INDIAN MUSICAL SCALE  & RAGA'S It is probably no coincidence that Greek music was also based upon seven modes. Furthermore, the Indian scales follow the same process of modulation (murchana) that was found in ancient Greek music. Since Greece is also Indo-European, this is another piece of evidence for the Indo-European correlation in the basic notes. Indian musical scale is said to have grown-up 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. Musicians as Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha and Ni know the 7 notes of the scale. These 7 notes of the scale do not have equal intervals between them. The first and fifth notes Sa[C] and Pa [G] do not alter their positions on this interval. The other 5 notes can change their positions in the interval, leading to different ragas. As in any art, the ultimate goal is the expression of emotional quality. The primary musical vehicle for the conveyance of this emotion is rag. THE NORTH INDIAN KEYBOARD STYLE : In any form of art, the ultimate objective is the expression of emotional quality. The primary musical movement of notes of this emotion and combination of several notes woven into a composition in a way that is pleasant to the ear is called a Raga. Raga is the fundamental basis of Indian Classical Music. Raga must have at least five notes, starting at Sa, one principal note, a second important note and a few helping notes. The ascent and descent of the notes in every raga is very important. Some ragas in the same scale differ in ascent and descent. Another aspect of the ragas 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. Ragas are also allotted a particular time space in the cycle of the day. These are divided into four types— 1. A.Sandi-prakash ragas or twilight ragas when the notes re and dha are used 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, dha and ni (komal). 4. For the last quarter of the day and night, the ragas include the notes sa, ma and pa. This raga classification is about 500 years old and has been adapted by Pundit V. N. Bhatkhande in his textbooks on Hindusthani music. Another division of ragas is the classification of ragas under six principal ragas—Hindol, Deepak, Megh, Shree and Maulkauns. From these six ragas, other ragas are derived. The first derivatives of the ragas are called raginis, and each of the six ragas has five raginis under them. Further derivatives from these ragas and raginis resulted in attaching to each principal raga 16 secondary derivatives known as upa-ragas and upa-raginis. The following list of Ragas along with that Jati, Arohan and Aborohan depicting various mood and expression are named as : Abhogi.mid, Adna Thaat Ashavari.mid, Asavarii.mid Bageshri.mid Bahar.mid, Bairagi.mid, Basant_Mukhari.mid Basant_thaatPoorvi.mid, Behag_thaat Kalyan,Behag, Bhairav_thaat Bhairab.mid, Bhairavi_thaat Bhairavi.mid, Bhatiyar_thaat Bhairav.mid , Bhimpalasi_thaat Kafi.mid , Bhinna Shadja_thaat Khamaz.mid ,Bhopali thaat Kalyan.mid, Bhopali_Todi_thaat_Bharavi.mid,Bibhas_thaat_Bharav.mid Chandni_thaat Kedar.mid Chandrakauns.mid , Darbari_thaat Ashavari.mid, Desh_thaat Bilaval.mid, Desh_thaat Khamaj.mid, Durga_thaat Bilaval.mid, Gara thaat Khamaj.mid, /Hamir _thaat Kalyan.mid Hansadhawni _thaat Bilawal.mid , /Hindol _thaat Kalyan.mid, /Jaijaiwanti _thaat Khmaj.mid , Jaunpuri _thaat Asavari.mid, Kafi thaat Kafi.mid, Kalabati _thaat Khamaj.mid. Kalyan.mid, Kedar.mid, KedarNat.mid, Khambavati.mid, Lajvanti.mid, Lalit Bhairav.mid, Laltangi.mid,Madhmad Sarang _thaat Kafi.mid, Madhukauns _thaat Kafi.mid. Miya Ki Malhar.mid Madhumalati.mid, Malhar_thaat kafi.mid, Malhar_thaat kafi.mid, Malkauns Pancham_thaat Bhairavi, Pahadi.mid Peelu.mid Tilakamod,mid, Yaman kalian . Indian Musical Rhythm has three aspects: Tala, Laya and Matra. Tala is a complete cycle of metrical phrase composed of a fixed number of beats. There are over a 100 Talas, but only 30 Talas are known and only about 10-12 are used. The Laya is the tempo, which keeps uniformity of time span and it has 3 divisions: vilambit (Slow), Madhya (medium) and Druta (Fast). In real application it has been found that the range could be as wide as 10 matras per minute (i.e. 6 seconds per matra) is ati vilambit laya (very slow tempo) to more than 720 matras per minute (i.e. less than 0.08 seconds a matra) in ati dhruta laya (Meter and Taal). Matra in Sanskrit is unit of any measurement. In music, it is the basic unit of time measurement. The actual time duration of a matra depends on the speed of the rhythm i.e. Tempo the Matra is the smallest unit of the tala. Some examples of different Tala (Indian Drum Pattern) 1. Dadra 2. Kaharwa 3. Rupak 4. Dhamar 5.Typical Indian Dholak 4-4 Hundreds of Taals are known and a twenty or so are in frequent use. The most common Taal is Teen Taal. It has 16 matras, but is called Teen (three) Taal because it has three Thalis (and khali to make four kriyas). It is usually expressed as 4 Bibhagas (sections) of 4 matras each Copyright 2007©midimusicindia.com All rights reserved