Scribd
Upload
333 views2 pages

The Indian Scale

The Indian music scale consists of seven notes (svars) with specific names and shortened forms, categorized into chal svar (with variants) and achal svar (without variants). Chal svaras include re, ga, ma, dha, and ni, while achal svaras are sā and pa. The scale can be divided into 12 semitones and further into 22 notes (shruti), with various scales organized into 10 thāṭ by musicologist Viṣṇu Nārāyaṇ Bhātkhanḍe.

Uploaded by

tanayadate371
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
333 views2 pages

The Indian Scale

The Indian music scale consists of seven notes (svars) with specific names and shortened forms, categorized into chal svar (with variants) and achal svar (without variants). Chal svaras include re, ga, ma, dha, and ni, while achal svaras are sā and pa. The scale can be divided into 12 semitones and further into 22 notes (shruti), with various scales organized into 10 thāṭ by musicologist Viṣṇu Nārāyaṇ Bhātkhanḍe.

Uploaded by

tanayadate371
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

The Indian scale

There are seven notes (svars) in the Indian music scale, each of which has its own
name and a shortened version of its name, as set out below:

Svar (स्वर) name Shortened Svar (स्वर) name


Ṣaḍja (षड्ज) Sā (सा)
Ṛṣabha (ऋषभ) Re (रे )
Gandhāra (गन्धार) Ga (ग)
Madhyama (मध्यम) Ma (म)
Pañcama (पञ्चम) Pa (प)
Dhaivata (धैवत) Dha (ध)
Niṣāda (�नषाद) Nī (नी)

Each of the seven svaras fall into one of two categories:


• chal svar
• achal svar.

Chal svaras are those for which there are variants. These are re, ga, ma, dha and ni. Of
these, re, ga, dha and nī are located one semitone below, or one semitone flatter, than
the original svar; referred to by the adjective, komal (meaning soft) and denoted by a
horizontal line under the note: Re, Ga, Dha and Ni 1. The variation of the fourth note, ma,
is located one semitone above, or one semitone sharper, than the original svar and is
referred to by the adjective tīvra (meaning sharp) and is denoted by a short horizontal
line above the note name.

The achal swaras, for which, there are no variants are the tonic note, sā, and the fifth
note, pa.

Similar to Western music, there are 12-semitones in the Indian music scale. The scale
can be further divided into 22 notes (shruti), which are notes between the semitones – it
is not necessary to know about these notes for the purposes of Indian Takeaway – Rāg
and Tāl Basics.

There are many scales in Indian music and these have been arranged into 10 thāṭ (थाट)
by the musicologist, Viṣṇu Nārāyaṇ Bhātkhanḍe (1860–1936). Each thāṭ is named after
the most popular rāg that uses the notes of that thāṭ. Let’s learn the sargam, or notes,
using the notes that belong to the Bilāval thāṭ (�बलावल थाट), which are the same as the
major scale of Western music.

1
Shown as R, G, D, N in notation

© Incorporated Society of Musicians Trust and Yogesh Dattani, 2020 ismtrust.org


Using the video practice singing the Indian scale, sargam, practice both the āroḥ
(ascending scale): sā, re, ga, ma, pa, dha, ni sā and the avroḥ (descending scale) sā,
ni, dha, pa, ma, ga, re sā.

© Incorporated Society of Musicians Trust and Yogesh Dattani, 2020 ismtrust.org

You might also like