Note:- Taken from “http://www.ragatracks.com/”

Raga And Its Concept:

A music, which follows the characteristics of this tradition, is called classical - in opposition to Western classical music, where classical means belonging to a period of time (approximately from 16th to 17th century). All classical music follows this rule even if some completely different styles exist side by side. To develop precisely a raga, the musician needs the presence of a drone, whatever the music. Singers are always accompanied with the tanpura or the harmonium, which produce the singer's tonic and dominant (SA and PA). The present system of Indian music is based upon two important pillars: rag and taal. Raag is the melodic form while taal is the rhythmic form. Raga or raag may be roughly equated with the Western term mode or scale. Classical music is mainly divided into two branches, North and South.

North Indian Classical music (some people know as Hindustani) in reference of the Hindi speaking region going to North-West Frontier and to Poorab, the East. Many styles and genres have been developed and encouraged by a family system now called Gharana.These numerous Gharanas all over North India have developed very different styles of classical music, genres and instruments. In the development music, the things went like this (from a verse): First songs, then notes, then Sharutis and then the Jaties (ragas). Birds have songs, so do the other mammals. When we say that the songs must have developed after humans were civilized, we are forgetting something. Look around you. There are songs everywhere.

It is certain that as humans got civilized, their songs got complicated. With the development of language, the songs became more meaningful. The primal screams evolved into poems of love, separation, nature, beauty and other things that affected us emotionally. When something said through conversation does not capture the essence of our feelings, a song erupts in us. That is a primal instinct. It is not something that is impossible to do without the knowledge of Sharuties. A villager in India or a Gypsy in Europe cannot stop singing just because they do not know the difference between just intonation and chromatic intonation. These are afterthoughts.

When the enlightened artists of the ancient world sang the songs, the beauty of changing pitch compelled them to find more about it. What is it that changing the pitch up and down in certain ways sounds musical. The first known theory of music in Indian Vedas (Samveda) contains four notes. Nowadays notes are always mentioned in ascending (such as C D E or Sa Re Ga) order.

The combination of several notes woven into a composition in a way, which is pleasing to the ear, is called a Raga. The raga is an Indian scale which utilizes varying ascending and descending patterns - certain notes on the way up and certain notes on the way down - but always in the set sequence. The raga never has less than five notes - the minimum required for a tune. Each raga creates an atmosphere, which is associated with feelings and sentiments. Any stray combination of notes cannot be called a Raga. At a more academic level, it is a musical composition that functions within a structure and follows certain rules with relation to the kind of notes used in it.

Raga is the dictator of melody and the "Taal" is the dictator of Rhythm. In addition, melody is the product of sound and the rhythm is product of time. Therefore, ‘the music is the art of manipulating the ’sound’ through ‘time’. The time affects music in two different ways. First through rhythm is obvious. However, the time is also at work producing the musical sounds that are useful in melody. The universe is full of sound, but every sound is not musical.

According to the scriptures, sage Narada practiced great austerities for several years and was honoured by Lord Shiva who taught him the great art of music. It is said that from the sleeping position (Shayanmudra) of his wife, Goddess Parvati, Lord Shiva created the Rudravina (an instrument with a form similar to the sitar). From his five mouths, five ragas emerged while a sixth was created by the goddess Parvati. These ragas were named according to Lord Shiva's movements to east, west, north, south and towards the sky and were called Bhairav, Hindol, Megh, Deepak and Shri. Raga Kaushik was created by the Goddess Parvati herself.

Music flourished in India under Muslim rule and was subject to a number of new influences, including those of the mystic Sufi sect. As a consequence new elements, forms and instruments came to be introduced into Indian Music. Among the vocal forms, were the Qual which gave rise to the Qawali and the Tanpura, both of which are heard today. The sitar and the tabla also belong to this period. The Persian poet Amir Khusrau is believed to have made a major contribution in the development of the Qawali as well as the Sitar.

Musical patronage reached its zenith under the Mughal emperors Akbar (1555-1605), Jahangir (1605-1627) and Shahjahan (1628-1658) The legendary composer Tansen (1492-1589) is believed to have been a member of the court of Akbar. His enchanting music is believed to have had the power to bring rains and light lamps. Music was also becoming more popular and was no longer the preserve of the upper classes. Most compositions had initially been in Sanskrit but by the sixteenth century they were being composed in various dialects of Hindi - Braj Bhasa and Bhojpuri among them - as well as Persian and Urdu. It was during this phase that two separate systems emerged as a result of the Islamic influence on the existing system in Northern and central India while the south remained free from this domination. This led to emergence of two forms of Indian Music. Hindustani (North Indian) and Carnatic (South Indian).

The arrival of British rule saw the violin entering the repertoire of South Indian music in the mid-eighteenth century. In the time of Bahadur Shah Zafar the last King of Mughal empire, music development was limited and poetry developed. A significant development was the use of music to promote nationalism during the Indian freedom struggle. The twentieth century also saw the arrival of Indian cinema, which further popularized music among common man. The post independence period saw classical Indian music gaining global recognition. Ravi Shankar, one of the greatest players of the Sitar, worked with the Beatles while Ali Akbar Khan popularized the Sarod in the west. The twentieth century also saw collaborations between Indian and western musicians. such as Ravi Shankar and Yehudi Menuhin. This merging of two streams of music is often referred to as fusion Music.

New generation of artists like Bhimsen Joshi, Amjad Ali Khan and Bismillah Khan brought finest traditions of Indian music. Film music is however, the most popular music in India and Pakistan today and popular Indian films are seldom without songs. Urdu Ghazal also got popularity and popular Ghazal singers like Mehdi Hassan, Ghulam Ali, Jagjeet and many others emerged with a new style. Bhajans and Qawali also retain their popularity.

NOTES IN A SAPTAK

The Indian musical scale is said to have evolved from 3 notes to a scale of 7 primary notes, on the basis of 22 intervals. A scale is divided into 22 shrutis or intervals, and these are the basis of the musical notes. The 7 notes of the scale are known to musicians as Sa, Ri, Ga, Ma, Pa, Da and Ni. The eighth note is a repetition of the first and is therefore an octave higher. The group of seven notes is called a saptak. In western music these seven notes are identified as C D E F G A B. These 7 notes of the scale do not have equal intervals between them. A Saptak is a group of 7 notes, divided by the shrutis or intervals -- A raga is based on the principle of a combination of notes selected out the 22 note intervals of the octave. Total notes in a single saptak are 12 but when we practice arohi and amrohi then we also include next saptak Sa and then total notes becomes 13. See below given diagram.




By deleting other notes 12 notes saptak becomes bilawal thaat

Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Da Ni
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

The first and fifth notes (Sa and Pa) do not alter their positions on this interval. The other 5 notes can change their positions in the interval, leading to different raga. Detailed lessons about saptak and notes are provided in harmonium lessons.

Raga

The raga forms the backbone of Indian music, and the laws laid down for the ragas have to be carefully observed to preserve and safeguard their integrity. The following points are required in the construction of a Raga.

1. Thaat or sequence of notes,
2. Jaatis or classification
3. King and Queen relation of the notes, i.e. Vadi and Samvadi
4. The Ascent and Descent of the raga, i.e. Arohi and Amrohi
5. Important cluster of notes
6. Pitch
7. Speed.

According to Indo Pak ancient theory, the musician's task in exploring mood is made easier if the performance takes place at the time and in the atmosphere appropriate to the raga. So if a raga which embodies the atmosphere of spring is played in spring it will be more effective than if it were played in winter. The right atmosphere responds to the raga as it were, just as the sympathetic strings of a sitar vibrate to enrich the melody being played on the main strings. This is why particular times and seasons are deemed suitable for particular ragas.

Play some classical sounding music and try to see if any particular Raga thrills you. Anything that turns you off completely ? Play instrumental or light classical music at first before embarking on a heavy-duty vocal piece. Is there a piece that moves you ? Puts you in a sublime mood ? Helps you drive your car ?
Another aspect of the raga is the appropriate distribution in time during the 24 hours of the day for its performance, i.e. the time of the day denotes the raga sung a particular time. Raga are also allotted a particular time space in the cycle of the day. These are divided into four types --

1. Twilight raga when the notes re and da are used -- such as Raga Marwa, Poorvi.
2. Midday and Midnight ragas which include the notes ga and ni (komal).
3. Ragas for the first quarter of the morning and night which include the notes re, ga, da and ni (komal).
4. For the last quarter of the day and night, the raga include the notes sa, ma and pa.

All the raga are divided into two groups -- Poorvi Ragas and Uttar Ragas. The Poorvi Raga are sung between 12 noon and 12 midnight. The Uttar Raga are sung between 12 midnight and 12 noon. The variations on the dominant or ``King" note help a person to find out why certain raga are being sung at certain times. This raga classification is about 500 years old.

The beauty of the raga will not be marred by the time of the day it is sung. It is the psychological association with the time that goes with the mood of the raga. The object of a raga is to express a certain emotional mood and sentiment without any reference to time and season. For a student of classical music, this classification may give an idea as to how to base his reasons for the traditional usage of raga.

Another division of ragas is the classification of ragas under five principal:

1. Hindol,
2. Deepak,
3. Megh,
4. Shree
5. Maulkauns

From these five ragas, other raga are derived. The first derivatives of the ragas are called raganis, and each of the five ragas have five raganis under them. There are 25 raganis for the above five ragas. Each raga contain 5 raganis. Further derivatives from these raga and raginis resulted in attaching to each principal raga 16 secondary derivatives known as upa-raga and upa-raganis.
All the ragas are supposed to have been derived from their thaat. Every raga has a fixed number of komal (soft) or tewar (sharp) notes, from which the thaat can be recognized. In other words, a certain arrangement of the 7 notes with the change of shuddh, komal and tewar is called a thaat. There are several opinions in this matter.

About Thaat or Scales

The set of Seven Notes or Scale which can produce a Raga is called a Thaat in urdu or Hindi and raga produces a Song. The system of classification for the ragas in different groups is called a thaat. There are again several systems of classification of the raga. Presently in Indian or Pakistani Classical Music the 10 Thaat (Scales) classification of raga is prevalent. If you want to learn how to play keyboard or harmonium the practice of thaat is important. If you want to bring beauty in music then raga practice is important. If you learn one thaat or scale then you can play many songs in that particular thaat or scale.Beauty in playing harmonium or keyboard appears when you use raga.

There are certain rules for these thaat

1. The set of Seven Notes or Scale which can produce a Raga is called a Thaat in urdu or Hindi. A Thaat must have seven notes in ascending order.
2. Thaat has only one Arohi.
3. Thaat are not be sung only play but the raga produced from Thaat are sung. You can play music of film songs with thaat.
4. Thaat are named after the popular raaga of that Thaat. For example Bheravi is a popular raga and the thaat of the raga Bheravi is named after the raga.

What is a Raga?

The combination of several notes woven into a composition in a way, which is pleasing to the ear, is called a Raga or Raag. The raga is an Indian scale which utilizes varying ascending and descending patterns – certain notes on the way up and certain notes on the way down – but always in the set sequence. The raga never has less than five notes - the minimum required for a tune. Each raga creates an atmosphere, which is associated with feelings and sentiments. Any stray combination of notes cannot be called a Raga. At a more academic level, it is a musical composition that functions within a structure and follows certain rules with relation to the kind of notes used in it.

• We can ascribe to a raga certain meta-characteristics that define a Raga:
  Every raga is said to be born of a Thaat which is its parent. Every raga is composed of notes.
• A simple combination of notes is not a raga unless it sounds good. As mentioned earlier though, it is difficult to accurately define what sounds good. In another article we will attempt to describe what this means in terms of harmonies and melodies.
• A minimum of five notes are necessary in a Raga. Therefore a Raga can have five, six or seven notes.
• There cannot be two notes that are adjacent on the octave in the same raga. But this is not strictly true as we shall see in case of certain ragas like Lalit where there are two madhyms together.
• Every Raga has a Arohi and a Amrohi. The base note Sa cannot be absent from a Raga.
• The notes Ma and Pa cannot be absent from a Raga at the same time.
• A raag is also identified by a Vadi ( main note ) and a Samvadi ( second note). The Vadi is a note that is stressed the most in the raga. The Samvadi is stressed after that. Two Ragas can have the same set of notes but differing vadis and samvadis which then make them different ragas. For instance both the ragas Bhupali and Deshkar have the same set of notes and the same arohi and amrohi but they have differing pakads and also different vadis and samvadis which make them different ragas.Bhupali has a vadi ga and samvadi da but deshkar has a vadi da and samvadi ga.
• It has been said earlier that a Raga can have five, six or seven notes in the arohi and the amrohi. Based upon this a raag can be classified in to categories. A Raga sequence ( arohi or amrohi ) with five notes is said to be Odho ( five ). A Raga sequence with six notes is called Shadav or Khado (six) and a raga sequence with seven notes is called Sampoorn since seven notes is the maximum number that the raga sequence can have. Now to another point of confusion. There are twelve notes in the chromatic scale. The seven notes that make up the thaat are picked from these twelve notes.
• Raga is the basis of classical music. A raga is based on the principle of a combination of notes selected out the 22 note intervals of the octave. A performer with sufficient training and knowledge alone can create the desired emotions, through the combination of notes. Every Raga is derived from some Thaat or Scale. Or Raga' belong to certain classes or categories called thaats. A thaat is defined as that set of seven notes from which a Raga can be made.

Ragas are placed in three categories:

• Odho or pentatonic, a composition of five notes Or Khado is hexatonic, a composition of six notes
• Sampooran is heptatonic, a composition of seven notes.

1. In every raga, there is an important cluster of notes by which the raga is identified.
2. The ascent and descent of the notes in every raga is very important. Some raga in the same scale differ in ascent and descent. The principal note, ``KING" is the note on which the raga is built. It is emphasized in various ways, such as stopping for some time on the note, or stressing it. The second important note or the "queen" corresponds to the ``King" as the fourth or fifth note in relation to it.
3. There are certain ragas which move in a certain pitch and if the pitch is changed, the raga fails to produce the mood and sentiment peculiar to it.

Raga Melody:

Melody is based on our ability to hear and perceive changes in frequencies. Although it is more than just the pitch going up and down, but as the frequency goes higher, the note is sharper. In any octave, the highest note always vibrates at the double rate from the lowest note. So an octave is the interval between one musical note and another with half or double its frequency. After the unison, (two things vibrating at the same rate), the octave is the simplest interval in music. The human ear tends to hear both notes (upper and lower) as being essentially ‘the same’. For this reason, notes an octave apart are given the same name in Indian music. The same is true for Western Music. And just like in western notation system, Northern Indian music recognizes 12 places in one octave as Notes. Most musicians use the same notes as we see them on a guitar’s fret or on a piano. But it hasn’t been always like this. In ancient times, Indian music was based on the ‘Sharuti’ system. The intervals were measured with sharuties.
Melody of Northern Indian Music is based on the ‘Thaat’ (parent Scale) and ‘Raga’ theory. Ragas have their minimum requirements of five notes in an octave. Based on that principle, 484 Ragas can be created mathematically from any given ‘Thaat’. Every Raga has its own personality. There are many special things about every Raga, which make it possible to separate one Raga from another.
Secret Of Phrasing In Ragas
Even though many popular musician do not study Ragas and most of the popular music is not even in any certain Ragas, there are many ‘phrasing’ secrets hidden in the Ragas, however. Ascending and descending do not make music. Whole art of music is hidden in phrasing. You must have listened to hundreds of songs composed in ‘C’ or ‘E’ major. They still sound different from one another. That is because music we hear affects us in phrases, not scales.
This theory (music in phrases) was the origin of Ragas. Ragas start with that in mind and grow from there. To learn a Raga you have to learn its ascending or descending etc., but you also must know its flow and important phrases. There are thousands of available lists of hundreds of Ragas everywhere, but they have no practical value as one will never know how to proceed from there. A Raga description without its phrases and flow is useless. Nisar Bazmi as a working music composer giving you the only information that is essential to ‘know and play’ Indian music in the real world. You will find yourself improvising in a certain Raga in no time by mixing and shuffling its phrases and flow.
Ragas & Time:

According to Indo Pak ancient theory, the musician's task in exploring mood is made easier if the performance takes place at the time and in the atmosphere appropriate to the raga. So if a raga that embodies the atmosphere of spring is played in spring it will be more effective than if it were played in winter. Play some classical sounding music and try to see if any particular Raga thrills you. Anything that turns you off completely? Play instrumental or light classical music at first before embarking on a heavy-duty vocal piece. Is there a piece that moves you? Puts you in a sublime or inspiring mood. Another aspect of the raga is the appropriate distribution in time during the 24 hours of the day for its performance, i.e. the time of the day denotes the raga sung at a particular time. Ragas are also allotted a particular time space in the cycle of the day.

Time based ragas are divided into four types:

1. Twilight raga when the notes re and da are used such as Raga Marwa and Poorvi.
2. Mid-day and Mid-night ragas that include the notes ga and ni (komal).
3. Ragas for the first quarter of the morning and night that include the notes re, ga, da and ni
(komal)
4. For the last quarter of the day and night, the raga includes the notes Sa, ma and Pa.

The entire ragas are divided into two groups:
1. Poorvi Ragas
2. Uttar Ragas

The Poorvi Raga is sung between 12 noon and 12 midnight. The Uttar Raga is sung between 12 midnights and 12 noons. The variations on the dominant or “King” note helps a person to find out why certain raga are being sung at certain times. This raga classification is about 500 years old and it takes us to Mughals era. The beauty of the raga will not be spoiled by the time of the day it is sung. It is the psychological association with the time that goes with the mood of the raga. The object of a raga is to express a certain emotional mood and sentiment without any reference to time and season. For a student of classical music, this classification may give an idea as to how to base his reasons for the traditional usage of raga.

Classification of Ragas under five principals:

• Hindol, (There are also five ragnis for each class)

· Deepak,
· Megh,
· Shri,
· Maulkauns,
From these five ragas, other ragas are derived. The first derivatives of the ragas are called raganis, and each of the five ragas has five raganis under them. There are 25 raganis for the above five ragas. Raganis are female and raga is male. You can guess raganis and raga from the name of the ragas. Further derivatives from these raga and raginis resulted in attaching to each principal raga 16 secondary derivatives known as upa-raga and upa-raganis. Every raga has a fixed number of komal (soft) or tiver (sharp) notes, from which the thaat can be recognized. In other words, a certain arrangement of the 7 notes with the change of komal and tiver is called a thaat.

Facts About Ragas:

It took a long time for music to come to the form found in present-day India. The most important advance in music was made between the 14th and 18th centuries. During this period, the music sung in the north came in contact with Persian music and absorbed it, through the Pathans and the Mughals. It is then that two schools of music resulted, the Hindustani and the Carnatic. Hindustani music adopted a scale of natural notes and Carnatic music retained the traditional octave. During this period, different styles of classical compositions such as Dhrupad, Dhamar, Khayal, etc. were contributed to Hindustani music.

Detailed melodic modes are used inRagas. Traditionally, ragas are based on a complex Vedic philosophy of sound. A raga is also basically a set of Vedic-rooted rules for how to build a melody. It specifies rules for movements up (arohi) and down (amrohi) the scale, which notes should figure more and which notes should be used more cautiously. Which phrases to be used and which phrases to be avoided, and so on. The result is a framework that can be used to compose or improvise melodies, allowing for endless variation within the set of notes.
There is no absolute pitch; instead, each performance simply picks a ground note, and the other scale degrees follow relative to the ground note.As ragas were never codified but transmitted orally from teacher to student, some ragas can vary greatly across regions, traditions and styles. Indian classical music is always set in raga, but all raga music is not necessarily classical. Many popular Indian film songs are themselves based on ragas. In today's Indian classical music raga is the backbone.

The outstanding feature of Indian classical music is the “raga” concept. Raga is the essential concept of Indian classical music. Each raga is a distinct musical entity or unit by itself and possesses well-defined characteristics. The concept of raga is proud contribution to the world music. It is defined as melody mould or melody style. The goal of absolute music is reached in the concept of raga. Ragas are the artistic facts that can be recognized by a trained ear. Ragas are acoustic facts and every musician is aware of them. They are the creative talents of a musician. The ragas form the basis of all melodies in India. Raga is the soul of Indian classical music. If two songs sound strikingly similar the chances are based on the same set of notes and thus in the same raga. Raga is also identified typically by pattern recognition, if you are not willing to do detailed decomposition into the basic keys of their scale. Thus, a raga is described as the unmeasured music and it has a rich variety of classifications.

A Raga may also be characterized by a series of melodic notes pattern called challan, which means movement or by a key set of notes called pakad. These form the melodic outlines of a raga and include consecutive ascending and descending phrases. The challan discloses the basic grammar and the progression of a raga. Every raga has a note that is frequently used or held for a long duration and is called vadi or a sonant note. Similarly there is another note from vadi that is called samvadi or the consonant. This note is usually the fourth or the fifth note from the vadi.

Identify Raga From Raga Based Film songs:

Pakaad or bandish are the most dominating notes of a given raga. Each raga has its own bandish. Whenever a music director composes a song based upon a given raga, he makes sure that he uses the bandish of that raga. This is the precise reason why two songs composed on the same raga sound similar. In a way, bandish is a common factor within all the tunes composed on a given raga.
While rendering a raga, one should be vary careful of not using varjya swar. Varjya swars in a raga are the notes; those are strictly excluded in rendition. Varjya swar is the enemy of the raga. If a varjya swar is accidentally used during performance of a particular raga, it will spoil the atmosphere that a particular raga is supposed to create. So great artists do a lot of practice of a given raga so that they will never make the mistake of using varjya swar. Actually, to understand the bandish of any raga, it is better to listen and grasp the instrumental classical music played on a musical instrument or midi music. Since musical instruments do not utter words, the listener can concentrate and grasp the raga very accurately after repeatedly listening to the notes of the tune. Of course, if you are very well versed in classical music, then you can easily recognize a raga with ease even if you are listening to a vocal piece. Also, in order to grasp any given raga, one should listen to the same raga presented by different artists.

If you listen to a vocal song based on a raga, say on radio or a in a computer, and you want to identify the raga of this song, then you should listen to it while you are farther away, say about 30 to 50 feet away from the player. It has been observed that you can recognize the raga of a song while listening to it from a farther distance rather than by listening to it closer. This is because as you go farther from the source of vocal sound, you do not listen to any words from the song, but you only hear the dominating notes or bandish of the song. Once you hear the bandish, you can easily recognize the raga of the song. Of course, one has to have prior knowledge of ragas before attempting to recognize it using this technique. Also note that within any raga or a melody there is a definite relationship among the notes. A song based on a given raga can be composed in any one of 3 octaves. This sometimes makes it difficult to identify the raga of the song, although the progression of notes follows the same rules of raga in any octave.

The way some people have it easy, and can directly see the patterns and recognize a raga. Some others learn by going to a guru, but for a casual listener, it might take some practice and some intuitive thinking. If you listen too much film music, then there is a really good and easy way to try and learn ragas. Listen to a song and get someone to identify the raga initially for you. Learn this raga, by listening to the song and try humming along with it. Then turn off the song, and try humming along the same tune, but with variations. Let me name some songs for you.
Let us take for instance, any song of Raga Kalyan e.g Ranjish hi sahi, composed by Nisar Bazmi Sahib. If you know the name of the raga, play this song in your cd player. Play it a couple of times, continuously, and then turn your cd player off. Sing the song, but use your imagination to sing it. And then slowly hum and let it loose. If you are finding trouble nailing the notes, get its lyrics.

Once you've done this for a few songs, you will have some of it down. If you want to get theoretical however, and already have a decent ear, then learn the notes. It really and really helps if you can play an instrument, something visual. Harmonium is perfect, some persons learn on electronic keyboard, so the possibility is obviously endless. If you know theory and are just finding it hard identifying the ragas, then just stick with it and practice. You should try and improve your memory and memory association skills. Watch patterns, solve pattern puzzles, they all help.

There are certain clues to look for; here is a short suggestion on how to identify raga notes:

First listen to how the raga alaap starts off or the song, it must always begin with the raga identification. Its not like you can just sing without telling the audience what the raga of the song is. Listen closer to each note sang. Listen very carefully, and note down which notes are higher and lower, then slowly approximate the scale. Make it thorough first. For example if you are listening a song you just try to sing-along with the song. Slowly try to get what are the swars inside that song. Ok you just think that you got the swars.

2. Thaat Kafi



Arohi: S Rg m P D nS'
Amrohi:S' n D P m g R S
Ragas of Thaat Kafi:

1. Raga Kafi
2. Bheemplasi
3. Piloo
4. Shivranjani

Bandish of a given Raga

Bandish are the most dominating notes of a given raga. Each raga has its own bandish. Whenever a music director composes a song based upon a given raga, he makes sure that he uses the bandish of that raga. This is the precise reason why two songs composed on the same raga sound similar. In a way, bandish is a common factor within all the tunes composed on a given raga. A song based on a given raga can be composed in any one of 3 octaves. This sometimes makes it difficult to identify the raga of the song, although the progression of notes follows the same rules of raga in any octave. Once you memorize the bandish of ragas, you will be able to identify the raga of another tune that is based on same raga. Actually, to understand the bandish of any raga, it is better to listen and grasp the instrumental classical music played on a musical instrument. Since musical instruments do not utter words, the listener can concentrate and grasp the raga very accurately after repeatedly listening to the notes of the tune. Of course, if you are very well versed in classical music, then you can easily recognize a raga with ease even if you are listening to a vocal piece.

1. Raga Kafi

Raga Kafi is a midnight raga. Raga Kafi is derived from thaat Kafi (Parental scale). Its vaadi sur is P and samvaadi sur is S. Its pakad is S-R-R-g-m-P. Its Jati (class) is Sampoorn-Sampoorn. Its similar raga is gara.


Raga Kafi Notes (same as thaat kafi)

Arohi: S – R – g – m – P – D – n -
Amrohi: S’ – n – D – P – m – g – R – S
Alaap Bheemplasi & Film Song By Iqbal Yousuf Ramzi

1. Keep diagram of raga kafi in front while playing songs
2. Tumhaaraa pyaar chaahiye mujhe, Bappi Lahri - Film Toote Khilone
3. Pyar bhare do sharmeele nain, Mehdi Hassan - Film Chaahat
4. Rim jhim rim jhim pere phawar, Noor Jehan, Film Koyal
5. Jalte hain arman mera dil roota hai, Noor Jehan - Film Koyal
6. Sun wanjli di mithri taan way, Noor Jehan - Film Heer Ranjha
7. Tu hai phool mere gulshan ka, Film Phool Mere Gulshan Ka
8. Lat uljhi suljha ja re baalam, Noor Jehan - Film Sawal
9. Yeh raat yeh chaandni phir kahaan, Hemant Kumar - Fim Jaal
10. Hamari sanson mein aaj tak woh hina ki kshboo, Noor Jehan
11. Tere bheege badan ki kshboo se, Mehdi Hassan - Film Shabab
12. Ae dunya kia tujh se kehoon - Mehdi Hassan
13. Sab kuch luta ke hosh me, Talat Mehmood- Film Ik Saal
14. Ik sitam aur meri jaan abhi jaan baqi hai, Mehdi Hassan - Film Saiqa
15. Dil mein ho tum, aankhon mein tum, Bappi Lahri, Film, Satyamev Jayate
16. Qarar lootne wale qarar ko terse, Munir Hussain - Film Saat Lakh

2. Raga Bheemplasi
Raga Bheemplasi is a afternoon raga. Raga Bheemplasi is derived from thaat Kafi (Parental scale). Its Vaadi sur is m and Samvaadi sur is S. Its behave is Shadj-Madhym. Pakad is ’n-S-g-m-P-g, m-g-R-’n-S. Its Jati (class) is Audav-Sampoorn. Its first sur will start in Mandr saptk and will reach Madh in middle octave. Its similar raga is patdeep.


Arohi: ’n – S – g – m – P – n - S’
Diagram 4


Diagram 5
Amrohi: S ’- n – D – P – m – g – R – S


Diagram 5
Arohi: ’n – S – g – m – P – n - S’
Amrohi: S ’- n – D – P – m – g – R – S
Songs of Raga Bheemplasi:

1. Zindagi mein to sabhi pyaar kiya karte hain, Taal Dadra, Mehdi Hassan
2. Ae Ajnabi Tu Bhi Kabhi - Film Dil Se
3. Khilte Hain Gul Yaha - Film Sharmilee
4. Dil mein tujhe bithake puja - Film Fakira
5. Nainon mein badara chhaye, bijali si chamke haaye, Taal Kehrva - Film: Mera
6. SaayaAi ri main to prem diwani, Taal Kehrva - Film Naubahar
7. Maine chand aur sitaronki - Film Chandrakanta
8. Ye na thi hamari kismat, Film - Mirza Ghalib
9. Jhanakar payalaki tose binati - Film Naga Devata
10. Kismat Se Tum Ham Ko Mile Hon - Film Pukar
11. Nainon mein badra chhaye - Film Mera Saaya
12. Main gareebon ka dil hoon, Taal Kehrva, Film - Ab-e-hayat
13. Dilmen tujhe bithake puja karungi teri, Film - Fakira
14. Om nao Bhagavate Vasudevay - A bhajan by PanditJasra
15. O beqarar dil, Film Khamoshi
16. Kuch dil ne kaha, Film - Anupama
17. Tum mile dil khile, Film - Criminal
18. Naghma-o-sher ki saughaat – Ghazal
19. Aaa neele gagan tele pyar, Mahendra Kapoor, Film - Badshah
    

3. Raga Piloo
Raga Piloo is afternoon raga. Raga Piloo is derived from thaat Kafi (Parental scale). Its vaadi sur is g and samvaadi sur is N. Its behaav is Shadj-Madham. Pakad is g-m-d-P-g-S-'N-S. Its Jati (class) is Audav-Audav. Its first sur will start in mandr – madh saptak and will reach madh in middle octave.

Diagram 6
Arohi : 'N – S – g – m – P – N - S'


Diagram 7
Amrohi: S' – n – D – P – d – P – g – S


Diagram 7
Arohi : 'N – S – g – m – P – N - S'
Amrohi: S' – n – D – P – d – P – g – S

Note: The notes with cross sign are present in thaat kafi but will not be played in raga piloo Amrohi. The green button (d) is not actually present in the thaat kafi but used as an extra note in raga piloo Amrohi.
Songs of Raga Piloo:
1. Ajahun na aye balma, Film - Sanjh Aur Savera
2. Jhoole mein pavanki ayi bahar, Taal kehrva, Film - Baiju Bawra
3. More sainya ji utarenge paar nadiya dhire baho, Film - Uran Khatola
4. Dheere se aaja ri akhiyan mein nindiya - Film Albela
5. Jaiye aap kahan jayenge - Film Mere Sanam
6. Dhoondho dhoondho re saajna, Film - Ganga Jamuna
7. Allah megh de pani de, Film - Guide
8. Kali ghata chhaye mora jiya ghabraye, Film – Sujata
9. Tere bin soone nayan hamare, Film - Meri Soorat Teri Aankhein
10.Kaise chhupaaoon raaz-e-gham (Ghazal), Taal dadra, Mehdi Hassan
11.Maine rang lee aaj chunariya sajana tore rang mein, Film - Dulhan Ek Raat Ki
12.Baharon ne mera chaman loot kar, Film - Devar
13.Ai meri johara zabeen, tujhe maaloom nahin, Taal Dadra, Film - Waqt
14.Din sara guzara tore angana, Film - Junglee
15.Mainu ishq lag gaya rog - Dil Hai Ke Maanta Nahin
16.Apni kaho kuch meri suno, Film - Parchhain
17.Ai meri Zohara zabeen, tujhe maaloom nahi, Film - Waqt
18.Sur na saje, Film - Basant Bahar
19.Jhulemen pavanki ayi bahar, Film - Baiju Bawra
20.More sainya ji utarenge paar nadiya dhire baho, Film - Uran Khatola
21.Maine shayad tumhe pahle, Film - Barsaat Ki Raat (old)
22.Apni kaho kuchh meri suno, Talat Mehmood, Film - Parchhai
23.Chura liya hai tumne jo dil ko, Film - Yaadon Ki Baraat
24.De de pyar de, Film - Sharabi
25.Mera pyar bhi tu hai yeh bahar bhi tu hai, Film- Saathi
26.Kabhi aar kabhi paar laaga teer-e-nazar, Taal Kehrva - Film Aar Paar
4. Raga Shivranjni
Raga Shivranjani can be played any time. Raga Shivranjani is derived from thaat Kafi (Parental scale). Its Jati (class) is Audav-Audav. Its first sur will start in Madh saptk in middle octave.This raga is extremely popular among instrumentalists. This raga is known to evoke the moods of romance and sorrow. Arohi and Amrohi notes of the raga Shivranjani are very close to raga Bhoopali except that in raga Bhoopali, the GA note is shudh whereas in raga Shivranjani, the GA note is komal which is represented as lower case ga. Also vaadi and Samvaadi notes are different in raga Shivranjani compared to raga Bhoopali. These differences set apart raga Shivranjani from raga Bhoopali. Obviously, both ragas sound totally different. Sometimes liberty is taken with raga Shivranjani and shudh Gandhar (Ga) may be used by some musicians.

Arohi: S – R – g – P – D - S'


Amrohi: S’ – D – P – g – R - S


Arohi: S – R – g – P – D - S'
Amrohi: S’ – D – P – g – R - S

Note: Arohi and Amrohi notes of raga Shivranjni are same in ascending and descending order.

Bandish of Raga Shivranjani

If you are familiar with Hindi songs then you will notice That the words “anjaana” in the song “Tere mere beechame, kaisa hain ye bandhan anjaana” (Film - Ek duje ke liye), “gaye vo” in the song “Jane kahan gaye vo din” and “samay ki” in the song “Mere naina” stanza “beete samay ki rekha” have the same exact notes or have the same subset of notes from bandishi of raga Shivranjani.

Songs of Raga Shivranjani:
1. Ajahun na aye balma, Film - Sanjh Aur Savera
2. Mere naina savan bhado, Film - Mehbooba
3. Jaane kahaan gaye wo din, Film - Mera Naam Joker
4. Sansar hai ek nadiya, Film - Raftaar
5. Aawaz deke hamem tum bulao, Film - Professor
6. Banake kyun bigada re, Film - Zanjeer
7. Ai mere sanam ai mere sanam, Film - Sangam
8. Dil ke jharokhe mein tujhko bithakar, Film - Bramhachari
9. Tere mere beech mein, Film - Ek Duje ke liye
10.Kahin deep jale kahin dil, Film - Bees Saal Baad
11.Tumhe dekhti hun to lagta hai aise, Film - Tumhare Liye
12.Bahaaro phool barsaao, mera mehboob aaya hai, Film - Suraj
13.Yaad teri aayegi mujhko bara sataayegi, Film - Ek Jaan Hain Ham
14.Rimjhimke geet savan gaye, Film - Anjaana
15.Na kisiki ankhka nur hun, Mohd Rafi, Film - Lal Quila
16.Tumse milkar na jane kyun, aur bhi kuchh, Film- Pyar Jhukta Nahin
17.Mujhe Kuch Kahna Hai, Film - Mujhe Kuch Kahna Hai
18.Jo bhi dukh yaad na tha, yaad aya - A Ghazal by Ghulam Ali
19.Kahin deep jale kahin dil, Film - Bees Saal Baad
20.Mere sanam, Film - Sangam

1. 5. Raga Meigh Or Megh Zafar Perwaana Specially performed raga meigh for www.ragatracks.com
Jati: Audav-Audav

Vadi: R

Samvadi: P

Swarupa: S R* ‘n ‘P R* S

Time of performance: (12 AM to 3 AM)

Raga Meigh Information

This is a loved raga by many people. This raga is heard in the monsoon season when thunderbolts rock the sky and rain fall on the ground. Even though on occasion, it rains in the autumn and winter seasons, the same effect of the rain is not the same. Raga Meigh, thus, was considered a janak raga. Raga Meigh and a very similar raga, Raga Malhar, have very similar ecstatic properties. According to the janak ragas, Raga Dipak came to burn and enflame people during the summer. When the summer (June-early July) season ended, the monsoon season started and Raga Meigh extinguished the flames and fire caused by Raga Dipak. It is truly the raga to extinguish fires of the heart.
Songs of Raga Meigh:
1. Kahan Se Aye Badra
Film - Chashme Buddoor
2. Konpalen Phir Fut Ayi
Ghazal Mehdi Hassan
3. Mahefil Men Baar Baar Kisi Par Nazar Gai
Ghazal Ghulam Ali
1. Raga Malhar

Raga Malhar is thaat kafi raga. It vaadi note is 'P' and samvaadi note is 'S' and time of performance is 9 pm to 12 pm. It jaati is audav-sampoorn and bhaav is shadj-madhyam.
Arohi: S-R-P,mPnD-N-S'
Amrohi: S'-D-n-P-m-P,gmRS-'n-'D-'N-S 2. Thaat Asavari


Arohi: S R g m P d n S’
Amrohi: S’ n d P m g R S

Thaat Asavari Songs
· Chale jana nahin naina milake - Film Badi Bahen
· Radha ke to ne bansri churai, Taala Sitarkhani - Film Beti Bete
Ragas of Thaat Asavari
1. Asavari
2. Darbari
3. Jaunpuri

Bandish of a given Raga

Bandish are the most dominating notes of a given raga. Each raga has its own bandish. Whenever a music director composes a song based upon a given raga, he makes sure that he uses the bandish of that raga. This is the precise reason why two songs composed on the same raga sound similar. In a way, bandish is a common factor within all the tunes composed on a given raga. A song based on a given raga can be composed in any one of 3 octaves. This sometimes makes it difficult to identify the raga of the song, although the progression of notes follows the same rules of raga in any octave. Once you memorize the bandish of ragas, you will be able to identify the raga of another tune that is based on same raga.

Each raga has its own bandish. Whenever a music director composes a song based upon a given raga, he makes sure that he uses the bandish of that raga. This is the precise reason why two songs composed on the same raga sound similar. In a way, bandish is a common factor within all the tunes composed on a given raga.

Actually, to understand the bandish of any raga, it is better to listen and grasp the instrumental film music played on a musical instrument. Since musical instruments do not utter words, the listener can concentrate and grasp the raga very accurately after repeatedly listening to the notes of the tune. Of course, if you are very well versed in raga based music, then you can easily recognize a raga with ease even if you are listening to a vocal piece. Hence, by remembering songs based on a particular raga, you will be able to identify the raga of another tune, if it is based on the same raga.

Variya Swar
While rendering a raga, one should be very careful of not using varjya swar. Varjya swar in a raga are the notes, those are strictly excluded in rendition. Varjya swar is the enemy of the raga. If a varjya swar is accidentally used during the rendition of a particular raga, it will spoil the atmosphere that a particular raga is supposed to create. So great artists do a lot of practice of a given raga, so that they will never make the mistake of using varjya swar.
1. Raga/Ragni Asavari Bandish
Asavari is not a raga but ragni and ragni asavari is derived from thaat asavari (Parental scale). Still we can call it raga asavari to some extent. Its Vaadi (main note) is d and Samvaadi (second in importance) is g and important Anuvaadi is P. Its Jaati (class) is Audav-Sampoorn. Its time of performance is morning. Its Pakad is R-m-P-S'- (n) d-P -R-m-P-n-d-P. It is played from madh - taar saptak. Its bhaav is Shad-Madhyam. Ragni Asavari evokes the moods depicting yearning for love, anguish, and melancholy. Ragni Asavari is effective in eliminating the impurities of blood and related diseases.

There is considerable disagreement concerning the Re. Some musicologists view is that only shuddh Re is used. There is another school, which suggests that both shauddh and komal can be used and some are of the view that only the komal Re be used. However, it is recommended to use Shuddh R.
Asavari's counsel and influence have profoundly shaped the Indian musical imagination. This compendium explores that engaging melody as well as its derivative ragas, as I like to call them. Asavari is a very ancient ragni as is the allied Raga Gandhari; We will here train our sights on contemporary musical practice. Throughout this discussion, M=shuddh madhyam and m=tiver madhyam. The ragni, Asavari, itself comes in three flavours, each distinguished by the manner of rishab use. They are, respectively, the shuddh rishab-only (R) Asavari, the komal rishab-only (r) Asavari, and the third type employing both r and R. The swars of the R-only Asavari are aligned with the Asavari thaat proper whereas those of the r-only Asavari belong to the Bhairavi thaat.

Vadi: Komal Dhivat (d)
Samvadi: Komal Gandhar (g)
Jati: Audav-Sampooran
Pakad: R-m-P-S'-(n)d-P R-m-P-n-d-P


Sa Re Ma Pa Dha Sa' Sa' Ni Dha Pa Ma Ga Re Sa
Arohi: S-R-m-P-d-S'
Amrohi: S'-n-d-P-m-g-R-S

Songs of Raga Asavari
1. Mujhe galese lagalo bahut udas hun main - Film Aaj aur Kaal
2. Piya te kaha - Film Toofan aur Diya
3. Chale jana nahi naina milake - Film Badi Bahen
4. Tum zid to ker rehe ho – Mehdi Hassan
5. Jadon holi jai lenda mera naa – Film Att khuda da wair, Noor Jehan
6. Jab bhi chahen ik nai soorat saja lete hain log – Mehdi Hassan
7. Sawan aya tum nehi aye, Pakistani Sonng
8. Bereham asman meri manzil bataa – Talat Mehmood
9. Na yeh chaand ho ga, Hemant Kumar - Film Shart
10. Jhanak jhanak tori baje payal, Mana Dey - Film Mere Hazoor
11. Tu ne hye mere zakham-e jigar ko choo lya - Film Nagina (old)
12. Mujh ko awaz de tu kehan hai, Mehdi Hassan - Film Ghoongat

2. Raga Darbari

Raga Darbari is derived from Thaat Asavari (Parental scale). Its Vaadi (main note) is R and Samvaadi (second in importance) is P. Its Jati (class) is Sampoorn-Sampoorn; We do not count repeated notes while defining jati. Its time of performance is early night. Its Pakad is S-R-g, R-S-'d, 'n-R-S. Its bhaav is Shadj-Madham. Andolan is required on komal Ga and komal Dha, particularly in arohi.


Arohi: S-R-g, m-P-d, n-S’
Amrohi: S’-d-n-m-P, m-P-n-g-m-R-S

Songs of Raga Darbari
1. Ye Hawa Ye Raat Ye Chaandni - Film Sangdil
2. Mujhe tum se kuchh bhi na chahiye - Film Kanhaiya
3. Bahon Ke Darmiyan - Film Khamoshi
4. Ku-ba-ku fail gai baat shanaasai ki, Mehdi Hassan
5. Daiya re daiya, laaj mohe lage, Taal Kehrva - Film: Leader
6. Dil jalta hai to jalne de, Taal Kehrva - Film Pehli Nazar
7. Jo chala gia ose bhool ja - Film Saathi
8. Chandi ki dewar na todi, Mukesh - Film Vishwas
9. Suhaanee chaandanee raaten hame sone, Mukesh - Film Mukti
10. Tora man darpan kahlaaye, Taal kehrva - Film Kaajal
11. Teri duniya mein dil lagta nahi, Taal kehrva - Film Bawre Nain
12. Hum tujh se muhabat ker ke sanam - Film Awara
13. Mujhe tum se kuch bhi na chahiye - Film Kanhaiya
14. Oh duniya ke rakhwale sun dard bhare mere naale - Film Baiju Bawra
15. Tu pyarka sagar hai - Film, Seema
16. Tuthe hue khvabonne - Film Madhumati
17. Basti basti parabat parabat - FilmBaadal
18. Muhabbat ki jhuthi kahani pe roye - Film Mugal-e-azam
19. Guzre hai aaj ishqmen - Film Dil Diya Dard Liya
20. Raha gardishonmen haradam - Film Do Badan
21. E dil mujhe aisi jagah le chal - Film Arzoo (old)
22. Hum tum se juda ho ke - Film Ek Sapera Ek Lutera
23. Aap ki nazaron ne samajha - Film Anpadh
24. Koi matwala ayaa more dware - Film Love In Tokyo
25. Pag ghoongroo bandh meera naachi thi - Film Namak Halal
26. Yaad mein teri jaag jaag ke hum - Film Mere Mehboob
3. Raga Jaunpuri

Raga Jaunpuri is derived from Thaat Asavari (Parental scale). It can be played in daytime. Its Vaadi (main note) is S and Samvaadi (second in importance) is P. Its Jati (class) is Shadav-Sampoorn; Its time of performance is morning till noon. Its Pakad is dm, PdnS’-d-P, and d-m-P, R-m-P. Its bhaav is Shadj-Pancham. Is is played in madh - tar saptk. Important annuvaadi is n.


Arohi: S-R-m-P, dm, PdnS'


Amrohi: S'-n-d-P, d-m-P,g-R-S


Arohi: S-R-m-P, dm, PdnS'
Amrohi: S'-n-d-P, d-m-P,g-R-S

Songs of Raga Jaunpuri
1. Jaye to jayen kahan samjhe ga kaun yahan, Taal kehrva - Film Taxi Driver
2. Meri yadmen tum na ansu bahana, Taal kehrva - Film Madhosh
3. Dil ched koi aisa nagma, Taal kehrva - Film Inspector
4. Ghunghat ke pat khol, (Kabir Bhajan) Taal kehrva - Film Jogan
5. Muhabbat ki jhoothi kahani pe roye, Taal kehrva - Film Mughal-E-Azam
6. Jab dilko sataye gam tu uuu ched sakhi sargam - Film Sargam (Old)
7. We lagiyan di laj rakh lai kadi bhul na jai anjana - Film Chor Nale Chitar
8. Husan ko ishaq ka pegam aya hai - Film Taj Mahal (Pakistani)

About Taalas

Definition of Taal Rhythm is a concept that you encounter almost every day in our life. Due to your response to the rhythm in the music you instinctively tap your feet or click your fingers on hearing music There are many examples of rhythm in our life.

By listening to these examples carefully, you can clearly identify repeating patterns of sound. These repeating patterns construct what is called 'rhythm'. Rhythm is a concept that we encounter almost every day in our life. Remember the time when you instinctively tap your feet or click your fingers on hearing music? Well, this reaction is nothing but your response to the rhythm in the music. There are many examples of rhythm in our life which are given below. You can clearly identify repeating patterns of sound by listening to music. Repeating patterns of sound is called rhythm. Any musical system is constructed with rhythm. Planets revolves around the sun according to set rhythm as well wave in stream flow in rhythm. Rhythm has existed several centuries before the ragas were invented. Rhythm is essential for Indian music or any music of the world. Indian system of rhythm is known as 'tala and tala means "clap". In north Indian music the tabla has replaced the clap in the performance of raga. Almost all the Indian compositions are built improvised with the help of tala. Tala is a repeating cycle of a number of beats per second which are grouped in a particular way which sounds pleasant. If we listen beats without proper cycles of rhythm then it will sound awaful. North Indian Taals These are some of the famous Taals in Northern Indian music. Although most Tabla players know all the following Taals, but they don’t get to play them very often. Most commonly used Taals are ‘Teen Taal’ (16 beats), ‘Aik Taal’ (12 beats), ‘Roopak’ (7 beats), ‘Dadra’ (6 beats), ‘Kehrva’ (8 beats) and ‘Jhup Taal’ (10 beats). Note:- Click play button and let the music to fully download. After fully download you can listen complete music smoothly. To listen again press play button again. Kehrva (8 beats, two sections) Taal signs X 0 Maatras 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Boles Dha ge na ti Na ke dhi na Dadra (6 beats, 2 sections) Taal signs X 0 Maatras 1 2 3 4 5 6 Boles Dha Dhin na ta tin na Jhaptaal Taal (10 beats, 4 sections) Taal signs X 2 0 3 Maatras 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Boles Dhin na Dhin Dhin na Tin na Dhin Dhin na Roopak (7 beats, 3 sections) Taal signs 0 2 3 Maatras 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Boles Tin tin na Dhin na Dhin na Tabla Sounds: Tabla has ten main sounds or boles. All other boles are combination of these sounds. These ten sounds are divided into three basic categories: (I) Right side sounds: 1. na or ta 2. tin or ti 3. din or thun 4. tu 5. te 6. re (II) Left side’s sounds: 7. Ge or Ghe (pronounced gay and ghay) 8. ke (pronounced kay) (III) Sounds played with both hands at the same time: 9. dha ( ‘ge’ plus ‘na’ or #7+#1) 10. dhin (’ghe’ plus ‘tin’ or #7+#2) Please do not skip to the next sound until you learn one sound of one hand correctly. How to Learn, Read and Play Taals To master a Taal, first memorize the boles, then learn to read (show) it on your palm. If you know a Taal’s flow by heart, then you can take any boles (sounds) and make them fit in that Taal. Most of the Indian film songs are composed in taal kehrva and other taal is dadra. Few film songs are composed in jhaptaal and rupak. Showing a taal on your palm: Method: Get your left palm out and count 1,2,3,4, 5,6,7,8 (beats in a Taal vary Taal to Taal) in any constant speed. Take a little breather before ‘5′ thus accenting 1st and 5th beat. Now every time you say a number touch your left palm with one finger tip of your right hand. Now clap on one (very quietly) with all four fingers on your left palm and count 2, 3, 4 with using your , second and third finger. On 5, do not clap, move your right hand away to the right instead, leaving this beat empty. Count 6,7,8 the same as 2,3,4 by using your , second and third finger. You just counted the ‘Kehrva Taal’ on your palm. Please see below given table: Taal Kehrva (8 beats, two sections) Taal signs X 0 Beats 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Boles Dha Ge Na Ti Na Ke Dhi na Hands Clap 1st 2nd 3rd Wave 1st 2nd 3rd The purpose to count: The purpose to count on hand is getting to know a Taal. You can sing anything while giving Taal with your hand. It is perfect way to find out if your piece ends on one (sum) or not. Or you can try to make a pick up or a fill. Once again, this is how the palm system goes: we clap on every clap point (that is the Sum, and the other Taali points in a Taal) We count all the other beats with our fingers just to keep rhythm. We wave our right hand to the right to show Khali (empty point). Sometimes only the Sum (first beat) and the Khali (lighter point) are shown on the hand. It is called ‘giving Khali-Taali’. Please refer to definitions of rhythmic words to know more about these words. A key to pronounce and memorize Tabla Boles (sounds) Tabla boles (sounds) can be really hard to remember if you see them individually. The key to memorize them is to see them as a group. Try to form a combination bole (sound). Some times combination boles are spread over two, three or four beats. See the broken ‘words’ and pronounce them together in whatever time they are written in. If there is no combination boles then try to read a section together. Memorize it then read the next section. In most Taals, you will find that you only have to memorize a portion of it. As the whole Taal forms a poetry of boles. For Dadra Taal please see below given tables. Taal Dadra (6 beats, 2 sections) Taal signs X 0 Beats 1 2 3 4 5 6 Boles Dha Dhin na Dha tin na Let’s separate Left and rigt and see what is going on Taal signs X 0 Beats 1 2 3 4 5 6 Right Ta Tin Na Ta Tin Na Lleft Ge Ghe Ge Here you see that in the both sections, the right hand is playing the same thing. To make the first beat and section heavier, two extra boles are added with the left hand. As described before, ‘ta+ge’ is ‘Dha’ and ‘tin+ghe’ is ‘Dhin’. It is just like any drum patterns. If you take them apart and write them in sections, you will see that how the bass drum separates the Taali (heavier) and Khali (lighter) sections.

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Keyboard or piano have the same keys so, these lessons are for both instruments. Many websites claim to have courses that you can purchase that will teach you how to "play piano by ear" or "learn the chord method", this book contains the same information as those courses and what's best is explained in a simple manner. Lots of people really would like to play the keyboard or piano, the most popular instrument. They don't know one note from another. They do know they love music and want to learn how to use chords and scales to play popular tunes of Indo-Pak. Many, many music lessons, charts, books, and explanations are available in websites and in bookstores. Which to choose? With books, you have to stop, turn the page, go back to another page, and try to keep the pages from flipping if the book doesn't lie flat or not in spiral binding. Web sites need scrolling or clicking the "back" or "forward" buttons. This e.book will provide you practical information about music-playing, as well as detailed material on the most convenient charts and graphics so you, too, can play your favorites music now. Be happy and don't worry.


You cannot find all information about keyboard chords, scales and fingerings in a single book. Western music books are being sold in parts. You are bound to purchase part two or three. The most important thing you can do is to make a commitment to learn the piano or keyboard. This means putting in the effort over the course of several weeks to learn and practice the theory taught on these pages. This article was initiated along with a set of articles on Western and Indian form of Music. This is an attempt to explain things to a newbie who has just got a keyboard and wants to romance with it. In my opinion, both Western and Indian music forms are complex subjects and any simplification will indeed be a tough task. Frankly, my expertise in both forms is limited and through my constant exposure over the period of years I have learnt few basics of both. It is indeed a great pleasure to share the knowledge that I have acquired from different resources and tried to compile this comprehensive book.

Listening to music is a pleasure that most get from birth. This increases to a great extent when you understand the basics and appreciate. Music can be defined as collection of small pieces of regular sound played at predefined time interval. An ingenious collection of these notes played over a period of time results in a melody. Hence both western and Indian or for that matter any form of regular music has a set of basic notes from which they grow, something like alphabets. There is a new concept evolving called “computer music” where a musician explores beyond the basic notes that are defined in music. In cakewalk and CubaseSX3 it is possible to explore beyond basics.

Let us see more on Notes - “Notes” what are they? Note can be technically explained as a sound frequency. Actually the sound that is produced when you press a key on musical keyboard is called as “NOTE”. It does not matter if you press the white key or the black key. Each key plays a predefined frequency. The note gets its shape by the amount of time you hold down the key and release it. This is called the note length or duration. Hence to make a “tune” or a “melody” or “song” you should play a bunch of these notes at proper duration and length. Before going more into it, let us explore the keyboard.

Sound Waves

Musical notes, like all sounds, are made of sound waves. The sound waves that make musical notes are very evenly spaced waves, and the qualities of these regular waves - for example how big they are or how far apart they are - affects the sound of the note. A note can be high or low, depending on how often (how frequently) one of its waves arrives at your ear. When scientists and engineers talk about how high or low a sound is, they talk about its frequency. Frequency is the number of cycles per second. The higher the frequency of a note, the higher it sounds. They can measure the frequency of notes, and like most measurements, these will be numbers, like "440 vibrations per second."

All sound waves are traveling at about the same speed, which is the speed of sound. So waves with a shorter wavelength arrive at your ear, quicker than longer waves.


Since the sounds are traveling at about the same speed, the one with the shorter wavelength arrives our ear faster because it has a higher frequency, or pitch. In other words, it sounds higher. The word that musicians use for frequency is pitch. The shorter the wavelength, the higher the frequency and the higher the pitch of the sound. In other words, short waves sound high and long waves sound low.

Sound Pitches

The interval between two notes is the distance between the two pitches - in other words, how much higher or lower one note is than the other. This concept is so important that it is almost impossible to talk about scales, chords, without referring to intervals. So if you want to learn western music theory, it would be a good idea to spend some time getting comfortable with the concepts and practicing identifying intervals.

Scientists usually describe the distance between two pitches in terms of the difference between their frequencies. Musicians find it more useful to talk about interval. Intervals can be described using half steps and whole steps. For example, you can say, B natural is a half step below C natural, or "E flat is a step and a half above C natural". But when we talk about larger intervals in the major/minor system, there is a more convenient and descriptive way to name them.

Naming Intervals

The first step in naming the interval is to find the distance between the notes. Count every space in between the notes. This gives you the number for the intervals. To find the interval, count spaces between two notes as well as all the spaces in between. The interval between B and D is a third. The interval between A and F is a sixth. Seconds, thirds, sixths, and sevenths can be major intervals or minor intervals. The minor interval is always a half step smaller than the major interval.

* Major and Minor Intervals1 half-step = minor second (m2)
* 2 half-steps = major second (M2)
* 3 half-steps = minor third (m3)
* 4 half-steps = major third (M3)
* 8 half-steps = minor sixth (m6)
* 9 half-steps = major sixth (M6)
* 10 half-steps = minor seventh (m7)
* 11 half-steps = major seventh (M7)

Tonal Center

A scale starts with the note that names the key. This note is the tonal center of that key, the note where music in that key feels "at rest". It is also called the tonic, and it's the "do-re-mi". For example, music in the key of A major almost always ends on an A major chord, the chord built on the note A. It often also begins on that chord, returns to that chord often, and features a melody and a bass line that also return to the note A often enough that listeners will know where the tonal center of the music is, even if they don't realize that they know it.

Learning the notes of the Keyboard and Piano in desi style

Before we can learn how to play scales chords it is vital that we learn the notes on keyboard and how they relate to each other. The best way to describe the notes on the keyboard is by comparing them to the notes of the alphabets. The first seven notes of the keyboard are ( A - B - C - D -E - F - G ). Each note differs with each other in sound. Below are all seven notes of the keyboard. Notice that the seven notes of keyboard repeat themselves over and over again. That the notes sound the same but the pitch differs. For example if you play C and move to the right until you find the next C, you will notice that if you play them simultaneously, both notes sounds the same but one is higher than the other.

Middle C marks the center of the keyboard. As you will notice the C Major is the easiest and simplest scale of the twelve. In C Major Scale you may play the song "ik pyar kaa nagma hai". It consists all the white keys from any starting C to the next. C. The diagram 1 below represents the C major scale in all three octaves. C major can be written as ( C maj, CM ).


A standard semi professional music keyboard has 48 keys. You will see 4 sets of 12 keys and total 48 keys. One of these 12 set of notes is technically called an octave. Western music is based on logarithmic division. An octave is divided into 12 equal intervals such that the logarithm of the frequency ratio of two neighboring intervals is the same. This interval is called a semi tone. There are 12 mutually exclusive half notes in the system. In Indian music “Sa” note is based on your reference note or the key you selected as starting point. After Sa the first note will be ‘Re’ komal and then ‘Re’ tiver and so on. You can start playing Indian or Pakistani song from any key and the first notewill become ‘Sa’ elsewhere. The traditional Indian music is based on a 22 keys per octave. In Western music Middle C octave that is also called the Middle C scale etc starts from the first white key set to 240 Hz. On your keyboard, middle C octave is located somewhere near the middle. Once you figured out where this octave is, you can quickly identify the first key of this octave (set to 240 Hz). And because we know the ratio of the key frequencies now we can pretty much compute the frequency generated by any key. You will also notice that the keyboard has about three to four octaves (between 36 to 48 keys. The upper octave, starting from 480 Hz is the Upper C octave and the lower octave starting at 120 Hz is the Lower C octave etc.

Note: ‘Sa’ does not “map” always onto ‘C’ or ‘C#’. It could start at F and still form a S R G M PD N sargam. In the western music system the ‘C’ note” itself does not change and scales denote the pitch changes. Thus Western music system has an “absolute” (fixed) naming for the keys whereas in Indianthe notation is “relative. Whereas in desi style lessons we have assumed Sa of Indian to C# of western, the first black key. A Scale is a set of 7 notes in a proper order and intervals or a scale is set of 7 notes with predefined intervals. The distance between each note is called as interval. It is to be noted that scales and ragas are not same. Apart from having seven different notes in both western and Indian music, there are not many similarities. There is a difference between an Indian scale and western scale. Indian scale is called a thaat. Just going across “C” to “C” in a Western scale can be called as a major scale. Only few Indian scales are similar to western scales. Ragas have many dimensions to it. First, it has an emotional overtone. A raga can have 5 or more notes with intervals. This kind of reduction of notes in a scale is called as modes in Western classical music. Experts believe proper training is required to play Ragas fluently. This comes by good practice and understanding of notes usage. A western trained top-notch musician will be able to play a phrase of 1/64 note at a good speed but will find it difficult to play raga without proper training.

Finger Numbers

The left and right hand fingers are numbered as shown in the above diagram. The thumb of each hand is counted as the firstfinger and has the number one. When a flat sign is placed after a note likeBb (B Flat) it means that you play the key immediately to the left side of note B. This note Bb will be black key just to left side and above the note B. So, any black key alwayshave sharp and flat notes. When a sharp sign is placed after any note like C# it means that you play the key immediately just to its right.Note that C# is always a black key just after the white key “C” and B Flatkey is black key just before white key “B”.
From right hand in middle octave and from note of middle ‘C” we play melody with our right hand and from left of Middle ‘C’ and in left octave of keyboard we play chords with our left hand.

How to find Middle C

The first note you learn to play is Middle ‘C’. Middle ‘C’ is the note closest to the middle of your keyboard. Place a ‘C’ sticker on the Middle C note. Play middle C with your right hand thumb. In the above picture of Keyboard we cannot show all 48 or 61 keys of a keyboard and we showed only left octave middle octave and part of right octave of the keyboard.

Sharp Notes:


C# (C Sharp) means the note just after “C” note. D# is the note just after D and E# is the note just after “E” note and so on. Here C, D, & E notes are white keys. See diagram 3 shown above for sharp notes only and diagram 4 shown below for flat notes only.

Flat Notes:



Db (D flat) means the note just before note D that is here a black note. Eb (E flat) is the note just before note E and so one. See Diagram 4 above. There are also two notes Cb (C flat) and Fb (flat), which are notes just before C and F, which are white keys only. Note Cb is just attached to the left side of note C and Note Fb is just attached to the left side of note F.

Sharp & Flat Notes Showing Together


Left Octave Middle Octave Right Octave

Notes of C# and Db are on the same key or we can say one note at the same time can be sharp or flat. If we want to locate C# note then it is the note just after note ‘C’ and when we want to locate Db (D flat) then it is the note just before note ‘D’. In other words we can name flat or sharp note at the same time to a single note. In the above given diagram 4 we have shown both sharp and flat keys together. Any black key may be sharp or flat.

The best way to describe the notes on the keyboard is by comparing them to the notes of the alphabets. The first seven notes of the keyboard are ( A - B - C - D -E - F - G ). Each note differs with each other in sound. We start from the note “C” as C, D, E, F, G, A, B, for playing keyboards in western style.
Introducing Major Scale in Desi Style

For centuries, most Western music has been based on major and minor scales. That is one of the things that make it instantly recognizable as Western music. Most of the music of Eastern Asia is based upon thaat and ragas. A scale is a list of all the notes that begins with a specific key. Major scales all follow the same interval pattern. The simple, sing-along, nursery rhymes and folk songs we learn as children, the cheerful, toe-tapping pop and rock we dance to or Qomi Tarana, Pak Ser Zameen: Most music in a major key has a bright sound that people often describe as cheerful, inspiring, exciting, or just plain fun. In C Major Scale you may play the song "ik pyar kaa nagma hai". It consists all the white keys from any starting C to the next. C. Music in a particular key tends to use only some of the many possible notes available; these notes are listed in the scale associated with that key. The notes that a major key uses tend to build "bright"-sounding major chords. They also give a strong feeling of having a tonal center, a note or chord that feels like "home" in that key. The "bright"-sounding major chords and the strong feeling of tonality are what give major keys their pleasant moods. In this lesson we will learn all about the major scale. Although we will use a keyboard, the lesson should be of use to anyone who wants to learn about one of the most important and useful scales in music.

In a keyboard you will see the familiar repeating pattern of notes. Starting from one C and moving upwards to the next produces the notes: C D E F G A B C

Learn all the note names on a keyboard. The white key to the left of two black keys is always a C, now moving to the next white keys on the right we have D - E - F - G - A - B then back to C again. These note names just keep repeating. The name of the black keys (and some white keys as well) varies depending on whether it's a sharp or a flat. For example, the black key next to C may either be a C# or a Db. If you've played these C D E F G A B C notes on your keyboard - you've just played a Major Scale. This is the scale known as C Major. C Major is the most common scale in all Western music and there are eight notes in C Major scale. To simplify, you can memorize this formula to form a major scale:

Major Scale = whole step - whole step - half step - whole step - whole step - whole step - half step or w - w - h - w - w - w – h Or we can write
whole whole half whole whole whole half step step step step step step step1 to 2 to 3 to 4 to 5 to 6 to 7 to 8
Now, assign numbers to each note of a major scale, always assign number one to the root note. For example, in the C major scale the root note is C with number 1 and other numbers will be assigned as follows:

C = 1
D = 2
E = 3
F = 4
G = 5
A = 6
B = 7
C = 8

So, based upon this sequence a C major scale would be comprised of the following tones: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C (in a single octave).

Understanding Tones and Semitones

To understand how to find other major scales we need to look more closely at the construction of our C Major Scale. Have a look at the keyboard again. By adding in the black notes, we can see that there are actually 12 notes between one C and the next. The distance from one of these 12 to its neighbor is known as a semitone. If you have a keyboard, try playing up the keyboard from one C to the next, playing all 12 notes.

Notice how some notes of the C major scale have another note in between them (eg. from C to D there is a black note in between), whereas some don't (e.g. from E to F). The gap from C to D consists of two semitones, and is known as a tone. This pattern of tones and semitones is how the scale gets its particular colour. The major scale is formed out of the following mixture of tones and semitones or we can say a major scale consists of 7 different notes. The intervals from note to note of the major scale in any key are:
tone - tone - semitone - tone - tone - tone - semitone

Finding other major scales in desi style.

To find any other major scale, you simply repeat the pattern of tones and semitones, starting from the note in question.
For example, let's try D major Scale which is: D E F# A B C# (Just in case you're not clear, F# indicates the black note immediately above the F)

Many students of keyboards dread scales. But without the knowledge of scales, you will never be able to create your original melodies. Scales teach you correct fingering patterns.

Practice each hand separately, before attempting to play both hands! The fingering for the RH is: ascending 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 and descending 5 4 3 2 1 3 2 1. As you ascend, tuck your thumb under your third finger and complete the scale using finger numbers 1 2 3 4 5. When you descend, cross your third finger over your thumb and complete the scale using finger numbers 3 2 1. LH fingering: ascending 5 4 3 2 1 3 2 1 and descending 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5. The same instructions apply regarding tucking the thumb under the second finger when descending and crossing the third finger over the thumb when ascending.

Throughout your study of the keyboard, especially when you are learning new music, or an exercise, it is important that you practice each hand separately at first. Once your finger muscles have memorized the movement (s) you may then practice with both hands. But remember to practice slowly at first. How can you run, if you can’t walk?

Getting Use to Keyboard Finger Movements:

Place your right hand on a tabletop or your thigh. Slowly, tap each finger, starting with your thumb and proceed with fingers 2-5. (I.e. 1-2-3-4-5, 1-2-3-4-5 etc.)

Repeat this at least ten times. Raise your fingers very high.

Now practice starting with your 5th finger and proceed with fingers 4-1. (i.e. 5-4-3-2-1, 5-4-3-2-1 etc.) Have you noticed that when you’re tapping fingers 1-5, you are moving up; and on the other hand when you are tapping fingers 5-1, you are moving down. These 5-finger movements are needed to play the keyboard well. Now here’s where the fun begins! Repeat the instructions above using your left hand. That’s right. If you are “right-handed”, your left hand is naturally weaker than your right. So, remember, a keyboardist is only as good as his weaker hand. Therefore, you must spend more practice-time using the weaker hand/fingers


Major scales in all 12 keys with flats and sharps



How Minor Scales Are Formed

The sound of the minor scale generally makes people think of "Indian music" - although in truth, the scale isn't used much in that genre. A natural minor scale consists of 7 different notes. These intervals from note to note are:

tone - semitone - tone - tone - semitone - tone – tone
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

If we learn the formula of building all major and minor scales then we can make chords ourselves. Learn scales that are fundamentals of music and play songs with them. A natural minor piano scale is also known as a relative or related minor scale. To find the relative minor scale of any major scale, locate the 6th tone (note) in a major scale and you will have found it's related minor. For example, C major scale is composed of C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C (octave). The 6th note of the C major scale is A. Therefore A minor is the relative or related minor of a C major scale. This means that both A minor and C major are comprised of the same tones or notes. If you start at A on any on the keyboard and play all the white notes to next octave A, then you can count the series of whole and half steps which make up a natural minor scale. The sequence is whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, and whole step.

To simplify, you can memorize this formula to form a minor scale = whole step - half step - whole step - whole step - half step - whole step - whole step or w - h - w - w - h - w - w.

Practice these keyboard scales with both hands until you can move smoothly or not necessarily quickly from beginning to end and back again in all 12 keys. When you practice your scales, you should use the fingering technique outlined in these lessons. This technique works with major and minor keyboard scales and will help with your finger movements and control. So get to it and practice these natural and minor scales. While the Major scale is considered the foundation of western music theory, the next most important is probably the Minor scale, also known as the Pure Minor or Natural Minor scale. The terms "major" and "minor" are essential concepts in music, and as with chords, they arise from the third degree of the scale. All major scales and chords include a major third degree (four semitones), giving them a strong, assertive feel.

All minor scales and chords include a minor third degree (three semitones) instead, giving them a gentle, melancholy or sad feel. When the Major scale was introduced earlier, you may have wondered why the key of C has the special privilege, compared to the other keys, of containing only natural notes. Why not for example, the key of A, which is our first alphabetical letter? Also, why do single semitone intervals occur only between B/C and E/F, while there are two semitones between all the other natural notes? It seems that centuries ago, when letters were first given to notes, the Natural Minor scale was considered the most important. Note letters were therefore allocated to suit the intervals of the Natural Minor scale. As you can see above, this means that the A Natural Minor scale contains all natural notes, the same as the C Major scale. The Natural Minor scales with other root notes all have at least one sharp or flat note. This makes a lot more sense. It also offers insight why it has the name of "Natural" minor, compared to the other minor scales, which have different names, and different patterns of intervals

Minor scales in all 12 keys with flats and sharps



Musical Emotions

The psychological effects of the major and minor scales, and their respective tonalities, can be understood as the emotional corollaries of these underlying ideas. The major scales revolve around the ideas and the concomitant emotions of order, purity, devotion, submission and worship. The minor scales revolve around the ideas and the related emotions of sacrifice, humanity, complexity and partnership. Minor scale songs show sorrow, grief and sadness

List of 700 Indian Songs Scale, Styles & Tempo Information In Excel:

Note:- Almost all famous Indian film songs can be played with these 40 styles. List of 700 Indian songs with information of their western scales, psr style to select, tempo to fix and mfd will be provided for free with 40 styles package if payment is made through western union. It is a great research work of Salesh Pujara who was once accordion player of Kalyanjee Anandjee and now playing tyros in UK. Salesh Pujara performed accordion for the films Muqadar Ka Sikandar, Amar Akbar Anthony and Naseeb etc.


Fingering Scales

1. General Fingering Rules

1. The fingering always alternates 123 1234 (or 321 4321) so that the same fingering pattern repeats every octave.
2. The thumb always stays on the white keys and never on black keys.
3. The fourth finger always plays a black key (when there is a black key to be played in the scale).
4. The fifth finger is only used in practice of scales in all 3 octaves together.

5. When working out scale passages in the literature, consider alternatives that put the fingering patterns in alignment between the hands (thumbs happening together somewhere in the scale).

II. Fingerings Scales

1. These are just the fingering patterns: Feel free to use finger 5 when appropriate (first note, last note, turning around).

2. Feel free to revert to traditional fingerings, especially when performing the melodic minor scale ascending and descending.

3. In western scale “C” major contain white keys only, so we also use fifth finger in practice of scales.

Major & Minor Desi Scale Fingering Chart

Chords

Chords are used to play along with the melody of a song. There are many different types of chords; the most common are major and minor chords. Or a chord is a group of notes, which are played together. On electronic keyboards, it is possible to play a chord using only one finger in the extreme left octave. Find the auto bass chord section (eg. Yamaha Keyboards), or Casio-chord section (eg. Casio keyboards), or chord intelligence (eg. Rolland or Kawai keyboards) and select the single finger position. This will allow you to play chords using only one or two fingers. On electronic keyboards, chords can also be played with three, four or sometimes more fingers. Chords are usually played with the left hand and the melody is played with the right. Keyboard Chords, are formed by combining two or more scale notes. You know the notes that comprise all 12 major scales and you can play these scales smoothly and not quickly. Begin combining the scale notes to form chords. We will begin our study with the simplest and most common type of piano chords, the triad.In Western music, most harmony is based on chords. In other words chords are groups of notes built on major or minor triads (3 notes). In traditional triadic chords, there are always at least three notes in a chord. The notes of the chord may be played at the same time, or may overlap, or may be played separately but in a quick enough succession that they will be "heard" as a chord.

Major & Minor Chord Fingering

Shown above is the left and right hand with each finger numbered. Remember the finger numbers, as I will be using them in this section.

Left Hand

The simplest fingering for a three-note chord such as C major chord with the left hand is 5-3-1, that is, pinky, middle finger and thumb. The pinky would go on the C, the middle finger on the E and the thumb on the G. This fingering can be used for all major and minor chords on the keyboard regardless of whether they have black keys or not. The same fingering can be used for playing all major and minor chords.
Right Hand
The same fingering reversed can be used for playing C major chord with the right hand, 1-3-5. So in this case the thumb goes on C, the middle finger on E and pinky on G. The same reversed fingering can be used for playing all major and minor chords.
Exercises
Try working out and playing these chords and playing with either hand to test out this fingering. You can play each hand separately or play both hands together:
C Major
E Major - Notice that the fingering still works even though G# is a black key.
G Minor - B flat is a black key in this chord.
A flat Minor - This is a tricky one, its notes are A flat, B and E flat.

Chord Progression

A series of chords played one after another is a chord progression. Musicians may describe a specific chord progression e.g. "two measures of G major, then a half measure of A minor and a half measure of D seventh", or we simply say "G, A minor, D seventh" in short.

Major Chords

As the name implies a triad is composed of 3 notes from the major scale. We shall begin with the major triad. A major triad consists of the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes or tone of a major scale. You will also see this referred to as the root (1st), major third (3rd), and perfect fifth (5th). So, based upon this C major chord would consist of the notes C, E, and G of the C major scale. The symbols for a major triad are Major, M, or Maj. Whenever you see these names or symbols following a keyboard note (C, D, Eb, F#, etc.) you know it is referring to major triad chords. Or if you are just given the note (C, D, etc.) it is inferred to be a major triad. Now, when you practicemajor chords, it is recommend that you form them using the 1st, 3rd, and 5th fingers of your right hand. Thumb (1st), middle finger (3rd), and pinky (5th). Your left hand will form these chords using the 1st, 3rd, and 5th fingers also, but the numbering is pinky (1st) middle finger (3rd) and thumb (5th).

Your First Chord

Now that you've got the melody down you want to make it sound a bit more like a keyboard piece by adding something with your left hand to it. That something is going to be chords. The reason for choosing Silent Night as your first piece is because it only contains three chords, and they are all of the same type like Major. Remember, a chord is a just two or more note played at the same time, for the purposes of this song we are going to be using three note chords also known as triads. So what are the chords you need to know? C Major, F Major and G Major, I will now show you how to play each of these chords on the keyboard. To play the chord simply press the keys marked for the chord. So to play C Major I would press C, E and G at the same time.

C Major

F Major



G Major



The next thing you need is a "chord with", this is a way of telling you where the chords come with respect to the melody and lyrics.

So to start you off, you would play the first note of the song (G) with your right hand while at the same time playing the C chord as given above with your left hand. Now simply keep holding the C chord while you play the first line of the song. When the melody gets up to the section where the G chord is simply play a G chord in your left hand and continue with the melody in the right. Continue this all the way through until you can play the whole song with chords in your left and melody in your right hand at the same time.

Playing Major Chord any where in the Keyboard:

Now you are going to know how to play Major chord anywhere on the keyboard. Say we wanted to work out the major chord G Major the process is as follows (its probably best to practice this at the keyboard). Find the note G on the keyboard this is known as the root note of the chord.

G major chord

Next count up 4 half tones from G to get you to B, this is the second note of your chord. Now count up 3 half tones from B to get you to D. This is your G major chord G-B-D. So the Major chord consists of the root note, a note 4 half tones above the root note, a note 3 half tones above the middle note. That’s it! As soon as you read that you just learnt all the major chords on the keyboard. The Major chord consists of the interval of 4 half tones followed by an interval of 3 half tones.Lets try another one, work out the A Major chord.

Find the root note, in this case A.

Count up 4 half tones from A to get C#.

Count up 3 half tones from C# to get E

And we have the A major chord, A - C#

How to find Chords in different desi keyboards rhythm section.



Yamaha and Technics Keyboard Chord Section:

To play G7 Chord on this type of keyboards, press lowest G key with the fourth finger of your left hand, together with the white key immediately to its left, using your fifth finger.



Casio Keyboard Chord Section

To play a G7 chord on this type of keyboard, press the lowest G key with the fourth finger of your left hand, together with the two white keys to its right, using your third and second fingers.










Kawai and Roland Keyboard Chord Section

To play G7 chord on this type of keyboard, press the lowest G key with the fourth finger of your left hand, together with the second key to its left, using your fifth finger.

When you add chords to a song, the keyboard also allows you to have a bass and drum accompaniment at the same time. Chords are indicated by chord symbols, which are written above notations of songs.

Chords in auto accompaniment section:
1. Setup the one finger chord function on your keyboard.
2. Select a disco, or tabla style beat from the rhythm section.
3. Find the switch called synchro/start (e.g: Yamaha keyboards).
4. Press the C chord key and release it immediately. Your keyboard will begin playing a C chord with bass and drum accompaniment, and continue playing until you press another key, or the stop button. Look in your owners manual if you need more help to use this feature.


USING THE RHYTHM SECTION OF KEYBOARD


| Auto Rhythm | Melody Section |

When you add chords to a song, the keyboard also allows you to have a bass and drum accompaniment at the same time. Chords are indicated by chord symbols, which are written above notations of a song in next pages of lesson.

1. Set up the one-finger chord function on your keyboard.
2. Select a rock, disco, or march beat from the rhythm section.
3. Find the switch called synchro/start (e.g Yamaha keyboards), or synchro (e.g Casio, Technics, Roland and Kawai) and press it.



4. Press the C chord key and release it immediately. Your keyboard will begin playing a C chord with bass and drum accompaniment, and continue playing until you press another key, or the stop button. Look in your owners manual if you need more help to use this feature. Press the C key once for playing C chord continuously. You can also play C major chord by pressing together the three keys C, E, G by left hand with finger number 5,3,1. Or play C major chord with right hand fingers 1,3,5.

In single finger mode you can play any major chord by just pressing the key in the chord area with the same name. Adding a black key on the left of this key will make it a minor chord and an extra white key on the left will make it a 7th chord. If you just began learning to play keyboard I would strongly advise against choosing this mode. It might seem the easiest way, but if you learn to play the basic major and minor chords with three fingers then you will also be able to play your music on keyboards without auto accompaniment (like a piano).

Full keyboard mode is mainly intended for MIDI players but you can also use this to play keyboard. There is no distinction between chord area and melody area. Any note that is played will be regarded as both a chord and a melody note. In this mode only basic major and minor chords are recognized. Because all notes are regarded as chord and melody notes, you can't use notes to switch variations. Use either the PC keyboard for that or use pedals that produce controller or patch( voice) messages.

If you use this mode with a keyboard then you should make some adjustments to your playing style to prevent that melody notes lead to unintended chords. If you press a chord that is recognized then (while you keep it pressed) it will not change when extra notes are pressed (for the melody). If you release the chord keys to make rhythmic moves, then try to avoid pressing more then two keys at a time until the chord keys are pressed again.

SONGS WITH CHORDS

Before playing songs with chords, practice each part separately. First practice the melody of the song by itself (right hand part), then practice the chords by themselves (left hand part). Once you have learnt both parts, play them together. Before you play, adjust the tempo to a comfortable speed. To do this, press the start button, and the drums will play by themselves. If the drums are too fast, slow the speed down by adjusting the tempo control. You can increase the speed as you become more confident playing the song. If you are playing along with the recording, play only the right hand part.For playing single key function for a chord use auto-accompaniment section of keyboard.

ENDING

Most electronic keyboards have a control which can automatically add and ending to a song you are playing. Press the ending button when you have finished playing a song. You can, however, use any voice or rhythm that you think suits the song.

Exercises for fingering practice:

In these exercises your fingers will be able to play smoothly and you will be able to learn my notation technique. With this technique you will learn where to give silence or rest while playing. You will use proper finger numbers for specific keys.


LOW SOUNDS HIGH SOUNDS

On the keyboard, DOWN is to the LEFT, and UP is to the RIGHT.
As you move LEFT, the tones sound LOWER. As you move RIGHT, the tones sound HIGHER.
On the keyboard, DOWN is to the LEFT, and UP is to the RIGHT.
As you move LEFT, the tones sound LOWER. As you move RIGHT, the tones sound HIGHER.



Name That Key:
Piano keys are named for first seven letters of the alphabet, beginning with A.
A B C D E F G A B
Keyboard keys are named for seven letters of the alphabet, beginning with C.
C D E F G A B C D

Each white key is recognized by its position in or next to a black-key group! For example: A's are found between the TOP TWO KEYS of each 3-BLACK-KEY GROUP. Play the following. Use LH 3 for keys below the middle of the keyboard. Use RH 3 for keys above the middle of the keyboard. Say the name of each key aloud as you play



You can now name every white key on your piano. The key names are C D E F G A B and C, used over and over again. The keys of Piano start from A note. But it make no difference. Play and name every white key beginning with bottom A. Use LH3 for keys below middle C, and RH 3 for keys above middle C.

Low Sounds

On the keyboard, DOWN is to the LEFT, and UP is to the Right. As you move LEFT, the tones sound LOWER. As you move RIGHT, the tones sound HIGHER.

Right Hand C Position

Place the RH on the keyboard so that the 1st FINGER falls on MIDDLE C. Let the remaining 4 fingers fall naturally on the next 4 white keys. Keep the fingers curved and relaxed. The names of 5 keys are ALPHABETICAL ORDER: C D E F G

Right Hand Warm-Up

Play the following WARM-UP. Say the name of each note aloud as you play. Repeat until you can play smoothly and evenly. As the notes go higher on the keyboard they are written higher in the notation below. Higher means play from left to right side.


Note: Right hand RH fingering or finger numbers is shown above the notations. Warming up fingering practice is very important for playing smoothly and fast.. Practice for 15 minutes for some days the below given lesson.

Left Hand Warm-Up

Place the LH on the keyboard so that the 5th FINGER falls on the C BELOW (to the left of) MIDDLE C. Let the remaining fingers fall naturally on the next 4 white keys. Keep the fingers curved and relaxed.



Play the following WARM-UP. Say the name of each note aloud as you play. Repeat until you can play smoothly and evenly. *Finger numbers are shown below the notations.



Middle C Position

The MIDDLE C POSITION used notes you already know! RH is in C POSITION. Both thumbs are now on Middle C.


The Four Four Time Signature

Four four time signature tells that there are four beats in one measure. Play slowly and evenly, counting a, 2, 3, 4 as you play. Each count is equal to one second and one measure is equal to four seconds.

Play and say the notes names. Do this several times! First play left hand ascending and descending then play RH ascending descending. This practice exercise is very important.

Note for Player:- Click play button and let the music to fully download. After fully download you can listen complete music smoothly. To listen again press play button again.


Exercise 1 Middle C Note (Suggested voice: PIANO)



Play eight Middle C notes. Count aloud as you play. Use the thumb of your right hand. On the recording there are four drumbeats to introduce this exercise. Music is divided into bars (or measures) by bar lines. In this exercise there are two bars of music. Where measure 1 is bar one and measure 2 is bar 2.

Exercise 2 (Suggested voice: PIANO)



Here are four bars of Middle C in 4/4 time. Play slowly and evenly, counting as you play. On the recording there are four drumbeats to introduce exercises and songs in 4/4 time.

:│ Two dots in the end are called a repeat sign. They mean that you play the exercise again from the start.

The D note
Exercise 3 (Suggested voice Clarinet)

Play the D note with second finger of your right hand.



Exercise 4 (Suggested voice: BRASS ENSEMBLE)



The Half Note

This is a half note. It lasts for two beats. There are only two half notes in one bar OR measure of 4/4 time signature.

Exercise 5 (Suggested Voice Jazz Organ)



This exercise contains four bars of half notes using C and D. The big number 1 and 3 indicate that you play the note. The small number 2 and 4 tell you to hold until the next note. Hold also means no sound of keys. This exercise contains four measures of half notes using C and D. There are only two half notes in one measure of 4/4 time.

Exercise 6(Suggested Voice Trumpet)



Exercises 6 and 7 use a mixture of half and quarter notes. Because of the 4/4 time signature, there must be a total of four beats in each measure.

Exercise 7 (Suggested Voice Flute)



Note: Please repeat above seven exercises several times.


The Note E
Play the E note with the third finger of your right hand.

Exercise 8


The Whole Note
Count: 1 2 3 4 while playing whole note. Whole note lasts for four beats. There is only one whole note in one measure or bar of 4/4 time.
Whole Note: | C |

In these exercises your fingers will be able to play smoothly and you will be able to learn desi notation technique. With this technique you will learn where to give silence or rest while playing. You will use proper finger numbers for specific keys.

Exercise 9


Exercise 10



How to find Chords in different desi keyboards rhythm section.



Yamaha and Technics Keyboard Chord Section:

To play G7 Chord on this type of keyboards, press lowest G key with the fourth finger of your left hand, together with the white key immediately to its left, using your fifth finger.



Casio Keyboard Chord Section

To play a G7 chord on this type of keyboard, press the lowest G key with the fourth finger of your left hand, together with the two white keys to its right, using your third and second fingers.










Kawai and Roland Keyboard Chord Section

To play G7 chord on this type of keyboard, press the lowest G key with the fourth finger of your left hand, together with the second key to its left, using your fifth finger.

When you add chords to a song, the keyboard also allows you to have a bass and drum accompaniment at the same time. Chords are indicated by chord symbols, which are written above notations of songs.

Chords in auto accompaniment section:

1. Setup the one finger chord function on your keyboard.
2. Select a disco, or tabla style beat from the rhythm section.
3. Find the switch called synchro/start (e.g: Yamaha keyboards).
4. Press the C chord key and release it immediately. Your keyboard will begin playing a C chord with bass and drum accompaniment, and continue playing until you press another key, or the stop button. Look in your owners manual if you need more help to use this feature.

Introducing B for Left Hand in Desi Style Keyboards Lessons


TO FIND B:

Place the LH in C POSITION. Reach finger 5 one white key to the left to B. You will use finger 5 for both B and C here. Play slowly and say the names of the notes as you play.



C Major and G7th Chords exercise

The C Major Chord

A chord is three or more notes played together. THE C MAJOR CHORD is made of three notes: C E G. Be sure to play all three chord notes exactly together, with fingers nicely curved.



C MAJOR CHORDS for LH

Play and count 1,2,3 on each chord.



C MAJOR CHORDS for RH

Play and count 1,2,3 on each chord.



C MAJOR CHORDS for BOTH HANDS

Play with both hands upper CEG and Lower CEG together and for bold chords play longer.




Play Longer Play Longer


Two Important Chords

Two frequently used chords are C MAJOR & G7.


C Major Chord Left Hand


G7th Chord Left Hand

Chords symbols are always used in Popular music to identify chords names.

Practice changing from C chord to the G7 chord and back again:
1. The 1st finger plays G in both chords.
2. The 2nd finger plays F in the G7 chord.
3. Only the 5th finger moves out of C POSITION (down to B) for G7.

(1)



(2)



Introducing B for Right Hand



TO FIND B:

Place the RH in C POSITION; Reach finger 1 one white key to the left to B
You will use finger 1 for both keys C & B here. Play slowly. Say the note name as you play.

C & G7 Chords for Right Hand

It is very important to be able to play all chords with the RIGHT hand as well as the LEFT. Chords are used in either or both hands in popular Indian music.



Practice changing from C chord to G7 chord and back again:

1. The 5th finger plays G in both chords.
2. The 4th finger plays F in the G7 chord.
3. Only the 1st finger moves out of C POSITION (down to B) for G7.







Int roducing A for Left Hand in Desi Style Keyboard Lessons



TO FIND A:

Place the LH in C POSITION. Reach finger 1 or thumb one white key to the right.Finger 1 will be used for both G & A here. Play slowly. Say the notes names as you play.

Introducing the F Major Chord

The C MAJOR chord is frequently followed by the F MAJOR chord, and vice-versa. When you play C Major with F major the fingering will be given as under in the keys.


C Major Chord Left Hand



F Major Chord left Hand

Don't be confused, CFA which is F major chord is actually FAC. We are actually limited to play chord in the keys C D E F G A as mentioned in Pic.a Same sound will be heard whether we play FAC or CFA.

Practice changing from the C chord to the F chord and back again:

1. The 5th finger plays C in both chords.
2. The 2nd finger plays F in the F chord.
3. Only the 1st finger moves out of C POSITION (UP TO a) for the F chord.



Warm Ups using C, G7 & F Chords

Practice SLOWLY at first, then gradually increase speed.



Introducing A for Right Hand


Pic..b
TO FIND A:

Place the RH in C POSITION. Leave 1 on C. Shift all other fingers one white key to the right. Leave D note untouched.



Introducing the F Major Chord

The C MAJOR chord is frequently followed by the F MAJOR chord, and vice-versa.



Don't be confused, CFA which is F major chord is actually FAC. We are actually limited to play chord in the keys C D E F G A as mentioned in Fig.b Same sound will be heard whether we play FAC or CFA.

Practice changing from the C chord to the F chord and back again:

1. The 1st finger plays C in both chords.
2.The 3rd finger moves up to F and the 5th finger moves up to A for the F chord.
When changing from C to F chord the finger numbers will be different for F.



Warm-Up using C, G7 & F Chords

Play each chord four times with RH and last C chord longer. Play several times.


G Position
Until now you have played only in the C POSITION. Now you will move to the G POSITION in next lesson.

Until now you have played only in the C POSITION.
Now you will move to the G POSITION:



Play and say the notes names. Be sure to do this SEVERAL TIMES! Below we have given three measures for showing notes..



* Play above notes in ascending and descending order for both hands

The Sharp Sign

The SHARP SIGN # before a note means play the next key to the RIGHT, whether black or white! Or key just after white key to right.



When a SHARP (#) appears after a note, it applies to that note for the rest of the measure!

The G Major & D7 Keyboard Chords for Left Hand



Practice changing from the G chord to the D7 chord and back again:

1. 1 plays D in both chords to the D7 chord and back again:
2. 2 plays C in the D7 chord.
3. Only 5 moves out of G POSITION (down to F#) for D7.



Play the following several times:





The G Major & D7 Chords for Right Hand





Practice changing from G chord to the D7 chord and back again:

1. Finger 5 play D in both chords.
2. Finger 4 play C in the D7 chord.
3. Only finger 1 moves out of G POSITION ( DOWN TO F#) FOR D7.


Play the following for several times for practice.





Bb or B Flat Sign


The FLAT SIGN after a note means play the next key to the LEFT, whether black or white! When a FLAT (b) sign appears after a note, it applies to that note for the rest of the measure.

Introducing E for Left Hand


Move finger 1 to E or your left thumb to E

TO FIND NOTE E:

Place the LH in G POSITION. Reach finger 1 one white key to the right!
Practice following notes:



Introducing note E for Right Hand



TO FIND E:

Place RH in G POSITION. Leave finger 1 on G. Shift all other fingers one white key to the right. Do not touch note A.

Play following notes slowly.Say the notes as you play.


Here we have mentioned Notes C and E only to mention where to move.

Introducing E for Left Hand


Pic.a

A New Position of the C Major Chord left Hand

You have used C Major Chord with C as the lowest note like CEG. When you play these same 3 notes in any order, you will still have a C Major Chord. When you play in G Position, it is convenient to play G as the lowest note as GCE. It is easy to move from G Major Chord to the C Major Chord, when G is the lowest note of both chords.

New Position of C MajorChord

You have already played the C MAJOR CHORD with C as the lowest note: C E G. When you play these same three notes in any order, you still have a C MAJOR CHORD. When you are playing in G POSITION, it is most convenient to play G as the lowest note: GCE.

The following diagrams show how easy it is to move from the G MAJOR CHORD to the C MAJOR CHORD, when G is the lowest note of both chords.


G Major Chord LH C Major New Position LH


Don't be confused, GCE which is C major chord is actually CEG. We are actually limited to play chord in the keys C D E F G A as mentioned in Pic.a above. Same sound will be heard whether we play CEG or GCE. Otherwise we have to play chord CEG in other octave.
Practice changing from G chord to C chord and back again.
1. Finger 5 plays G in both chords.
2. Finger 2 plays C in the C chord.
3. Only finger 1 moves out of G POSITION (up to E) for the C chord.




Introducing E for Right Hand

Pic.b

Place the Right Hand in G Position. Leave finger 1 on G. Shift all other fingers LEAVING one white key to the right.

New C Major Chord Position-Right Hand

Notice that two fingers must move to the right when changing from the G MAJOR CHORD to the C MAJOR CHORD.


G Major Chord RH C Major New Position RH

Don't be confused, GCE which is C major chord is actually CEG. We are actually limited to play chord in the keys C D E F G A as mentioned in Pic.b above. Same sound will be heard whether we play CEG or GCE. Otherwise we have to play chord CEG in other octave.
Practice changing from the G chord to the C chord and back again:
1. Finger 1 plays G in both chords.
2. Finger 3 moves up to C and 5 moves up to E for the C chord.



Warm-Up using G, D7 & C Chords


COMMONLY USED CHORDS LEFT HAND
Essential Chords Exercises For Indian Pakistani Songs By KhanPrint page for practice
Exercise One

Exercise Two

Exercise Three


Exercise Four


PRACTICE COMMONLY USED CHORDS FOR BOTH HANDS
Exercise One

Exercise Two

Exercise Three


Exercise Four



WARM-UP USING C,G7 & F CHORDS USING BOTH HANDS





Practice the following four exercises daily unless you learn finger position.
Melodic Intervals

Distance between tones are measured in INTERVALS, called 2nds, 3rds, 4ths, 5ths, etc. Notes played separately make a melody. We call the intervals between these notes Melodic Intervals. Play these MELODIC 2nds & 3rds. Listen to the sound of each interval. Play both hands same time in upper & lower bar measures. Upper bar measure notes are for right hand and lower bar measures are for left hand here. Where CD 2nd CE 3rd interval and GF 2nd GE 3rd interval. This exercise is only for practice to play whole songs and rhymes. You will recognize my notation system in this practice.
Notes 4/4 RH | C D C E | C D C E |- | - :|
Fingers 1 2 1 3 1 2 13
Notes 4/4 LH | -| - | G F G E| G F G E :|
Fingers 1 2 13 1 2 1 3 Play repeated notes and MELODIC 2nds & 3rds. Use Both Hands.


C in bold letter means play longer
Notes 4/4 RH | C C C D | E D | C E D D | C:|
Fingers 1 1 1 2 3 2 1 3 2 2 1
p (here 'p' means piano, play note C softer)
Notes 4/4 LH | - |- | - | - :|
Fingers Harmonic Intervals

Notes played together make harmony. We call the intervals between these notes HARMONIC INTERVALS. Play these harmonic 2nds & 3rds. Listen to the sound of each interval and recognize sound. Use both hands here.

Play two notes together:
Notes 4/4 RH | CD CE | CD CE | -| - :|
Fingers 1213 12 13
Notes 4/4 LH | -|- | FG EG | FG EG :|
Fingers 21 31 21 31
mf (play FG in measure 3 moderately loud)
The Sign - between measures means complete silence. Do not play any note. Playing on Keyboard Ascending & Descending
Practice the exercise to be aware of the notation system for playing songs.


Italic notes are in descending order
here BLUE note is a half note count 1,2 while playing blue note
Notes 4/4 RH | C D E F | G G G |G F E D |C C C :|
Fingers 12 3 4 5 55 5 43 2 1 1 1
measure1 2 3 4

Notes 4/4 LH | - | - | - | - :|
silent measure 5 6 7 8
Notes 4/4 RH | - | - | - | - :|
silent measure 1 2 3 4
Notes 4/4 LH | C D E F | G G G | G F E D |C C C :|
Fingers 5 4 3 2 1 1 1 1 2 3 4 5 5 5
5 6 7 8 ROCK-ALONG (Both Hands)

(1)
Notes 4/4 RH | C C E | G E G |C C | C |
Fingers 11 3 5 3 5 11 1
measure 1 2 3 4

Notes 4/4 LH | - | - | - | - |
silent measure silent silent silent silent
(2)
Notes 4/4 RH | - | - | - | - :|
silent measure 1 2 3 4

Notes 4/4 LH | C C E | G E G |C C | C :|
Fingers 11 3 5 3 5 1 1 1

KEY OF C MAJOR CHORDS If we learn the formula of building all major and minor scales then we can make chords ourselves.

The 3 primary chords in the Key of C are C major, F major, and G major chord. But, what you need to know is how you determine what the primary chords are. The method used to find the primary chords of any key signature is the mathematical formula of selecting the 1st, 4th, and 5th notes of the scale. Let's look again at a C major scale.

I IV V
One Four Five
From the above table we can see that the 1st note in a C major scale is C, the 4th note of the scale is F, and the 5th note of the scale is G. Let's look at the selected 1, 4, and 5 in a different table:

This mathematical pattern applies to all key signatures and their corresponding scales. Let's take a look at few more key signature scale combinations. We'll start with the key of D.

KEY OF D SCALE

I IV V
OneFour Five
We can calculate major chords of other major scales like E, F, G, A, B etc. in this manner. From the above table we can figure out that the 3 primary chords in the Key of D are D major chord, G major chord, and A major chord. Remember the formula for a major scale: one full step, one full step, half step, one full step, one full step, one full step, half step. So, based upon the I - IV - V ( one - four - five ) the chords for the Key of D are D major chord, G major chord, and A major chord.

List of 700 Hindi Film Songs With Scales, Tempo, Rhythm Style Available

Note:- If you want to play any Hindi song first you have to find its scale. After finding scale and if it is a major scale song then you will know its chords by the formula I - IV - V ( one - four - five ). A list in MS Excel is available for more than 700 Hindi songs and its scales, styles, tempo, org. Intr, M.F.D, (Yamaha Music Finder) and additional information. From my list of 700 songs, when you will know actual scale then you will soon be able to play the song yourself in that specific scale. So, order now for the list of 700 Hindi songs scale which is only available from this website. This list is a great collection ever made. Please play below given songs from my list and check correct scale, tempo and style information.

Let's look at the actual chord pattern for the key of C. I want you to realize that any given chord can be played in 3 different positions. The basic position is called the ROOT POSITION. Let's get back to the key of C now that you realize that this mathematical pattern applies to all major key signatures. We are going to check out the shape of the C major chord, F major chord, and the G major chord in the root position.

C Major Chord In The ROOT POSITION

Remember, in the right hand, the thumb is number 1, finger is number 2, middle finger is number 3, ring finger is number 4, and little finger is number 5.OK, now let's look at F major chord in the root position, however, we will actually use F major chord in the 2nd inversion position when we start to play all three chords as a unit. In this way we have not to jump our fingers on the keys.

F Major Chord In The ROOT POSITION

The final thing we will look at on this page is the G major chord in the root position and then we will move on to the next lesson and look at these 3 chords using the C chord in root position and the F chord in the 2nd inversion position and the G chord in the 1st inversion position.

G Major Chord In The ROOT POSITION

Now that you have seen the chords in the key of C in the root position, you need to click on the next link to see how to play this chord progression with C in the root position, F in the 2nd inversion position, and G in the 1st inversion position. These positions are very important, because they allow you to change chords by barely moving your hand.
Scales and Keys:
Let's bring you up to speed on the basics. Look at your piano keyboard. Notice the black keys are in groups of two's and three's. Find a group of two. The white key to the left of the first black key in any group of two is a C. Good Now, notice that if you start with C and count up 12 keys, you'll be at C again. There are really only 12 unique notes in Western musical notation. Easy right?

Right. Now, most every piece of music you hear will be in a "key". This means that the composer decided that one of the 12 notes would be more important than the rest. For the purposes of this column, we're going to be in the key of C Major. If you start with a C and play (up the keyboard) all the white keys until you get to the next C, you will hear what C Major sounds like. It should sound very familiar to you.

Now, let's talk about ways to identify the notes in the C Major scale (and other major scales). C is the first note in the scale also called Scale Degree One, and also called Tonic. Next we have D, scale degree 2, Supertonic. E, scale degree 3, Mediant. F, scale degree 4, Subdominant. G, scale degree 5, Dominant. A, scale degree 6, Sub-mediant. B, scale degree 7, Leading Tone. And then we're back to the C that's one octave above our original tonic. Your first step in becoming a theory wiz, is to memorize the names of the notes in the major scale. (Note: These names apply to any major scale. Not just C Major.) Here they are again:

C - Scale Degree 1 - Tonic
D - Scale Degree 2 - Supertonic
E - Scale Degree 3 - Mediant
F - Scale Degree 4 - Subdominant
G - Scale Degree 5 - Dominant
A - Scale Degree 6 - Sub-mediant
B - Scale Degree 7 - Leading Tone

Please realize that I'm trying to make this whole thing as simple as possible, and in doing so, am leaving some stuff out for you.

Study again the Chords of C Major:

I am trying to teach you C Major Scale with different techniques. I have shown chords definition in different places in my website so, that you get acquainted with them. It is Time to put notes together and make chords. A "Chord" is 3 or more unique notes played at once. Two notes played at once are called a Harmonic Interval. When we make a chord with 3 notes, we call it a Triad. Using your fingers, press the following keys of the piano keyboard simultaneously:

C - E - G

This is the most important chord in the key of C Major. It is the C Major chord also known as I (Roman Numeral 1). There is a triad for each of the scale degrees in the C major scale and each one is identified with a roman numeral. Here's the list of basic chords (triads) for the Key of C Major, with their roman numerals in parentheses. Notice how the roman numerals for minor triads are lower case. Look to the next paragraph for more info on the 4 basic types of chords (Major, minor...etc):

C - E - GC Major Chord (I)
D - F - A D minor Chord (ii)
E - G - BE minor Chord (iii)
F - A - C F Major Chord (IV)
G - B - DG Major Chord (V)
A - C - E A minor Chord (vi)
B - D - F B diminished Chord (viiº)

There are 4 types of triads we need to talk about here even though only three are found on the Major scale itself. Here are examples of each:

C - E - G This is our beloved Major triad. By itself, it sounds happy.
A - C - E This is one of the minor triads in the key of C Major. By itself, it sounds sad.
B - D - F This is the diminished chord found in C Major. By itself, it sounds evil. We use a degree symbol (º) to identify this.

C - E - G# This is an augmented triad. It does not occur naturally on the C Major scale but needs to be recognized at this point nonetheless. The (#) indicates a "sharp". This just means that you find the G key and go up to the next black key. If it were Gb (G flat - a flat sign looks like a lower case B), we would go down to the next lower black key. Sharps and flats mean you go up or down to the very next key regardless of what color it is. The augmented triad by itself sounds mysterious. We won't talk about this chord much. Just be aware that it exists. We will only deal with major, minor, 7th, augmented & diminished for easy learning and playing smoothly. More details about other chords will be available in Keyboard in desi style. So, order now.

Chord Progressions:

I-IV-V chord progression 3-note (triad)

Triad Chords for all 12 major keys

So now we know about the C Major scale, and the basic triads that can be derived from the C Major scale. The chords, and C Major scale that we've been talking about sort melt together to form the musical idea of "The Key of C Major". We're now ready to begin talking about common chord progressions in the key of C major. From now on we will be referring to the chords of C major by their roman numerals. Practice the I-IV-V chord progression in all twelve keys...and have fun!

Scale	I Chord	IV Chord	V Chord
C Major	C Major	F Major	G Major
C#/Db Major	C#/Db Major	F#/Gb Major	G#/Ab Major
D Major	D Major	G Major	A Major
D#/Eb Major	D#/Eb Major	G#/Ab Major	A#/Bb Major
E Major	E Major	A Major	B Major
F Major	F Major	A#/Bb Major	C Major
F#/Gb Major	F#/Gb Major	B Major	C#/Db Major
G Major	G Major	C Major	D Major
G#/Ab Major	G#/Ab Major	C#/Db Major	D#/Eb Major
A Major	A Major	D Major	E Major
A#/Bb Major	A#/Bb Major	D#/Eb Major	F Major
B Major	B Major	E Major	F#/Gb Major

II-V-I chord progression 3-note

Triad Chords for all 12 major keys

Combined chords means moving from one chord to another. All the chord progressions we will be learning are based upon major scales and the scale tone chords. This means that the the 1st, 4th, and 5th tones (notes) will always be Major chords, the 2nd, 3rd, and 6th tones (notes) will always be minor chords and the 7th tone (note) will always be a diminished chord. These will be our 3-note or triad chord progression.
Now unlike the I-IV-V chord progression which is all major chords, you begin with a minor and progress to major chords (triads). In the key of C major this would make the chords a D minor (II), G major (IV), and C major (I). The key of D#/Eb major would be F minor (II), A#/Bb major (V), and D#/Eb major (I). Again, the 2nd, 5th, and 1st (root) tones (notes) are used to form the chords in a II-V-I chord progression.

On this page you will find the 3-note (triad) II-V-I chord progression chords for each of the twelve (12) keys. We shall begin with the key of "C" and proceed through to "B". Practice the II-V-I chord progression in all twelve keys.

Experiment with all the new chords you now know how to make on the keyboard! Try playing the II-V-I chord progression 3-note triad chords with your left hand, while playing the corresponding major scale for that key with your right.


TWELVE MAJOR DESI SCALES AND THEIR DESI CHORDS

What is a chord?

Definition: A chord is a combination of three or more different notes. They may be played at the same time or sequentially. CHORD is just the relation between notes, played more or less at the same time. FULL STOP.
So we have to learn the rules. Once we know the rules we can use them, or we can break them, which is a very interesting experience.
· Chords can be built by stacking triads. As there are two triads for the simple three-note chords there are four possible chords: major, minor, diminished and augmented.
· The most common three-note chord are made with major thirds and minor thirds. These chords have the interval structures major=1 3 5, minor=1 b3 5, diminished=1 b3 b5
· The sequence of the three notes does not change the name.
Chord Scale Relationships

You can know all the chords in the world, but if you don't know how or when to use them over a scale, they really mean nothing. If you're a beginner or intermediate keyboard player you may well find it hard to find one chord that will fit over that scale. The relationship between the vertical usage of a scale is chords (harmony), and the horizontal usage of a scale is the melody.

The first step is to learn how to build chords. What we're going to learn in this lesson is how to put the right chord to the correct scales or vice-versa. Basically, when the melody notes and chords come from the same scale they generally sound good together, but if the melody and chords come from different scales it sounds not so melodic.

Let's start with the melodic stuff. What we're going to do is get the C major scale and build triads (three note) on each note of the scale. If you play already, you probably know that a three-note chord is called a triad and that it has a root, third and fifth tone. As you can see the triad contains the notes C, E, G - the C major triad. This is known as the I chord. We use Roman numerals to label the chord number. The second (II) triad has D, F, A which is a D minor triad. The III chord has E, G, B, which is Emi7. The IV chord contains F, A, C, which is F major. The V chord contains G, B, D which is G major chord. The VI chord contains A, C, E which is A minor. The VII chord contains the B, D, F which is a B diminished chord.
So, all these chords belong to the key of C major. Therefore, the C major chord can be played over the top of C major scale. Since every major scale has the same scale pattern, the chord patterns will remain the same. The I chord is major, the II chord is minor, the III chord is minor, the IV chord is major, the V chord is major, the VI chord is minor, the VII chord is diminished. (See Example 2 for triads in G major)

Basically, this is where chord progressions come from. Let's make up a I, V, VI, IV chord progression in the key of C major (see example below). Play these chords over the C major scale, D major scale, E major scale, F major scale ...... and so on.

What chords are in what Scale, and why?

Basic Triads. (triads means three notes chord)

Each diatonic scale has 7 different notes, which gives way to 7 possible triads for each key in music. A triad is the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of a scale played simultaneously to form a chord.

All chords are formed based on their respective major diatonic scale. A C chord is built on a C major scale, a D chord is built on a D major scale, etc.

There are 7 chords for each key, which correspond to the 7 notes in each key's scale. Some chords can be in more than one key - for example, a D major chord can be in the keys D, A, or G.

I'll use the key of C as an example. You may use any major key like Cmaj, Dmaj, Emaj .....etc,

The key of C includes the notes C D E F G A B C.
Each note of the scale corresponds to a scale degree as shown:

..Note: C D E F G A B C
Degree: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1

You can form 7 basic chords (triads) from the notes in the key of C. Each different note is the root of a different chord.

There are 3 combinations of the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes that will be covered in this lesson. There are 3 more, but they are not included.

Major triad: 1 3 5
Minor triad: 1 b3 5
Diminished triad: 1 b3 b5

Your first chord will be a C chord, because C is the first scale degree. Now, since this is a C chord, it will be based on the C major diatonic scale. Take scale degrees 1 3 5 as shown below:
..Note: C D E F G A B C
Degree: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1

This gives you notes C, E, and G. Since all 3 of those notes are in the key of C, you do not have to modify them to fit, and you have a major triad (1 3 5). So your first chord is C major.

The second chord will be a D chord, because D is the 2nd scale degree. It's based on the D scale, which is D E F# G A B C# D. Now, take 1 3 5 of this scale:

..Note: D E F# G A B C# D
Degree: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1
.
This gives notes D F# A. This presents a problem - F# is not in the key of C! In order to keep this chord in key, we have to flat the F# (lower it by 1/2 step) down to F natural. This gives D F A, which is scale degrees 1 b3 5 of the D major scale. 1 b3 5 is the formula for a minor triad. Therefore, your second chord is D minor.

The seventh chord will be a B chord, because B is the 7th scale degree. It's based on the B scale, which is B C# D# E F# G# A# B. Now, take 1 3 5 of this scale:

..Note: B C# D# E F# G# A# B
Degree: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1

This gives notes B D# F#. D# (3) and F# (5) are not in the key of C, and must be flatted to D (b3) and F (b5), respectively. This gives us scale degrees 1 b3 b5, which is the formula for a diminished triad.

Based on these examples, you can figure out the rest of the chords. However, they always follow a pattern:
1 - major
2 - minor
3 - minor
4 - major
5 - major
6 - minor
7 - diminished

By applying this pattern, you can quickly figure out that the chords in the key of C are:

Cmaj
Dmin
Emin
Fmaj
Gmaj
Amin
Bdim

All the notes contained in the above chords will be in the key of C.

This pattern works for any of the keys in the Circle of 5ths. It does not, however, cover any scales that are not the major scale (such as the harmonic minor scale, for example. That has its own pattern of chords).

Harmonium is a keyboard, and so these lessons apply equally to the harmonium as well as to the electronic synthesizer keyboard. The important difference is that you can - and do play the electronic keyboard with your LEFT hand also; but for harmonium, your left hand is used in pumping the bellows to force air under pressure into the inside of the harmonium. In keyboard our left hand is used for chords. An ordinary keyboard is sufficient to master all the lessons that will follow. If you already have a keyboard, you do not need to buy anything else as of now. For solo performances, you can use a synthesizer keyboard or a harmonium, depending upon your taste, convenience and availability. Harmonium traditionally suits better for accompaniment during performance of Ghazals, Thumri, Indo Pakistani classical music, and some other types of Indian music. For accompaniment to movie songs, and all varieties of songs, the synthesizer keyboard is the preferred choice. Keyboard offer a wide variety of instrument sounds. Types of keyboards are given below: Chordophones Clavichord Electric piano Piano Clavinet Harpsichord Aerophones Accordion Harmonium Pipe organ Reed organ Pipe organ Electrophones Electronic keyboard Electronic piano Music workstation Synthesizer Sampler

In a keyboard the instrument sound you choose is called a voice. Before you play a song, choose a voice that you like. Practice selecting different voices, and remember the setting for the ones you prefer. Look your keyboard owner's manual to help you. When you play the songs you can use any sound you wish. The rhythm controls provide drum beats to play along with. These rhythm beats are also called styles. The drum rhythms or kits can be changed to suit the kind of song. If you have a keyboard equipped with floppy drive or flash usb media then you may copy rhythm styles in your keyboard which can be played using user style button. Melody keys are used to play the tune by right hand. The chord keys are used to play along with the melody with your left hand. Chords make the song sound full and harmonic. If you do not know how to play chords then you may use auto chord accompaniment.

Learning Keyboard in Desi Style
The article here is to teach you keyboard in Desi Style and in the end you will be able to play Indian and Pakistani raga based film songs. Harmonium, keyboard and synthesizer keyboard are taken to mean the same thing, and are called simply the "keyboard". The notations are used to describe the keys on the keyboard: In our lessons for convenience, the reference note, called the tonic or the Sa, is assumed to be the first black key, indicated by the letter "S". If you want to sing-along music then you may assign any key as "Sa", according to your voice scale.
In this article the fingering system of keyboard and harmonium is kept same so, that we will be able to play both instruments. Most people who play harmonium find keyboard difficult due to different finger assignments. Some musicians use first white key as starting or reference note (Sa) but we will use first black key as our starting reference note for quick learning.. Keyboard And Computer Music Music can be defined as collection of small pieces of regular sound played at predefined time interval. It is the small water droplets that make the ocean, likewise music is also an ocean that is made up of small parts, it is called a “note”. An ingenious collection of these notes played over a period of time results in a melody which could be a Mehdi Hassan or A . Rahman song. Hence both western and Indian music has a set of basic notes from which they grow, something like alphabets. There is new concept evolving called “computer music” where a musician explores beyond the basic notes that are defined in music. In cubase it is possible to explore beyond basics. Today almost all the keyboards are computerized and produce MIDI music. MIDI means musical instruments digital interface. Midi music is editable in computer or in MIDI keyboards and midi music can be produced with 16 individual tracks of different instruments.
Let us see more on Notes. “Notes” what are they? Note can be technically explained as a sound frequency. Actually the sound that is produced when you press a key on musical keyboard is called as “NOTE”. It does not matter if you press the white key or the black key. Each key plays a predefined frequency. A frequency is number of cycles per second. The note gets its shape by the amount of time you hold down the key and release it. This is called the note length or duration. Hence to make a “tune” or a “melody” or “song” you should play a bunch of these notes at proper duration and length.
Western Music Notes Verses Indian
Indian classical music has 7 basic notes (Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni), with five interspersed half-notes, resulting in a 12-note scale. Unlike the 12-note scale in Western music, the base frequency of the scale is not fixed, and inter-tonal gaps may also vary. Before we can learn how to play scales chords and various progressions it is vital that we learn the notes on keyboard or harmonium and how they relate to each other. The best way to describe the notes on the keyboard is by comparing them to the notes of the alphabets. The first seven notes of the keyboard are ( A - B - C - D -E - F - G ). Each note differ with each other in sound. Notice that the seven notes of keyboard repeat themselves over and over again. The notes sounds the same but the pitch differs. For example if you play C and move to the right until you find the next C, you will notice that if you play them simultaneously, both notes sounds the same but one is higher than the other. It is a well-known fact that Indian music is based on melody and Western Music on Harmony. This does not mean that Western Music does not include melody. In western music, the harmonizing effect of different instruments and voices given to a certain melody plays the important role. In a similar manner in Indian music the melody has an upper hand. Usually, it is said and believed that harmony doesn’t play a role in Indian music. But, to my way of understanding, harmony is equally important in Indian classical music performance though, not the way it is used in western music. In Indian music the harmony effect is a steady continuous drone effect created usually by a ‘Taanpura’.
Please read carefully:
Middle C marks the center of the keyboard. As you will notice the C major is the easiest and simplest scale of the twelve. It consists all the white keys from any starting C to the next octave C.
A standard semi professional music keyboard has 48 keys. You will see 4 sets of 12 keys. This 12 set of notes is technically called an octave. Why 12, why not 13?, Good question. The aim of this article is to keep it simple; Western is based on logarithmic division.You can start playing Indian or Pakistani song from any note and starting note will always become our reference note or Sa. Remaining notes will be arranged according to thaat or scale of the song. It is more easy to start our Hindi scale or thaat from first black key. In western music also, fifth note from C is as 5th . In Indian music “Sa” note is based on your reference note or the key you selected for starting point as Sa. We can further go in deep by playing song in raga of that particular thaat.
In the western music system the “C note” itself does not change and “scales” denotes the pitch changes. Western music system has an “absolute” naming for the keys whereas in Indian the notation is “relative. Desi music have combined both. In the seven tone-scale the second, third, fourth, sixth, and seventh notes can be sharp or flat, making up the twelve notes in the Western scale. However, ragas can specify microtonal changes to this scale: a flatter second, a sharper seventh, and so forth. Furthermore, such variations can occur between styles, performers or simply follow the mood of the performer. In Indian music there is no absolute pitch; instead, each performance simply picks a ground note, and the other scale degrees follow relative to the ground note.
Note: “Sa” does not “map” always onto “C”. It could start at F and still form a S R G M P D N scale in which case the corresponding western notes also change. Presently you may relate the “Sa” of Indian to “C” of Western which is fortunately identical to each other . A scale is a set of 7 notes in a proper order and intervals. Just remember this, a scale is set of 7 notes with predefined intervals. The distance between each note is called as interval. It is true that scales and ragas are not same. You will learn about ragas in raga section of our book. Apart from having seven different notes, there are not many similarities. There is a huge difference between a scale and raga in tonal quality or the sound density.
Raga has many dimensions to it. First, it has an emotional overtone. Just simply going over Sa to Sa can be called as a major scale or Cmaj. Though the notes and intervals are just the same. A raga can have 4 or more notes with intervals. This kind of reduction of notes in a scale is called as modes in western classical music. Experts believe proper training is required to play ragas fluently. This comes by good practice and understanding of note usage. A western trained first-rate musician will be able play a phrase of 1/64 note at a good speed but will find it difficult to play raga without proper training. It is the reason that western music is fast. Indian music is melodic in nature while western music is harmonic in nature. Chords produce harmony. Now you will be ready to believe that it is not possible to play Indian songs with only western training. Desi Style music lessons is the mixture of Western & Indian system.

Selection of first note
On the keyboard, the area S through N is called a saptak or an octave. There are three octaves: the Madh (middle), the Mandar (lower), and the Taar (higher/upper). The lower octave is situated to the left of the middle and is shown with a sign of apostrophe ( ' ) on the left side of the note. The upper octave is situated to the right of the middle octave and is shown with a sign of apostrophe ( ' ) on the right side of the note. Again, this is clearly shown in the diagram. Whereas a note belonging to the middle octave has no sign of apostrophe ( ' ) when represented on the paper; for example, the P of the middle octave is represented simply as: P. The note belonging to the lower octave has an apostrophe to its LEFT. Thus, for example, the P in the lower octave is represented as: 'P. The note belonging to the higher octave has an apostrophe to its RIGHT. Thus, for example, the P in the higher octave is represented as: P'. The 36 keys represent the notes in all three octaves e.g.. 12x3=36
*In the following diagram 'S means lower octavenote ( left side of middle octave) and S' means higher octave note of harmonium or keyboard
( right side of middle octave). The rule of achal, komal and tiver will apply to all three diagrams in this page.

First White Key As Our Sa

Diagram 1
Fourth Black Key Selected As Our Sa


Diagram


First Black Key Selected As Our Sa


Diagram 2
There may be five saptak in a keyboard. The saptak to the left of the keyboard is for playing chords and to the extreme right is one more taar saptak but with very sharp voice. We can also play melody in chords saptak but the sound of melody will show base sound. The chords saptak and extra taar saptak to the right side is not perfect for playing melody. In a complete saptak there are 12 notes which are seven white keys and five black keys. So, in a harmonium mostly there are three saptak and 36 keys but in a professional keyboard there are four to five saptak and 48-60 keys. It should be noted that in both instruments while playing songs you will usually deal with three saptak. In keyboards you will also use chords saptak which is located to the extreme left of keyboard. In keyboards or harmonium most of the songs begin from madh or middle saptak.

To summarize:

Achal or Qyme Swar: These notes are notated as S and P (the swar without saathi swar)
Komal or Flat Swar: These notes are notated as r, g,m, d, n & are shown in small letters.
Tiver or Sharp Swar: These notes are noted as R,G,M,D,N and shown in capital letters.
Achal, Komal, Tiver Swar: By combining achal, komal and tiver swar we get 12 notes of a complete saptak. S r R g G m M P d D n N

Achal swar Sa and Pa are also shown in capital letters. All notes belong to madh-saptak by default and have no sign of apostrophe. Notes of Mandar saptak are preceded by ( ' ) sign of apostrophe, and notes of Taar-saptak are succeeded by ( ' ) sign apostrophe. Lastly, a comma ( , ) represents a pause between notes. It is important that you learn achal, komal and tiver system of 12 music notes of any saptak.


Note:
This arrangement is also for keyboard in which you use your both hands but you use right hand in playing harmonium.
As mentioned earlier in Fig 1, we have assumed the first white key to be the Sa (S), for convenience. But from now we will use black key as our first starting point for Sa (S). You will find that there are sets of 5 black keys on the keyboard. Each set of those 5 black keys is made up of 2 + 3 black keys. The first white key is that white key which lies immediately to the left of the first black key. Since there are several sets of 5 black keys, there will also be several "first white" keys. In a saptak there are total 12 keys which consists of 5 black keys and seven white keys as mentioned below:

You are going to use only your right hand to play melody on harmonium/keyboard. The right hand fingers are numbered as follows:
The thumb is numbered 1
The index finger is 2
The middle finger is 3
The ring finger is 4
The little finger is numbered 5.


Fingers:
In western system there are 12 scales while in desi system there are ten thaat. A thaat is the ascending and descending movements from S R G M P D N S', and back that is, S' N D P M G R S. All the 8 notes are always included, in that order, in a or thaat. In these lessons thaat uses only " first black" key as starting point, that is, natural. We will always fix our first note from first black key in madh saptak which is easier for sargam practice and playing songs. Sargam means seven notes in ascending and descending order. For a complete sargam we also include 8th note of the next saptak which is Sa'.
Know Your Swars
In music there are seven notes in a ‘Sur’ which are Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni There are twelve swar in one saptak because five swar also have their saathi swar. Only two swar are called achal swar (fixed swars) because they do not have any saathi swars. The Achal swars are Sa and Pa.
The following five tiver swar have their saathi swars
1. Re
2. Ga
3. Ma
4. Dha
5.Ni
Sa and Pa are not included in the above mentioned five swar. The reason is this that their saathi swars do not exist. These swar are called achal swar. These achal swar are not komal nor tiver. To distinguish komal and tiver we will write komal swar with the small letters and tiver swar with capital lettesr as given below:
List of Komal Saathi Swar of Re, Ga, Ma, Dha, Ni
Komal Swars are shown in small letters.
Komal Re ---------r
Komal Ga ---------g
Komal Ma --------- m
Komal Dha --------- d
Komal Dha --------- n

List of Tiver Saathi Swar of Re, Ga, Ma, Dha, Ni

Tiver Swars are shown in capital letters.

Tiver Re --------- R
Tiver Ga ---------
G
Tiver Ma --------- M
Tiver Dha --------- D
Tiver Ni ---------
N
Achal or Qyme Swars

Achal or Qyme Swars are also shown by capital letters.
Achal Swars ---------S and P
We can also write the whole sargam by combining achal komal and tiver as S r R g G m M P d D n N S. (here S and P is called achal or qyme swar and without komal and tiver saathi swar). When all the swar are tiver in a Sargam then it will become the sargam of Raga Aiman or Kalyan. Raga aiman or kalyan is same. In the Sargam of Raga Aiman all swar will be tiver along with Sa and Pa which are achal or qyme swar. These tiver and achal swar are represented here as under:-

Tiver Swars or Sharp Swars: R, G, M, D, N
AchalS, P,

There are total 12 notes in one saptak: 5 Komal + 5 Tiver+ 2 Achal = 12
This rule will apply to all three saptak in a harmonium and in all four or five octaves in a keyboard. In the below given diagram we have shown notes from all three saptak which are mandar, madh and taar.The below given notes are shown only for understanding different notes arrangements.

Playing arrangement (1) from first white key


Here ACH = Achal Swars, TIV = Tiver Swars, KOM = Komal Swars

Here starting from first white key as our Sa the arrangement of notes will be as given below:-

Note : The first note or key just attached after Sa is always Komal Ray, then Tiver Ray, then Komal Ga Then Tiver Ga, then Komal Ma then Tiver Ma, Achal Pa Then Komal Dha, Tiver Dha, Komal Ni Tiver Ni, Then Achal Sa.

Or we can write whole sargam as S r R g G m M P d D n N S

In the Diagram.2 we are starting from left side and from first white key. The immediate key just attached to Sa is r with key number 2. With r the next immediate key just attached is R with key number 3 and with R the next key just attached is g with key number 4 and so on . . . . .The keys attached with each other are show by numbering 1,2,3,4,5……36.
We can also explain in another way: After Achal Sa there will be Komal note then Tiver, and so on…………. Pa is also Achal and after Pa then there will be Komal Dha, Tiver Dha and so on If you will recognize komal and tiver Swars then you will be able to understand thaat, scale, ragas and song notation which will help you play a song. Many old and new song are composed in a particular Raga.
Saptk: A saptak is the complete set of five komal and five tiver swars along with two achal swar which are Sa and Pa. So there are total twelve swars in a complete sargam.
Actual playing arrangement (2) from first black key in desi style


Our actual playing arrangement for further lessons
Here starting from first black key as our Sa the arrangement of notes will be same as mentioned in playing arrangement (1) above.

Note: The first note or key attached just after Sa is always Komal Ray Then Tiver Ray, Komal Ga Then Tiver Ga, Komal Ma then Tiver Ma, Achal Pa Then Komal Dha, Tiver Dha, Komal Ni Tiver Ni, Then Achal Sa.

Or we can write whole sargam as S r R g G m M P d D n N S

In the Diagram arrangement (1) above we are starting from left side and from first white key. The immediate key just attached to Sa is komal r with key number 2. With komal r the next immediate key just attached is tiver R with key number 3 and with again with tiver R the next key just attached is komal g with key number 4 and so on . . . . .The keys attached with each other are shown by numbering 1,2,3,4,5……35 for your understanding only.

Thaat or Scales

The set of Seven Notes which can produce a Raga is called a Thaat in Urdu or Hindi and ragas produce melodious songs. The system of classification for the raga in different groups is called a thaat. There are again several systems of classification of the raga. If you want to learn keyboard or harmonium the practice of thaat is important. If you want to sing-along music notes then sargam and raga practice is important. If you learn thaat then you can learn raga and can play many songs. Beauty in playing a song appears when you use ragas. One can play song in a thaat but there are very few songs for a particular thaat. Ragas can produce many songs. Thaat have fix seven notes where in ragas notes can vary. There are certain rules for these thaat. Thaat is a desi scale of seven notes. For harmonium beginners tent thaat practice is essential. First try to learn ten thaat and try to play only thaat based songs. Without practice of thaat based songs never try to play raga based songs.
1. A Thaat must have seven notes out of the twelve notes placed in an ascending or descending order. Both the forms of the notes can be used.
2. Thaat has only an Arohi.
3. Thaats are not to be sung and are for only playing music songs but the ragas produced from the thaat are sung. We can play music of song with a thaat but beauty will only come if we play music with ragas.
4. Thaats are named after the popular raga of that thaat. For example bhairavi is a popular raga and the thaat of the raga bhairavi is named after the raga.
5. Out of ten thaat about 80 ragas are developed and performed these days. But for a beginner 30 ragas are sufficient for perfection and practice.
ransposing Or Scale Changing
Note:
Transposing option in keyboards or Scale Changing option in harmonium is same.

Transposition: Changing Keys

Transposition, or changing the key of a piece of music, can be useful and is sometimes necessary to make music more sing able or playable. Music is transposed by raising or lowering every note by the same interval. Changing the key of a piece of music is called transposing the music. There are many reasons why you might want a piece to be in a different key. There are also some ways to avoid having to do the transposition yourself, but learning to transpose can be very useful for performers/singers, composers, and arrangers

Why Transpose?

The most common reason for changing the key of a piece of music is to put it in the right key for your vocalists. If your singer or singers are struggling with notes that are too high or low to sing, changing the key to put the music in their range will result in a much better performance. Instrumentalists may also find that a piece is easier to play if it is in a different key. Players of both bowed and plucked strings generally find fingerings and tuning to be easier in sharp keys, while woodwind and brass players often find flat keys more comfortable and in tune. Instrumentalists with transposing instruments will usually need any part they play to be properly transposed before they can play it.

A good electronic keyboard or scale changer harmonium will transpose for you. If your music is already stored as a computer file, there are several transpose programs that will transpose it for you and display, play and print it in the new key for your singing or listening.

Choosing Your New Key Or Scale

Before you can begin transposing, you must decide what your new key will be. This will depend on why you are transposing, and what kind of vocalists and instrumentalists you are working with.

1. Transposing scale beginning from first white key

Usually we start thaat bilawal with first black key which is 'S'. Normally for thaat practice or playing songs as a beginner we start with first black key. When we become perfect keyboard or harmonium player we can use any key for playing thaat bilawal but the arrangement of achal, tiver and komal swar will remain according to system mentioned earlier. If we want to sing a song in bilawal but our voice do not synchronize with the first black note then we may try other notes according to our voice pitch. We can play thaat bilawal songs with any key with transpose option and still song will not effect. In the following diagram we have transposed thaat bilawal from first black note to first white note and still thaat bilawal will remain bilawal thaat.


Diagram.1 Building Thaat Bilawal Sargam From First White Key

Note: - We can select any key as our Sa and from that position of Sa our key combination will change in each below given diagrams. Some person cannot sing in loud scale so; the musician will select suitable scale for them.Selecting scale means transposing or selecting first note. In madh saptak of diagram 3, notes with cross sign (X) will be ignored and when we will play remaining notes in madh saptak and it will become sargam of thaat bilawal. Note that while playing sargam ascending and descending we also include next saptak note S'.

S r R g G m M P d D n N S'
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 89 10 11 12 13
S X R X G m X P X D X N S'
S R G m P D NS'
1 3 5 6 8 10 12 13

Or we can write whole sargam as S R G m P D N S’
1 3 5 6 8 10 12 13
Thaat Bilawal sargam in ascending and descending order

Arohi : S R G m P D N S’
Amrohi: S’ N D P m G R S

2. Transposing scale beginning from first black key (default key)


Diagram.2 Building Thaat Bilawal Sargam From First Black Key
We can select any key as our Sa and from that position of Sa our key combination will change. We have selected first black key as a default key to play harmonium. From now we will always select first black key as our starting point. Now our key combination will become as given below:
S r R g G m M P d D nN S'
12 3 4 5 6 78 9 10 11 12 13
S xR x G m x P x D x N S'
S R G m P D N S'
Note: Sa is always achal or qyme swar. The first swar or key attached just after Sa is always komal ray shown with cross (X) and with note no. 2, then tiver ray with capital R, komal Ga, then tiver Ga, komal Ma then tiver Ma, achal Pa, then komal Dha, tiver Dha, komal Ni, tiver Ni, then achal Sa as S’.
Or we can write whole sargam again as S R G m P D N S’
Again Thaat Bilawal sargam in ascending and descending order

Arohi : S R G m P D N S’
Amrohi: S’ N D P m G R S

3. Transposing scale beginning from second white key


Diagram.3
Now we have selected our first key from 2nd white key for playing a song or harmonium We can select any key as our Sa and from that position of Sa our key combination will change in each diagram.
S r R g G m M P d D n N S'
12 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
S x R x G m x P x D x N S'
S R G m P D N S'

Note : Sa is always achal or qyme sur. The first Sur or key attached just after Sa is always Komal Ray shown with cross and with note no. 2 Then Tewar Ray with Capital R, Komal Ga Then Tewar Ga, Komal Ma then Tewar Ma, Achal Pa Then Komal Dha, Tewar Dha, Komal Ni Tewar Ni, Then Achal Sa as S’. If we do not play notes with cross sign in diagram 5 then it will also become another Thaat.
Or we can write whole sargam again as S R G m P D N S’
Again Thaat Bilawal sargam in ascending and descending order will be same.

Arohi : S R G m P D N S’
Amrohi: S’ N D P m G R S

It is proved from above three examples that whatever note is selected as initial note to play sargam, the corresponding notes will change according to a fixed system of achal, komal and tiver properties.

Transpose option of keyboard and harmonium:

For keyboard learners the option of transpose in keyboards have made it easy to change scale according to voice pitch of singer or song. Note that by default we have selected our Sa as first black key throughout this website.

In scale changer harmonium use scale changing option. Now there is no need to learn playing from every white or black key. Only learn to play music from first black key and change your required scale by transpose option. You are required only to learn 10 thaat which begin with first black key therefore transpose option have made scale changing easy for singing.


North Indian Classical music (some people know as Hindustani) in reference of the Hindi speaking region going to North-West Frontier and to Poorab, the East. Many styles and genres have been developed and encouraged by a family system now called Gharana.These numerous Gharanas all over North India have developed very different styles of classical music, genres and instruments. In the development music, the things went like this (from a verse): First songs, then notes, then Sharutis and then the Jaties (ragas). Birds have songs, so do the other mammals. When we say that the songs must have developed after humans were civilized, we are forgetting something. Look around you. There are songs everywhere.

It is certain that as humans got civilized, their songs got complicated. With the development of language, the songs became more meaningful. The primal screams evolved into poems of love, separation, nature, beauty and other things that affected us emotionally. When something said through conversation does not capture the essence of our feelings, a song erupts in us. That is a primal instinct. It is not something that is impossible to do without the knowledge of Sharuties. A villager in India or a Gypsy in Europe cannot stop singing just because they do not know the difference between just intonation and chromatic intonation. These are afterthoughts.

When the enlightened artists of the ancient world sang the songs, the beauty of changing pitch compelled them to find more about it. What is it that changing the pitch up and down in certain ways sounds musical. The first known theory of music in Indian Vedas (Samveda) contains four notes. Nowadays notes are always mentioned in ascending (such as C D E or Sa Re Ga) order.

The combination of several notes woven into a composition in a way, which is pleasing to the ear, is called a Raga. The raga is an Indian scale which utilizes varying ascending and descending patterns - certain notes on the way up and certain notes on the way down - but always in the set sequence. The raga never has less than five notes - the minimum required for a tune. Each raga creates an atmosphere, which is associated with feelings and sentiments. Any stray combination of notes cannot be called a Raga. At a more academic level, it is a musical composition that functions within a structure and follows certain rules with relation to the kind of notes used in it.

Raga is the dictator of melody and the "Taal" is the dictator of Rhythm. In addition, melody is the product of sound and the rhythm is product of time. Therefore, ‘the music is the art of manipulating the ’sound’ through ‘time’. The time affects music in two different ways. First through rhythm is obvious. However, the time is also at work producing the musical sounds that are useful in melody. The universe is full of sound, but every sound is not musical.

According to the scriptures, sage Narada practiced great austerities for several years and was honoured by Lord Shiva who taught him the great art of music. It is said that from the sleeping position (Shayanmudra) of his wife, Goddess Parvati, Lord Shiva created the Rudravina (an instrument with a form similar to the sitar). From his five mouths, five ragas emerged while a sixth was created by the goddess Parvati. These ragas were named according to Lord Shiva's movements to east, west, north, south and towards the sky and were called Bhairav, Hindol, Megh, Deepak and Shri. Raga Kaushik was created by the Goddess Parvati herself.

Music flourished in India under Muslim rule and was subject to a number of new influences, including those of the mystic Sufi sect. As a consequence new elements, forms and instruments came to be introduced into Indian Music. Among the vocal forms, were the Qual which gave rise to the Qawali and the Tanpura, both of which are heard today. The sitar and the tabla also belong to this period. The Persian poet Amir Khusrau is believed to have made a major contribution in the development of the Qawali as well as the Sitar.

Musical patronage reached its zenith under the Mughal emperors Akbar (1555-1605), Jahangir (1605-1627) and Shahjahan (1628-1658) The legendary composer Tansen (1492-1589) is believed to have been a member of the court of Akbar. His enchanting music is believed to have had the power to bring rains and light lamps. Music was also becoming more popular and was no longer the preserve of the upper classes. Most compositions had initially been in Sanskrit but by the sixteenth century they were being composed in various dialects of Hindi - Braj Bhasa and Bhojpuri among them - as well as Persian and Urdu. It was during this phase that two separate systems emerged as a result of the Islamic influence on the existing system in Northern and central India while the south remained free from this domination. This led to emergence of two forms of Indian Music. Hindustani (North Indian) and Carnatic (South Indian).

The arrival of British rule saw the violin entering the repertoire of South Indian music in the mid-eighteenth century. In the time of Bahadur Shah Zafar the last King of Mughal empire, music development was limited and poetry developed. A significant development was the use of music to promote nationalism during the Indian freedom struggle. The twentieth century also saw the arrival of Indian cinema, which further popularized music among common man. The post independence period saw classical Indian music gaining global recognition. Ravi Shankar, one of the greatest players of the Sitar, worked with the Beatles while Ali Akbar Khan popularized the Sarod in the west. The twentieth century also saw collaborations between Indian and western musicians. such as Ravi Shankar and Yehudi Menuhin. This merging of two streams of music is often referred to as fusion Music.

New generation of artists like Bhimsen Joshi, Amjad Ali Khan and Bismillah Khan brought finest traditions of Indian music. Film music is however, the most popular music in India and Pakistan today and popular Indian films are seldom without songs. Urdu Ghazal also got popularity and populars Ghazal singers like Mehdi Hassan, Ghulam Ali, Jagjeet and many others emerged with a new style. Bhajans and Qawali also retain their popularity.

INDIAN CLASSICAL MUSIC NOTATIONS

Indian music is traditionally practice-oriented and until the 20th century did not employ notations as the primary media of instruction, understanding, or transmission. The rules of Indian music and compositions themselves are taught from a guru to a shishya, in person. However, the notation is regarded as a matter of taste and is not standardized. Thus there is no universal system of notation for the rest of the world to study Indian music. The complexity of Indian classical music could not be expressed in writing.


NOTES IN A SAPTAK

The Indian musical scale is said to have evolved from 3 notes to a scale of 7 primary notes, on the basis of 22 intervals. A scale is divided into 22 shrutis or intervals, and these are the basis of the musical notes. The 7 notes of the scale are known to musicians as Sa, Ri, Ga, Ma, Pa, Da and Ni. The eighth note is a repetition of the first and is therefore an octave higher. The group of seven notes is called a saptak. In western music these seven notes are identified as C D E F G A B. These 7 notes of the scale do not have equal intervals between them. A Saptak is a group of 7 notes, divided by the shrutis or intervals -- A raga is based on the principle of a combination of notes selected out the 22 note intervals of the octave. Total notes in a single saptak are 12 but when we practice arohi and amrohi then we also choose next saptak Sa. See below given diagram.




By deleting other notes 12 notes saptak becomes bilawal thaat
Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Da Ni 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Indian classical music has 7 basic notes (Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni), with five interspersed half-notes, resulting in a 12-note scale. Unlike the 12-note scale in Western music, the base frequency of the scale is not fixed, and inter-tonal gaps may also vary. The 22 Srutis are the only notes which can be useful for music in an “octave”. The first and fifth notes (Sa and Pa) do not alter their positions on this interval and are fixed. Detailed lessons about saptak and notes are provided in Harmonium Lessons The other 5 notes can change their positions in the interval due to komal and tiver, leading to different raga.

Raga

The raga forms the backbone of Indian music, and the laws laid down for the ragas have to be carefully observed to preserve and safeguard their integrity. The following points are required in the construction of a Raga --
1. Thaat or sequence of notes,
2. Jaatis or classification

3. King and Queen relation of the notes, i.e. Vadi and Samvadi
4. The Ascent and Descent of the raga, i.e. Arohi and Amrohi
5. Important group of notes
6. Pitch

7. Speed.
According to Indo Pak ancient theory, the musician's task in exploring mood is made easier if the performance takes place at the time and in the atmosphere appropriate to the raga. So if a raga which embodies the atmosphere of spring is played in spring it will be more effective than if it were played in winter. The right atmosphere responds to the raga as it were, just as the sympathetic strings of a sitar vibrate to enrich the melody being played on the main strings. This is why particular times and seasons are deemed suitable for particular ragas.

Play some classical sounding music and try to see if any particular Raga thrills you. Anything that turns you off completely ? Play instrumental or light classical music at first before getting on a heavy-duty vocal piece. Is there a piece that moves you ? Puts you in a sublime or inspiring mood ?
Another aspect of the raga is the appropriate distribution in time during the 24 hours of the day for its performance, i.e. the time of the day denotes the raga sung a particular time. Raga are also allotted a particular time space in the cycle of the day. These are divided into four types --
1. Twilight raga when the notes re and da are used -- such as Raga Marwa, Poorvi.
2. Midday and Midnight ragas which include the notes ga and ni (komal).
3. Ragas for the first quarter of the morning and night which include the notes re, ga, da and ni (komal).
4. For the last quarter of the day and night, the raga include the notes sa, ma and pa.
All the raga are divided into two groups -- Poorvi Ragas and Uttar Ragas. The Poorvi Raga are sung between 12 noon and 12 midnight. The Uttar Raga are sung between 12 midnight and 12 noon. The variations on the dominant or ``King" note helps a person to find out why certain raga are being sung at certain times. This raga classification is about 500 years old.

The beauty of the raga will not be marred by the time of the day it is sung. It is the psychological association with the time that goes with the mood of the raga. The object of a raga is to express a certain emotional mood and sentiment without any reference to time and season. For a student of classical music, this classification may give an idea as to how to base his reasons for the traditional usage of raga.

Another division of ragas is the classification of ragas under five principal:

1. Hindol,
2. Deepak,
3. Megh,
4.Shree
5.Maulkauns

From these five ragas, other raga are derived. The first derivatives of the ragas are called raganis, and each of the five ragas have five raganis under them. There are 25 raganis for the above five ragas. Each raga contains 5 raganis. Further derivatives from these raga and raginis resulted in attaching to each principal raga 16 secondary derivatives known as upa-raga and upa-raganis.
All the ragas are supposed to have been derived from their thaat. Every raga has a fixed number of komal (soft) or tewar (sharp) notes, from which the thaat can be recognized. In other words, a certain arrangement of the 7 notes with the change of shuddh, komal and tewar is called a thaat. There are several opinions in this matter.

About Thaat or Scales

The set of Seven Notes or Scale which can produce a Raga is called a Thaat in urdu or Hindi and raga produces a song. The system of classification for the ragas in different groups is called a thaat. There are again several systems of classification of the raga. Presently in Indian or Pakistani Classical Music the 10 Thaat (Scales) classification of raga is prevalent. If you want to learn how to play keyboard or harmonium the practice of thaat is important. If you want to bring beauty in music then raga practice is important. If you learn one thaat or scale then you can play many songs in that particular thaat or scale.Beauty in playing harmonium or keyboard appears when you use raga.

There are certain rules for these thaat

1. The set of Seven Notes or Scale which can produce a Raga is called a Thaat in urdu or Hindi. A Thaat must have seven notes in ascending order.
2. Thaat has only one Arohi.
3. Thaat are not be sung only play but the raga produced from Thaat are sung. As a beginner you can play music of film songs with thaat.
4. Thaat are named after the popular raaga of that Thaat. For example Bhairavi is a popular raga and the thaat of the raga Bharavi is named after the raga.

What is a Raga?

The combination of several notes woven into a composition in a way, which is pleasing to the ear, is called a Raga or Raag. The raga is an Indian scale which utilizes varying ascending and descending patterns – certain notes on the way up and certain notes on the way down – but always in the set sequence. The raga never has less than five notes - the minimum required for a tune. Each raga creates an atmosphere, which is associated with feelings and sentiments. Any stray combination of notes cannot be called a Raga. At a more academic level, it is a musical composition that functions within a structure and follows certain rules with relation to the kind of notes used in it.

We can ascribe to a raga certain meta-characteristics that define a raga:
· Every raga is said to be born of a Thaat which is its parent. Every raga is composed of notes.
· A simple combination of notes is not a raga unless it sounds good. As mentioned earlier though, it is difficult to accurately define what sounds good. In another article we will attempt to describe what this means in terms of harmonies and melodies.

• A minimum of five notes are necessary in a raga. Therefore a raga can have five, six or seven notes.
• There cannot be two notes that are adjacent on the octave in the same raga. But this is not strictly true as we shall see in case of certain ragas like Lalit where there are two madhyms together.
• Every raga has a Arohi and a Amrohi. The base note Sa cannot be absent from a raga.
• The notes Ma and Pa cannot be absent from a raga at the same time.

· A raag is also identified by a Vadi ( main note ) and a Samvadi ( second main note). The Vadi is a note that is stressed the most in the raga. The Samvadi is stressed after that. Two ragas can have the same set of notes but differing vadis and samvadis which then make them different ragas. For instance both the ragas Bhupali and Deshkar have the same set of notes and the same arohi and amrohi but they have differing pakads and also different vadis and samvadis which make them different ragas.Bhupali has a vadi ga and samvadi da but deshkar has a vadi da and samvadi ga.

• It has been said earlier that a raga can have five, six or seven notes in the arohi and the amrohi. Based upon this a raag can be classified in to categories. A raga sequence ( arohi or amrohi ) with five notes is said to be Odho ( five ). A Raga sequence with six notes is called Shadav or Khado (six) and a raga sequence with seven notes is called Sampoorn since seven notes is the maximum number that the raga sequence can have. Now to another point of confusion. There are twelve notes in the chromatic scale. The seven notes that make up the thaat are picked from these twelve notes.

· Raga is the basis of classical music. A raga is based on the principle of a combination of notes selected out the 22 note intervals of the octave. A performer with sufficient training and knowledge alone can create the desired emotions, through the combination of notes. Every raga is derived from some Thaat or scale. Or raga' belong to certain classes or categories called thaats. A thaat is defined as that set of seven notes from which a raga can be made.
Ragas are placed in three categories:
· Odho or pentatonic, a composition of five notes Or Khado is hexatonic, a composition of six notes
· Sampooran is heptatonic, a composition of seven notes.
1. In every raga, there is an important cluster of notes by which the raga is identified.
2. The ascent and descent of the notes in every raga is very important. Some raga in the same scale differ in ascent and descent. The principal note, ``KING" is the note on which the raga is built. It is emphasized in various ways, such as stopping for some time on the note, or stressing it. The second important note or the "queen" corresponds to the ``King" as the fourth or fifth note in relation to it.
3. There are certain ragas which move in a certain pitch and if the pitch is changed, the raga fails to produce the mood and sentiment peculiar to it.

Raga Melody:

Melody is based on our ability to hear and perceive changes in frequencies. Although it is more than just the pitch going up and down, but as the frequency goes higher, the note is sharper. In any octave, the highest note always vibrates at the double rate from the lowest note. So an octave is the interval between one musical note and another with half or double its frequency. After the unison, (two things vibrating at the same rate), the octave is the simplest interval in music. The human ear tends to hear both notes (upper and lower) as being essentially ‘the same’. For this reason, notes an octave apart are given the same name in Indian music. The same is true for Western Music. And just like in western notation system, Northern Indian music recognizes 12 places in one octave as notes. Most musicians use the same notes as we see them on a guitar’s fret or on a piano. But it hasn’t been always like this. In ancient times, Indian music was based on the ‘Sharuti’ system. The intervals were measured with sharuties.
Melody of Northern Indian Music is based on the ‘Thaat’ (parent Scale) and ‘Raga’ theory. Ragas have their minimum requirements of five notes in an octave. Based on that principle, 484 Ragas can be created mathematically from ‘Thaat’. Every raga has its own personality. There are many special things about every raga, which makes it possible to separate one raga from another.
Secret Of Phrasing In Ragas
Even though many popular musician do not study ragas and most of the popular music is not even in any certain ragas, there are many ‘phrasing’ secrets hidden in the ragas, however. Ascending and descending do not make music. Whole art of music is hidden in phrasing. You must have listened to hundreds of songs composed in ‘C’ or ‘E’ major. They still sound different from one another. That is because music we hear affect us in phrases, not scales.
This theory (music in phrases) was the origin of ragas. Ragas start with thaat in mind and grow from there. To learn a raga you have to learn its ascending or descending etc., but you also must know its flow and important phrases. There are thousands of available lists of hundreds of ragas everywhere, but they have no practical value as one will never know how to proceed from there. A raga description without its phrases and flow is useless. Nisar Bazmi as a working music composer giving you the only information that is essential to ‘know and play’ Indian music in the real world. You will find yourself improvising in a certain raga in no time by mixing and shuffling its phrases and flow.

2. Playing Songs With Thaat Asavari

Diagram.1

Thaat Asavari Sargam:

Ascending: Arohi: S R g m P d n S’
Descending: Amrohi: S’ n d P m g R S

Thaat Asavari is C Minor Scale in Western Starting from first white key.
C D Eb F G Ab Bb

Showing C minor scale in all five octaves



Raga Asavari in brief:

Raga Asavari belongs to Asavari Thaat. It is a late morning Raga, and uses all seven notes, five in the ascent and seven in the descent. Gandhar, Dhaivat and Nishad are komal (flat) and the other notes are shuddh (full). The derivative ragas out of this structure are grouped under the broad head of Asavari Thaat. Add Komal Dhaivat to Kafi thaat and you get Asavari Thaat. Raga Asavari is full of tyag, the mood of renunciation and sacrifice as well as pathos. It is best suited for late morning. However important evening/night raga like Darbari and Adana also use notes of asavari thaat with different styles, stress points and ornamentations.

Following ragas are derived from Thaat Asavari:

Jaunpuri
Desi
Asavari
Adana
Darbari Kanhada

3. Playing songs with thaat kafi

Thaat Kafi Sargam:

Ascending: Arohi: S – R – g – m – P – D – n - S’
Descending: Amrohi: S’ – n – D – P – m – g – R – S


Thaat Kafi is C Dorian Scale in Western starting from first white key.

C D Eb F G A Bb

Showing C Dorian scale in all five octaves of keyboard



Raga Kafi in brief:

Raga Kafi belongs to Kafi Thaat. Usually it is rendered in the late evening and uses all the seven notes in the ascending and descending order. Gandhar and Nishad are komal (flat) and all other notes are shuddh (full). The derivative ragas out of this structure are grouped under the broad head of Kafi Thaat

Kafi thaat makes use of the Komal Gandhar and Komal Nishad. So basically it adds Komal Gandhar to the Khamaj Thaat. raga Kafi is one of the oldest raga and its intervals are described as basic scale of the Natyashastra. Thus in ancient and medieval times, Kafi was considered as natural scale. Kafi is a late evening raga and said to convey the mood of spring time.

Following ragas are derived from Thaat Kafi:

Malhar
Bhimpalasi
Patdeep
Chandrakauns
Kafi
Piloo
Bahar
Bageshri
Megh

Major & Minor Chords Of Harmonium

Indian music is melodic and western music is harmonic so chords and chord progressions accompany the melodic lines, therefore the music sounds fuller. It is important that we learn the fundamentals of chords as used in Indian film music.

Harmonium major chords, or any chord for that matter, are formed by combining two or more notes. Now, when you from S major chord, it is recommended you form them using the 2nd,1st and 5th fingers of your right hand. Your thumb is the first finger index finger is the 2nd and pinky is the 5th finger. A chord is a combination of three (or more) notes played at the same time. All major chords are formed by playing simultaneously three notes, according to definite rules.

In keyboards chords are played mostly with left hand. Since we are learning harmonium so, your left hand will be busy in pumping bellows. In this situation we will play chord and melody with the right hand only.
As we have already defined in our previous lessons that any key can become a Sa or our starting note; but in our lessons we have assumed the first black key to be the Sa (S), for convenience and simplicity. Please see diagram above. There are a number of chords in western music but In harmonium lessons we will only use only major and minor chords. A major chord is formed when we simultaneously play three notes S-G-P or you will play numbers numbers 1-5-8. we will name this chord as SV. Harmonium chords are also called desi chords.
Harmonium komal and tiver notes with their numbers are given below as shown in the above diagram.

Sa S	as key number 1.	S key number: 1
Komal r	as key number 2.	r key number: 1
Tiver R	as key number 3.	R key number: 1
Komal g	as key number 4.	g key number: 1
Tiver G	as key number 5.	G key number: 1
Komal m	as key number 6.	m key number: 1
Tiver M	as key number 7.	M key number: 1
----- P	as key number 8.	P key number: 1
Komal d	as key number 9.	d key number: 1
Komal D	as key number 10.	D key number: 1
Komal n'	as key number 11.	n key number: 1
Komal N'	as key number 12.	N key number: 1
----- S'	as key number 13.	S' key number: 1
Komal r'	as key number 14.	r' key number: 1
Tiver R'	as key number 15.	R' key number: 1
Komal g'	as key number 16.	g' key number: 1
Tiver G'	as key number 17.	G' key number: 1
Komal m'	as key number 18.	m' key number: 1
Tiver M'	as key number 19.	M' key number: 1
----- P'	as key number 20.	P' key number: 1

Now to play the major chord S-G-P e.g.. we will play key numbers 1-5-8. This major chord is called S major. We will use the symbol 'V' for a major chord. Now the S major chord will be written as SV and as on.
Similarly, the major chord "rV" will be formed as: r-m-d and can be shown by numbers 2-6-9.
Below given is the complete list of major harmonium chords:

S major chord, symbol SV,	key nos. 1-5-8,	notes S-G-P
r major chord, symbol rV,	key nos.2-6-9,	notes r-m-d
R major chord, symbol RV,	key nos. 3-7-10,	notes R-M-D
g major chord, symbol gV,	key nos. 4-8-11,	notes g-P-n
G major chord, symbol GV,	key nos.5-9-12,	notes G-d-N
m major chord, symbol mV,	key nos. 6-10-13	notes m-D-S'
M major chord, symbol MV,	key nos. 7-11-14,	notes M-n-r'
P major chord, symbol PV,	key nos. 8-12-15,	notes P-N-R'
d major chord, symbol dV,	key nos. 9-13-16,	notes d-S'-g'
D major chord, symbol DV,	key nos. 10-14-17,	notes D-r'-G'
n major chord, symbol nV,	key nos. 11-15-18,	notes n-R'-m'
N major chord, symbol NV,	key nos. 12-16-19,	notes N-g'-M'

We have shown madh saptak chords and similar sets of notes will apply in mandar and taar saptak. Harmonium minor chords are shown by symbol L. A minor chord is formed when we play three notes at the same time together example S-g-P with numbers 1-4-8. Below given is the complete list of minor harmonium chords:
Whatever is our beginning note to start playing e.g. if we select first black key as our Sa, the minor keys will maintain their names similar to, for example, r minor chord will maintain their symbols rL, will maintain their key numbers as, for example, 2-5-9, will maintain their notes combination as, for example, r-G-d. Or we can write simply as:

r minor chord, symbol rL, key nos. 2-5-9, notes r-G-d

S minor chord, symbol SL,	key nos. 1-4-8,	notes S-g-P
r minor chord, symbol rL,	key nos. 2-5-9,	notes r-G-d
R minor chord, symbol RL,	key nos. 3-6-10,	notes R-m-D
g minor chord, symbol gL,	key nos. 4-7-11,	notes g-M-n
G minor chord, symbol GL,	key nos. 5-8-12,	notes G-P-N
m minor chord, symbol mL,	key nos. 6-9-13,	notes m-d-S'
M minor chord, symbol ML,	key nos. 7-10-14,	notes M-D-r'
P minor chord, symbol PL,	key nos. 8-11-15,	notes P-n-R'
d minor chord, symbol dL,	key nos. 9-12-16,	notes d-N-g'
D minor chord, symbol DL,	key nos. 10-13-17,	notes D-S'-G'
n minor chord, symbol nL,	key nos. 11-14-18,	notes n-r'-m'
N minor chord, symbol NL,	key nos. 12-15-19,	notes N-R'-M'

How to play Indian songs with harmonium major and minor chords
First of all break down the song into several very small phrases and try to play the various major and minor chords given above with each small segment of the song line. Then you should check which chord sounds better with the word. You can partly mechanize this process by first playing the small segment of the song on the harmonium. Slowly you will be able to use or able to fill melody with harmony of chords.
End of Demo Lesson
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