BASIC THEORY OF INDIAN CLASSICAL MUSIC

BASIC THEORY OF INDIAN CLASSICAL MUSIC
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Every kind of music indian, chinese, african or western has two aspects, number one is melody or tune and the second one is rhythm. The melodic part entirely based on musical notes and these musical notes, in indian music, are called swaras. Lets discuss this in more detail. There are 12 musical notes/frequencies recognised internationally. The group of musical notes is called sargam in indian music. They consist of 7 white notes and five black notes. The first note is called Sa so the first note is Sa the second is Re the third is Ga the fourth is Ma the fifth is Pa the sixth is Dha and the seventh note is Ni;

sa-Re-Ga-Ma-Pa-Dha-Ni-sa(second octave). These are called shud swara in indian music. Sa note is called the king note because all the other notes depend on the placing of Sa. This shud notes are called Bilawal Thatt in Indian Music. Shud mean pure. The black notes are called komal swara which in western music are called sharp or flat notes, Sa and Pa are called achal swara which means they are not moveable. When all the 12 musical notes are sung together, they do not sound pleasing to the ears. Indian music is divided into two parts, one is called Hindustani Shashtriya (north indian) and Carnatic (South Indian). The above mentioned arrangement is for Hindustani Shastriya but it is also used in Carnatic theory of swara. Now a question must be arising in your mind, how bollywood music, rap music and pop music (light music) are formed and how are they related to swara. Well infact they are related to swara, because melody can not be formed wihout using different combination of musical notes (12 notes that have been mentioned above). Take any melody and you will find whether western, african, chinese or indian they all are formed with different combination of musical notes. While singing the light music, it is not essential for the performer to have the knowledge of swara base that he is performing. He can give very good performace even without knowing the basic structure of swara but for the Indian Classical Music it is different. The performer or the musician has to have the proper knowledge of swaras practically and theoretically because its all about exploring the swara. He has to use the different forms and combination of swaras as set according to the rule to perform certain raag etc. He has to perform it on the spot so you can well imagine how much he has to master the knowledge of specific swaras. I feel that adds to the glory of Indian Classical Music world over.