As a professional harmonium player and teacher, Pune-based Praneet Marathe knows the challenges of creating structured online learning modules for instrumental music. The existing swarlipi (notation system), he tells us, is difficult to use on digital devices. “It cannot be typed using a normal English keyboard as some of the symbols are not available.” The prevalent notification system followed by music schools was formulated by Pt. Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande and Pt. Vishnu Digambar Paluskar. Swarlipi is essentially the script of notes, using lines, dots and other symbols.

After extensive research, Marathe has come up with a solution to the problem: a new, digital-friendly swarlipi. In any music notation system, there are a set of fundamental components, which includes symbols for matras, teevra swar (sharp tone shown by a small vertical line above the note), mandra saptak (notes with lower frequencies), bol (in case of vocals).