The Internet Guru: Online Pedagogy in Indian Classical Music Traditions

The use of the Internet in oral music distance learning for Indian classical musicians is a recent phenomenon. With the overall purpose of exposing methods that fuse new and traditional pedagogies, this article investigates how technology maintains and configures orality in virtual music education “scapes.” I argue that while online lessons maintain quality learning, significant structural shifts in lessons challenge (pre- Internet) conceptions of what constitutes learning. This article concludes with reflections on the parts of learning that transcend these changes and further thoughts about the future of Indian music pedagogies in online contexts.