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Harmonium Love provides an online simulation of playing a harmonium
ay back in 1840, Alexandre Debain perfected and patented a musical instrument, which was soon to become the bare minimum necessity for every musician in India. The harmonium came to India in the early part of the 20th century and in no time it became an indispensable companion for musicians to tune, scale and perfect their vocals with. In recent years however, with the advent of electronic organs, the popularity, and inevitably, the sale of harmoniums have seen a sharp decline. Now, a 70-year old music shop in Delhi called Mohan Music Place has taken the task upon itself to resurrect the love for the reed instrument among the youth —in a way that would appeal to the tech-savvy generation.
Webchutney, a digital agency, is now helping the shop to bring the harmonium to your laptops. Harmonium Love is a website that provides an online simulation of a harmonium, where users can actually 'play' their laptops like a harmonium; the keyboard forms keys of the instrument and the laptop screen is moved back and forth, like the bellows. Gurbaksh Singh, creative director, Webchutney elaborates on the concept, "We were clear that it had to be an out-of-box idea to make an effective impact on the kind of audience we were targeting. The laptop looks exactly like a harmonium, what if we could make it behave like one too?!"
The website seamlessly merges hardware and software technology to create a very 'real' harmonium experience. But it needs a webcam to work because when users switch on their webcam and start moving the screen panel to-and-fro, the webcam detects motion which activates the musical keys on the website. But how challenging was it to get the whole 'harmonium playing experience' onto a laptop? Sattvik Mishra, Group Head, Webchutney says, "A big challenge was to get the webcam, software and the hardware to work in sync with each other. The other was of course, to keep the screen movement minimal, so users wouldn't end up breaking their laptops in the enthusiasm to play!"“The laptop looks exactly like a harmonium, what if we could make it behave like one too?!” — Gurbaksh Singh
The website, with beautiful graphics, displays interesting facts about the harmonium as it loads. A harmonium on the screen then displays the keys you have to press on your laptop to produce the specific sounds. It even has tutorials on famous songs like Tujhe dekha toh yeh jana sanam, Kolaveri Di and others, which sound exactly like how they would when played on a real harmonium. The website, however, doesn't work on a desktop but as Mishra explains, "There are ways to play the website on a webcam-enabled desktop too. For instance, if you wave your hand or move your head in front of the desktop webcam and press the keys at the same time, the website will produce notes just like they would on the laptop."
Sunil Gola, owner of Mohan Music Place, is optimistic about the website and says, "We mainly want to target the online active youth who are at the brink of exploring their musical capabilities. Besides, we also want to reach out to music lovers and harmonium enthusiasts who might want to reconnect with the harmonium they once played when they were young."
