Swaras in Carnatic Music The Basic Swaras There are seven basic notes in Carnatic music:Shadjam (Sa),Rishabam (Ri),Gandharam (Ga),Madhyamam (Ma),Panchamam (Pa),Dhaivatham (Da) andNishadam (Ni).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.These seven notes or swaras are not specific to Carnatic Music but are also common to Hindustani, Western, and other systems of music.In Carnatic music and Hindustani music, we call the seven swaras as Sa, Ri, Ga, Ma, Pa, Da, and Ni and in Western Music, the same seven swaras or notes are called doh, ray, me, fa, soh, lah, te respectively. 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.

View Carnatic Music Research Papers on Academia.edu for free. Of the Gamaka Box notation over staff notation for Indian classical music.

Tp-link tl-wn722n android drivers. 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.

Carnatic Swaras and Western Notes -A Comparison Carnatic Swara Name Notes in the Western System 1Sa or ShadjaC 2Suddha RishabhaD flat 3Chatussruti RishabhaD 4Sadharana GandharaE flat 5Antara GandharaE 6Suddha MadhyamaF 7Prati MadhymaF sharp 8Panchama or PaG 9Suddha DaivataA flat 10Chatussruti DhaivataA 11Kaisiki NishadhaB flat 12Kakali NishadiaB Please note that the swaras Sa and Pa do not admit variations and are called fixed notes or achala swaras. The notes with Suddha in their names -- Suddha Rishabha and Suddha Madhyama - refer to the lowest pitch of the corresponding note - the Rishabha or Ri and Madhyama or Ma, respectively. These twelve swaras become sixteen swaras with the addition of four more swaras called Vivadi (or tainted) swaras. These additional swaras occupy the same nominal swarasthana or frequency position as some of the swaras from the group of twelve swaras. In other words, the sixteen swaras are formed basically by calling the same swara by two different names. Depending on the a raga scale used, a swaram may be called by a different name (e.g.

Shatsruti Rishaba is the new name given to Sadharana Gandhara; Suddha Gandhara is the new name given to Chatussruti Dhaivata; Shatsruthi Dhaivata is the new name for Kaisiki Nishada; and Suddha Nishada is the new name for Chatussruti Dhaivata).

By Aparna Sridhar A Carnatic vocalist visiting Coimbatore is shocked to find that as she sings, advertising and marketing slogans of the sponsors are being scrolled on screens behind her. She gets up and walks out A generation’s old music festival in Bengaluru regretfully tells aspiring young musicians. “Maybe you are really good, but there are many like you for the junior slots. Difficult to choose. But if you can bring a sponsor we will give you a slot.” A young violinist in Hyderabad, winner of several youth awards, is finally given a solo concert — for a sum of Rs 500.

Then he is told he has to pay any accompanists he brings in himself. Prestigious music festivals in Bengaluru, with varying government and private sponsorship, field top artistes after paying them lakhs — often to poorly attended halls.

For any art form to flourish, the system has to promote and sustain high levels of quality at its apex — both intrinsic quality and quality of presentation, appeal, and access and engagement, in order to thrive. The platforms matter, the spaces matter, the impresarios matter. Today the spaces, the context for Indian, have become jaded and people no longer see the spaces where is being presented as places where they can go to and enjoy an evening of good music. And a few “established” names notwithstanding, they cannot trust it to give them the sense that they are listening to the best in the industry today. (Amjad Ali Khan) Add linguistic and regional politics to the mix, and things get distressing.