Veena Shivaramiah was the son of the Mysore musician Veena Padmanabiah (of Chikkanayakanahalli taluk, Karnataka). Shivaramiah learnt to play the veena from his father and later from Mysore Karigiri Rao and Mysore Vasudevacharya and was appointed court musician in 1900 by King Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV. His one hundred Carnatic compositions are in Telugu, Kannada and Sanskrit, while his Western musical compositions are in English. King Jayachamaraja Wodeyar gave him the title "Vainika Praveena" in 1941. Shivaramiah was also a Kannada writer and co-authored works with such well-known Kannada scholars as Devottama Jois, Anavatti Rama Rao and Krishna Shastry. Veena Venkatagiriappa, a native of Heggadadevanakote (in modern Mysore district) and a student of Veena Sheshanna, became a court musician under unusual circumstances. At the end of the very first concert that Venkatagiriappa gave in the king's presence, the king merely gave him a gift of two Indian rupees and left the concert. The musician and his family were disappointed at the king's response. Later the king learnt from one of his attendants that the musician and his family had taken the gift graciously. The king, who had been testing the musician's attitude to music, was pleased and appointed Venkatagiriappa court musician. Over the years, the king gave Venkatagiriappa more responsibility in the functioning of various schools of fine arts in his kingdom. Venkatagiriappa played the veena for fifteen minutes in a well-known documentary movie called "Musical Instruments of India" in 1935. He was given the title "Vainika Praveena". His compositions are in Kannada, Telugu and Sanskrit, and he is credited with having created a new kind of Carnatic composition called "nagma", which resemble the "gats" of Hindustani music.