About
is a small music site with free practice tools, and lessons on the way.
Why Music Banyan
I started Music Banyan to help musicians learn and practise, beginning with the foundation of music. A banyan grows from deep roots and spreads wide, and its branches send roots down that become new trunks. I want learning music to work the same way: firm foundations first, then room to grow into any instrument, style or tradition.
Music has more than one home. Western theory and the Indian traditions, Hindustani and Carnatic, describe the same sounds in different words, and a musician is richer for knowing both. Music Banyan is built so that a keyboard player and a singer can use the same page, in the note names each of them knows.
What you will find here
The site begins with the tools a musician reaches for every day: a metronome that also keeps Hindustani and Carnatic tala cycles, a tuner with a Sa mode, a tanpura and shruti drone, scale, chord and circle-of-fifths explorers, a transposer, a fretboard, ear and note-reading trainers, a slow-down and loop trainer, and an explorer for Hindustani and Carnatic raagas. They are free, and they work in your browser on a phone or a computer.
Lessons are on the way, starting with keyboard and music theory tutorials, one step at a time.
About me
I’m Nithin Pinto, a pianist and keyboard player. I hold Grade 8 in Music Theory and Grade 8 in Keyboard (Rock & Pop) from Trinity College London, and I also have experience with the saxophone and music production. Western theory, harmony, rhythm, chords and arrangement are the ground I know best.
I enjoy composing and arranging, and I am drawn to bringing Indian and Western traditions together: fusion arrangements, and devotional, folk and instrumental pieces.
Contact
Nithin Pinto, founder of
Email:
Questions, corrections and ideas for the tools are welcome.