free?
Yes. It is free to play with no sign-up, no download and no time limit, on phones, tablets and computers.
How do I change the scale (Sa)?
Choose Sa in the “Sa (scale)” menu — each option shows the Western note and the harmonium name, such as Sa = D (Safed 2). Labels, keys and drone all move with it.
What do the lines and dots on the sargam labels mean?
An underline marks a komal (flat) note, a short line above Ma marks tivra Ma, a dot below means the lower octave (mandra saptak) and a dot above the upper octave (taar saptak).
Why is there no sound on my phone?
Sound starts on your first tap, as browsers require. On iPhone, check the ring/silent switch, and make sure Mute is off and the volume slider is up.
Can I record what I play?
Yes. Press Record, play, then press it again to stop. Play back the take or download a MIDI file that uses the General MIDI Reed Organ sound.