Play Veena Online — Free Virtual Saraswati Veena with Carnatic Tone
Play a virtual Saraswati veena in your browser: fretted melody strings with a sympathetic drone, keyboard and MIDI, record and download — no install.
Two octaves of frets, low to high: Z–, play the lower octave, Q–U the upper. Let phrases ring so the drone strings answer.
How to Play in Four Steps
- Tap a fret — the left end is the low octave, and the melody climbs toward the gourd.
- Play short phrases and let them ring: the drone strings are what make a veena sound like a veena.
- Mark a phrase, then repeat it in Sequence while you add answers in the upper octave.
- Use a MIDI keyboard for longer lines, then record the phrase and download it.
A Short History of the Veena
Stringed instruments with a gourd resonator and a long neck appear in Indian art and literature from the first millennium, and the veena family grew out of them. The Saraswati veena, with its fixed frets and jackwood body, is the form that settled in South India.
It became the instrument of Carnatic music — the southern classical tradition — and of the goddess Saraswati herself, who is usually painted holding one. Players such as Veena Dhanammal and S. Balachander made it a concert instrument rather than an accompaniment.
Acoustically, a plucked string over a curved bridge grazes the wood and buzzes, adding harmonics, while three drone strings ring underneath — reproduced here with a jawari buzz and a fifth that sounds with every note.
Veena Quiz
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Which tradition is the Saraswati veena from?
How many melody strings does it have?
What is the buzz over the bridge called?
Frequently Asked Questions
Tap a fret on the fingerboard, tap a note in the strip, use the two keyboard rows, or connect a MIDI keyboard. Each note carries the melody string and the sympathetic drone underneath it.
A South Indian plucked string instrument: a large jackwood body, a gourd resonator and twenty-four frets, named after the goddess of music and learning.
Four melody strings and three drone strings on a Saraswati veena. The melody strings are fretted; the drone strings are tuned and allowed to ring.
The three side strings are tuned to the raga and sound continuously. They are the reason a single plucked note sounds full rather than thin.
A melodic framework in Indian classical music: a set of notes with rules about how to climb, descend and ornament them. A veena player phrases within one raga for an entire performance.
No. The sitar is Hindustani, from North India, with movable curved frets and sympathetic strings; the veena is Carnatic, from South India, with fixed frets and a different body.
That is jawari — the string grazing the curved bridge, which adds a bright, slightly nasal shimmer to every pluck and is a defining part of the sound.
Yes. Record, play, stop and download. The take is written by the browser from the master bus, with no account and no upload.