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Swaras in Carnatic Music Written by: Ram S. Sriram |
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The Basic Swaras |
There are seven basic notes in Carnatic music:
Sa is the basic note and the rest of the notes are successively higher to the basic Sa. This gives an ascending scale of seven notes. Once the seventh note or the higher Sa is reached, the notes begin to descend in frequency from Sa to Ni to Da and so on by the same interval.
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Octave
Converting the Seven Swaras to twelve Swaras (or sixteen swaras) |
What is an octave? An octave is doubling the pitch of a swara by a factor of 2. Take a look at a keyboard. You will notice the C key. In Carnatic music, the C key is called one kattai or a pitch of one. In a keyboard, the C key is followed by D, E, F, G, A, and B keys. The B key is again followed by another C key. That is, the range between a lower C to the next high is one octave. The range that begins from the next C until the next higher B is reached is Octave 2 and so on. In Western Music, the interval between two keys or frequencies between two keys (.e.g. D and E) are of fixed intervals. However, in Carnatic music, the intervals between two keys are not absolute intervals but relative intervals or nominal intervals. In the keyboard, there are black keys in between the white keys that represent pitches (e.g. C, D, etc.) These black keys represent half piches or frequencies between two swaras or notes (e.g. between C and D). In a keyboard, there are five white keys in between the seven black keys that represent the primary notes. The twele notes are formed when we add the seven primary notes to the five half-notes or in-between frequency notes. The twelve divisions are common both to Carnatic music and Western music. The following table gives you a comparison of the twelve swaras of Carnatic Music and the corresponding twelve notes of the Western Music.
o Please note that the swaras Sa and Pa do not admit variations and are called fixed notes or achala swaras. o
But, remember, as the table shows, the twelve swaras are the fundamental swaras and they evolve from the basic seven swaras. |
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Notation
in Indian Music |
There
are two basic ways to write music - Staff notation and script notation. Western
music uses the Staff notation approach. In this approach, music is written on
five parallel lines. The position of the note on the line and the space
between lines indicate pitch. The
script notation is common to Indian music including, Carnatic music. In
script notation, music is written on straight lines. The pitch, intervals and
related measures are indicated by using additional symbols. The following
will give a basic understanding of the script notation.
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Are swaras and notes the same? |
No. They are not the same. A note can be produced by mechanical means. By pressing the key in a harmonium or plucking a string in a Veena or a Guitar. However, swaras can only be produced by the human voice. Refer to the differences between the harmonic music system of the West and the melodic music system of India. In a harmonic system, each note is separated from another note by a defined frequency interval. In a melodic system, each note is separated by relative intervals. Therefore,
a swara can only be learnt by listening and learning. For example, a Kaisiki
Nishada and a Kakali Nishada are not separated by exact frequency of 100.
Only by listening and singing them, you can learn the precise way to sing a
swaram. The word Swaram came from two
syllables - 'Swa' meaning the self and 'ra' meaning to shine. That is, only
when you feel the swaram inside you, you can throw light on it and make it
shine. |
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