A detailed blog post describing the use of documents with audio tracks - https://blog.patantara.com/posts/documents-with-audio-tracks/

When you open a document that contains audio tracks, you’ll be asked whether you want to “Load tracks” or whether you’re “Just reading” .. as shown below

Choose “Load tracks”.
This simple guard is in place just to avoid data costs in case you’re accessing the document via a mobile internet connection. The audio tracks take around 20MB of data for this document. Since there is considerable audio data to fetch and load, you’ll see a series of messages pop up at the right top. Wait for all those to finish with “All tracks loaded and ready”.
At this point, you’ll see a control panel come up on the right showing a few things you now have at your disposal. Here is what this player control panel is for:

Audio track types

Each document can have multiple audio track “types” associated with each line of notation - such as lyrics, vocal rendition, instrumental rendition, ensemble rendition and commentary. In this case, we have the Song track which has the song sung with lyrics, the Svaras track which has the song sung as svaras, the Vina track which has the song played on the vina and the Words track which has the lyrics recited.

To play a particular track, select it by clicking on its name in the player control panel. Then click on any line of notation that has a headphone icon next to it. The audio will play afterwards.

The tools

Below the list of track types in the player control panel, you’ll find some tools to help with learning and practice.

Looping

If you turn on Loop, then the audio track associated with a line will continuously repeat as long as your mouse is positioned on the line. It will stop the moment you move off the line. This is to help practice the line by repeatedly listening to it or singing along.

Slowing down

Sometimes, it is hard for a student to follow the details of a line clearly. The Slow option will cause the track to be played at a slower speed so that it is easier to follow the details.
This slow version is created dynamically, so you may notice a small delay when you place the mouse cursor over a line, before the track begins to play.

Pitch shifting

If a recording is done by a male singer, it is hard for a female singer to practice along. Similarly, if a recording is done by a female singer, it is hard for male students to practice along. To help with this situation, Patantara provides the ability to dynamically adjust the pitch of the associated audio tracks.
Use the up and down arrows in the pitch shifting tool to change the pitch to something that suits you. Note that large pitch shifts will result in large distortions in the quality of the singer’s voice, but instrumental tracks should sound mostly fine.

Tala player (←click the link for the original blogpost)

Turning on ‘Tala’ will play a tala track alongside the selected audio track.

Bouncy hints (←click the link for the original blogpost)

When you turn on hints using the above indicated checkbox, you’ll also have the option to get hints for lyrics or svaras, in case a line has both. You’ll see this option pop up at the top right corner of the page and will be roughly as shown below. Click on either “lyrics” or “svaras” to select your preference.

Practice Sets

(↑ Click on the link to go to detailed description)

What we call a “practice set” is a sequence of lines of notation that are to be played without interruption using the chosen audio track. A line may be played using the selected audio track or may be included in the practice set as a “silent” line, where only the tala track plays and you can play or sing along in that gap.

So, for example, you can play each line of a pallavi twice, or configure them to play the audio once and leave one avrtam for you to sing along, then the second line, and so on.

When you load a document with associated audio tracks, you’ll notice a couple of new widgets that show up as you move your mouse over the notation lines with associated audio tracks. These are for adding the line to your “practice set”. Each line added will be to the end of your current practice set, so you can move around and add multiple lines or even the same line multiple times for repetition.

The widget on the right will, as noted in the picture, add the line for “silent playback”, where it will play only the tala. The intention is for you to play or sing along with it. You can therefore make practice sets with you’re playing a line again and again, but leaving an avrtam for yourself to fill in.

The main player control has a few new controls at the end that are for playing your practice set. These are shown and described below.

Once you add a few lines, say 6 lines, to your practice set, the “– of –” text will change to “– of 6”. When you hit the play button, your practice set will begin playing and this text will update to show you the current line that is playing. The notation line will also be highlighted and automatically scrolled for your convenience.

Note: You will need to select a track type in order to play your practice set. By changing the track type, you can reuse your practice set for singing or vina, for example. We also recommend that you turn on the tala track if you’re going to use alternation as a practice pattern.Other options

The tala, loop, hint, slow down and pitch change control will also work with your practice set, in addition to track selection. So the full range of tools can be used with not just single lines, but with entire compositions.

There is also an experimental "recorder" that you will see. This is work in progress and we'll post about it when it is considered usable and stable.

1. Open https://patantara.com/notations
2. Click on the orange ‘Signin’-icon on the top right corner.

3. Enter your email address

4. A mail from Patantara should appear in your email inbox. Follow the instructions.

5. You are now signed in and ready to access documents shared with you.

In her own words ...

Jyothsna is a software professional with 21 years of experience.  Listening to music, both carnatic and filmy, and crooning a few numbers has been a hobby since childhood. An attempt at learning vocal was abandoned after 2-3 years of training at an young age assuming my voice was not too suited for singing. Then dabbled with playing Veena for 3 years. Focus on higher studies from a place far off from home led to discontinuation of this too. Over years developed an inhibition towards picking up veena playing, specially being in midst of those that were naturally musically gifted.  When practiced well I am able to reproduce what is learnt. However that is not fulfilling the desire of knowing and understanding the nuances of music. With a lot of self realization to learn and enjoy music, I started to look for someone that could help me with basics and push me  to explore and self learn. That's how I chanced upon Brhadhavani on the net.  What specifically caught my attention is the following text:  "If you think  “I want to learn music. But I don’t think I have that gift.” you are not right." I immediately felt I was at the right place.

I got an introduction to Patantara tool as part of understanding the teaching methodology COMET. It resonated immediately with me. I was told and also believed music has a highly scientific approach and that with good focus and practice it can be learnt by anyone that feels is not naturally gifted for any reason.  This tool is helping take that scientific approach and therefore gets my highest support.

Divyanand is a professional South Indian (Carnatic) Classical musician of the Saraswati Veena based in London. He hails from an Indo-Scottish Heritage. He is a prime student of Veena maestro Dr. Karaikudi S. Subramanian, a ninth generation musician from the illustrious Karaikudi Veena Tradition and founder of Brhaddhvani.

Divyanand has extensively toured North America and Europe with his guru. He has been a faculty and cultural coordinator at the research institute Brhaddhvani since 2010 and has supported the Veena craftsmen and curated several music festivals in Chennai. His interests also extend to cross-cultural collaborations with world musicians, Ethnomusicology, sound engineering, archiving music & heritage.

He is the founder of ‘Brhaddhvani Global Centre for Music’ in the UK to spread the Karaikudi Tradition and his guru's pioneering methodology COMET (Correlated Objective Music Education and Training).

Mathuriga is a Sri Lankan Dane, learning veena under Dr. Karaikudi S. Subramanian of Brhaddhvani while currently pursuing a Masters by Research at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance.

Mathuriga and her sister Thenuga have been incredibly supportive of (and patient with) Patantara from the time they began using it. We thank them for their continued support on behalf of all music students who benefit from their efforts.

Thenuga, a veena student of Dr. Karaikudi S. Subramanian, started her musical training at Brhaddhvani Chennai in 2016. Alongside her training at Brhaddhvani, she is currently pursuing a Research Master’s degree in music at University College Cork, Ireland.

Thenuga and her sister Mathuriga have been incredibly supportive of (and patient with) Patantara from the time they began using it. We thank them for their continued support on behalf of all music students who benefit from their efforts.

Karaikudi Sambasiva Iyer Subramanian (born October 23, 1944) is a veena player in the Karaikudi Veena Tradition. He is the grandson of Karaikudi Subbarama Iyer and adoptive son of Karaikudi Sambasiva Iyer.

Karaikudi Subramanian has been designated the title "Top-Grade artist" by All India Radio and has performed numerous radio concerts as well as live concerts at various venues around the world. He has performed with fellow veena player Ranganayaki Rajagopalan and his sister Rajeswari Padmanabhan, both disciples of Karaikudi Sambasiva Iyer. He has also accompanied artists such as flutist T. Viswanathan and vocalist K. V. Narayanaswamy. Furthermore, he has engaged in cross cultural performances with prominent musicians of other genres such as the Irish fiddler Martin Hayes and the Finnish composer Eero Hämeenniemi.

Subramanian later turned his focus to education, exploring ways to make music accessible to everyone regardless of their background. In 1989, he founded the institute 'Brhaddhvani – Research and Training Centre for Musics of the World' in Chennai. A few years later, as a result of his vigorous training with Karaikudi Sambasiva Iyer and his own research at Wesleyan University and later at Brhaddhvani, he developed a pedagogic system of music learning called 'Correlated Objective Music Education and Training' (COMET).

Patantara owes its beginnings to aspects of the COMET methodology and the support and blessings of Dr. Karaikudi S. Subramanian.

Dr. Karaikudi. S. Subramanian

Dr.KSS, as he's known, is a veena player in the Karaikudi Veena Tradition. He is the grandson of Karaikudi Subbarama Iyer and adoptive son of Karaikudi Sambasiva Iyer. Patantara's beginnings are tied to the pedagogy of Dr.KSS practiced at Brhaddhvani. He's been both instrumental and supportive of all our efforts towards making high quality distance music education possible right from Patantara's origins back in 2013 or so.

Mathuriga and Thenuga Thevapalan

Mathuriga (@mathuriga) and Thenuga (@ThenugaST) are Danish citizens of Sri Lankan origin who're currently learning veena in Gurukulam manner from Dr. Karaikudi S. Subramanian, at Brhaddhvani, in Chennai. Patantara owes a lot to the Thevapalan sisters for their constant support (and patience) from the moment they began using Patantara for their own learning.

Mathuriga, alongside her training at Brhaddhvani, is currently also pursuing a Masters by Research at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance.

Thenuga, alongside her training at Brhaddhvani, is currently pursuing a Research Master’s degree in music at University College Cork, Ireland.

Divyanand Caird

Divyanand is a professional South Indian (Carnatic) Classical musician of the Saraswati Veena based in London. He hails from an Indo-Scottish Heritage. He is a prime student of Veena maestro Dr. Karaikudi S. Subramanian, a ninth generation musician from the illustrious Karaikudi Veena Tradition and founder of Brhaddhvani.

Divyanand has extensively toured North America and Europe with his guru. He has been a faculty and cultural coordinator at the research institute Brhaddhvani since 2010 and has supported the Veena craftsmen and curated several music festivals in Chennai. His interests also extend to cross-cultural collaborations with world musicians, Ethnomusicology, sound engineering, archiving music & heritage.

He is the founder of ‘Brhaddhvani Global Centre for Music’ in the UK to spread the Karaikudi Tradition and his guru's pioneering methodology COMET (Correlated Objective Music Education and Training).