Hello. This post is an informational post about the harmonium. More specifically, the portable harmonium used most commonly in indian classical music. The harmonium is a piano-like reed instrument, in which the metal reeds vibrate when pressured air causes them to vibrate. The keys on the harmonium open the valves that allow that specific reed to vibrate. In the back of the instrument, are the bellows, which when pumped, create the air pressure that is used to play most reed instruments. another feature of the harmonium is that there are knobs in the front which when pulled, change the broadness of the sound. The resulting sound is similar to that of a reed organ. The first and most basic version of the portable harmonium was made in france, and then shipped to india and pakistan, where the basic concept was enhanced to include drone knobs, and a scale changing feature. These changes were made by Dwarknath Ghose of Kolkata. To give a brief overview of the western harmonium, it is a piano height instrument, and traditional playing style is like a piano (two hands). The bellows are filled using two foot pumps which are in the place of the modern day pedals of a piano. It operates on the same free reed system as the portable harmonium.