Learning Indian Classical Music: Chapter 3
Dear friends, hope you have read the previous chapters of this article, if not you can read it here :
Learning Indian Classical Music: Chapter 1
Learning Indian Classical Music: Chapter 2
In today’s chapter we will learn about the below topic :
- What is meant by the singing scale of a person?
In Indian music, the 7 musical natural notes are denoted by :
C D E F G A B
However as we have learned in the previous chapter that apart from 7 natural notes, there are 5 more notes who frequencies are either above or below the natural notes. For representation purpose those notes are denoted by # ( called as Sharp) or b (called as flat ).
Sharp: any note that has a frequency higher than its corresponding natural note is called as sharp.
Flat: any note that has a frequency higher than its corresponding natural note is called as sharp.
Let us now see how the sharp or flat notes are represented
Please notice that the 2nd note represented above says C#/Db — it can be called C Sharp or D Flat. C# because it has a frequency higher than C and Db because it has a frequency lower than D.
Also, note that E and B are the two natural notes that do not have any corresponding sharp or flat notes.
As we were discussing in our previous chapters about Saptak ( or octave), we learned that there are 3 saptaks which forms the natural singing range of a person: Middle Saptak, Mandra Saptak and Taar Saptak. However, there can be more than 3 Saptaks(octaves) in an instrument e.g. piano. Based on the sound frequencies Saptaks are classified into categories like C0-B0, C1-B1, C2-B2, C3-B3 …….
So, the Saptaks are like below, one after the other in terms of increasing values of frequencies
The natural singing range of a person generally starts in the C3-B3 octave. The frequencies of this octave are as below:
Let us now understand what is meant by Scale of a person. A person’s scale refers to the note that the person is considering as his/her starting note or ‘SA’. Indian music system offers flexibility to a person to select his/her scale based on the voice quality and range. This means theoretically a person can choose any of the notes between C to B as ‘SA’. Hence if a person considers D as ‘SA’ then it is called that the person is singing in D scale.
Male vs Female scale: Biologically males have thicker vocal cords as compared to females, hence pitch of a female voice is naturally sharper than Male. Hence the scale of a male and female person are different.
Generally : C, C#, D and D# are normal scales of a Male and G, G#, A and A# are the normal scales of a Female
Now let us understand one more aspect. If I consider D as my singing scale, it means the frequency of D is my SA. Then how do I know which ones will be my notes for RE to Ni ? To find that remember the below formula :
- Considering D as SA
- RE = One note gap after SA . (In this case, the note after D is D#, after D# is E. So E is my RE)
- GA = One note gap after RE. (In this case, the note after E is F, after F is F#. So F# is my GA)
- MA = Immediate note after MA (In this case, the note after F# is G. So G is my MA)
- PA = One note gap after MA. (In this case, the note after G is G#, after G# is A. So A is my PA)
- DHA = One note gap after PA. (In this case, the note after A is A#, after A# is B. So B is my DHA)
- NI = One note gap after DHA. (In this case, the note after B is Next Octave C, after Next Octave C is Next Octave C#. So Next Octave C# is my NI)
- Taar SA= Immediate note after NI(In this case, the note after Next Octave C# is Next Octave D. So Next Octave D is my Taar SA)
I hope after reading this article, you now have a clear idea what is meant by scale of a person. In the subsequent chapters we will explore on
- How do you know if you are practicing in the correct ‘soor’ ?
- How do you know what is your singing Scale?
