Learning Indian Classical Music: Chapter 1

Dear friends, music is an inseparable part of India, and it exists in a variety of forms in this great country. One of the most prominent forms of music, not only in India but also in the whole world, is Indian Classical Music. Please note there are primarily two forms of classical music in India — Hindustani Classical/Indian Classical and Carnatic Classical. Our scope of discussion in this series is limited to Hindustani Classical Music. I will create a separate series on the origin of classical music in India and the difference between Hindustani and Carnatic classical music.

Before we go into the depth of classical music, there are certain basic things we need to know if you are a music learner or a music enthusiast. Music learners need to be crystal clear about some basic theories which work as the DNA of learning music. For a long time, I have been thinking to put down all those critical factors and their explanations together and hence I am starting this series. Even before we start singing or learn to sign, we need to understand the below fundamental points:

• What is meant by singing musical notes?
• What are the categories of musical notes?
• What is Saptak and what are its categories?
• What is meant by singing in ‘soor’ ?
• Harmonium vs Tanpura — Why is Harmonium not recommended to learn Indian Classical music?
• What is meant by the singing scale of a person?
• How do you know if you are practicing in the correct ‘soor’ ?
• How do you know what is your singing Scale?
• Scale of Male vs Female singers

We will cover the first three points in detail in this article and the remaining ones in the subsequent chapters. Generally music is something which is taught in form of Guru-Sishya parampara in India and it is also the right way. However, in most cases, the teaching begins directly with singing, without providing the above theoretical knowledge to the disciple. Even though the student may get the understanding in due course of time, but giving this understanding, in the beginning, may make the learning process extremely clear and easy for the student. Let us now explore the points one by one

• What is meant by singing musical notes?

First, we need to know what are musical notes. In India, even a kid can say that the musical notes are SA, RE, GA, MA, PA, DHA, NI, but what it means when we sing these musical notes? This is the billion-dollar question. Beginners in music should get this understanding very clear. Let me explain.

All these musical notes from SA to NI have a defined sound frequency. So, singing the musical notes means pronouncing the names of the musical notes at the defined sound frequency of that note.

For example,

1. When you are singing SA at D Scale ( I will elaborate on what is scale, in the later chapters) it means you need to produce a sound of the frequency of 146Hz while you pronounce SA. Similarly, if you sing SA at C Scale you need to produce the sound frequency of 130Hz.
2. Similarly, when you are singing RE in D Scale, it means you need to produce a sound of the frequency of 164Hz while you pronounce RE. If you sing RE at C Scale you need to produce the sound frequency of 146Hz. etc.

*I will provide the details of all the frequency values for each musical note for each Scale, when I explain Scale in the subsequent chapters.

Hence, a music beginner should understand that singing a musical note is not just pronouncing the name of the note, but it is actually producing the defined sound frequency of that note which is the primary element. If you are pronouncing the name of the note but the sound frequency produced is not of that note, then you are singing wrong.

• What are the categories of musical notes?

In Indian music, musical notes are categorized into two parts:

1. Sudh Swar
2. Vikrit Swar

Let us understand each one in detail. Sudh Swar or natural notes are the normal note frequencies of SA RE GA MA PA DHA NI based on the scale of the individual person. For example, if the Scale of a person is C* — it means for that person SA has a frequency of 130Hz , RE = 146Hz …… NI = 246Hz. So these frequecies of 130 to 246Hz are the natural notes of that person.

However, apart from these 7 natural notes are the 5 more notes in between these 7 natural notes, which has frequencies either lower or higher than the frequency of a natural note. Let me show with an example

Note Frequencies ( at D Scale )

The notes marked in green in the above image are the Natural Notes (Sudh Swar). If you see carefully there are 5 more notes mentioned in small letter : re, ga, ma, dha, ni — among these notes re, ga, dha and ni have frequencies lower than their corresponding natural notes, while ma has a frequency higher than its natural note. These 5 notes are called Vikrit Swar. Among the vikrit notes the 4 notes who have lower frequencies than the natural notes are called Komal Swar ( komal re, komal ga, komal dha, komal ni), while one note ma which has a frequency higher than its natural note is called Tivra( we call it Tivra ma )

So, there are 12 notes in total and not 7 Notes : 7 Sudh Swar + 5 Vikrit Swar

Any kind of music is based on these 12 notes.

• What is Saptak and what are its categories?

Simply put, SA RE GA MA PA DHA NI — these 7 notes together is called Saptak. Generally, Saptak is classified into three categories:

• Madhya Saptak
• Mandra Saptak
• Taar Saptak

Let's understand each of them in detail. Madhya Saptak refers to the normal 7 notes based on the scale of a person. Referring to the image above, for a person singing in D scale the range of frequencies between 146Hz to 277Hz is the Madhya Saptak or Middle Octave. The same set of 7 notes with frequencies less than 146Hz are called Mandra Saptak or Lower Octaves. So for a person singing in D Scale, the Mandra Saptak will range from SA=65Hz to NI=138Hz. Similarly, the range of same set of 7 notes with frequencies greater than the frequencies of middle octave is called Taar Saptak. So for a person singing in D Scale, the Taar Saptak will range from SA=293Hz to NI=554Hz.

Generally for singing purposes we need a voice range between Mandra Saptak PA to Taar Saptak MA.

I hope the three poinst discussed in this Chapter are clear to you. We will discuss the remaining points in the subsequent chapters. Please follow this space for the upcoming parts of this series