From sound to swara — नाद, श्रुति, स्वर

नाद — musical sound. Tradition names two kinds: आहत नाद, produced by striking or contact and heard by the ear, and अनाहत नाद, the 'unstruck' sound of meditation. Music is made from आहत नाद.

श्रुति — the smallest interval of pitch the ear can distinguish within an octave. Indian theory counts 22 श्रुतियाँ in a saptak, and the swaras are placed on particular shrutis.

स्वर — 12 in all:

अचल स्वर — सा and प never change; they have no komal or tivra form. The other five are चल (movable).

सप्तक — a run of seven swaras:

• ›मंद्र — the lower octave
• ›मध्य — the middle octave, where most singing sits
• ›तार — the upper octave

The तार सा vibrates at twice the frequency of the मध्य सा — the 2 : 1 ratio that makes an octave sound like 'the same note, higher'.

The trap: only म has a तीव्र form; रे, ग, ध, नि have कोमल forms — so there are 4 komal swaras and 1 tivra, not 5 of each.

Writing music — स्वरलिपि, वर्ण and जाति

Bhatkhande's notation — the system most school books and examinations use:

Vishnu Digambar Paluskar's notation uses different signs; a paper names which system it means.

वर्ण — the four ways swaras move:

• ›स्थायी — staying on one swara: सा सा सा
• ›आरोही — rising: सा रे ग म
• ›अवरोही — falling: म ग रे सा
• ›संचारी — a mix of all three

Other terms — अलंकार or पलटा (a set pattern of swaras practised up and down), पकड़ (the short phrase that identifies a raga), आलाप (slow, rhythm-free unfolding), and तान (fast runs of swaras).

जाति — the number of swaras a raga uses:

The आरोह and अवरोह may differ, so jatis combine — औडव-संपूर्ण, षाडव-संपूर्ण and so on — giving 9 jatis in all.

The trap: a jati like औडव-संपूर्ण means five swaras going up and seven coming down — the first word is always the आरोह.

Ragas of the school syllabus

What the terms mean

• ›वादी — the most important swara of a raga, its 'king'
• ›संवादी — next in importance, normally standing a fourth or a fifth away from it
• ›वर्जित — swaras the raga leaves out
• ›थाट — the parent scale the raga is grouped under

Reading a raga quickly — भूपाली sounds open and bright with only सा रे ग प ध; भैरव, with its komal रे and ध, sounds grave and devotional, fit for dawn; खमाज and देस use both forms of नि, the शुद्ध going up and the कोमल coming down.

The trap: भूपाली and देस both leave out swaras going up, but भूपाली leaves out म and नि both ways, while देस leaves out ग and ध only in the आरोह.

The vocal forms — गायन शैलियाँ

Classical, light classical, light — dhrupad, dhamar and khayal are classical; thumri, dadra and tappa are light classical (उपशास्त्रीय); bhajan, ghazal and film song are light.

The trap: ध्रुपद has four parts (स्थायी, अंतरा, संचारी, आभोग); ख्याल has only two (स्थायी, अंतरा) — options often give khayal the dhrupad's four.

Points to Remember

• ›आहत (struck, heard) and अनाहत (unstruck) नाद · music uses आहत
• ›22 श्रुतियाँ in a saptak · 12 स्वर — 7 शुद्ध, 4 कोमल (रे ग ध नि), 1 तीव्र (म)
• ›अचल — सा, प · the rest चल
• ›मंद्र, मध्य, तार · तार सा = twice the frequency of मध्य सा
• ›Bhatkhande notation — komal: line below · tivra म: line above · mandra: dot below · taar: dot above
• ›वर्ण — स्थायी, आरोही, अवरोही, संचारी · अलंकार, पकड़, आलाप, तान
• ›जाति — औडव 5, षाडव 6, संपूर्ण 7 · 9 combinations · first word = आरोह
• ›भूपाली — कल्याण, औडव-औडव, म नि वर्जित, ग/ध, night's first part
• ›भैरव — कोमल रे ध, ध/रे, dawn · बिलावल — all शुद्ध, ध/ग, morning
• ›खमाज — षाडव-संपूर्ण, ग/नि · देस — औडव-संपूर्ण, रे/प
• ›ध्रुपद — four parts, पखावज, चौताल · धमार — Holi · ख्याल — two parts, बड़ा and छोटा
• ›तराना — meaningless syllables · ठुमरी, दादरा, टप्पा — light classical
• ›Exam tip: for any raga question, write its आरोह first — the omitted and altered swaras, and the jati, then read off at a glance