Music

Myanmar music has many similarities with other musical styles in the region. Traditional music is melodic, with its own distinct harmony. Music segments in Myanmar are combined into patterns, and then into verses, creating a multi-level hierarchical system. To make a song, various levels are manipulated. Harmony is known as twe-lone in Mahagita (Burmese music), which is similar to a chord in Western music.

Various types of Myanmar music employ a wide range of traditional musical instruments, which are assembled in an orchestra known as hsaing waing, which has gained popularity in the West thanks to the Myanmar saing saya Kyaw Kyaw Naing. Traditional folk music is unusual in Southeast Asian music because it features abrupt changes in rhythm and melody, as well as changes in texture and timbre. The saung-gauk, an arched harp dating back to pre-Hittite times, is a Burmese-only instrument.

The Mahagita, an extensive collection of classical songs, contains Myanmar music's classical traditions, which are typically divided into indoor and outdoor ensembles. In addition to folk music sung in the paddy fields, these songs tend to be about various legends in Pali and later in Burmese intermingled with Pali, related to religion or the power and glory of monarchs, and then the natural beauty of the land, forests, and seasons, eventually feminine beauty, love, passion, and longing. Pop music, both adopted and homegrown, dominates Myanmar's music today.