BeautifulNote

Carnatic Swaram: Ga

Tue, 07 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

This is a series on Sapta Swaras, the seven musical notes of Carnatic music. We discussed about swaram Ri in the previous post. Now let’s explore the next swaram Ga.

Gandharam is the third swaram of Sapta Swaras. It’s shortened as Ga while uttering the note in a Swara Kalpana, or while talking about the swaram informally. It can also be shortened further as simply g in music notations.

Swara Sthanams

In the last post we learned about the three swarasthanams of Ri. Similarly, Ga also has three distinct swarasthanams. They are:

Suddha Gandharam (Ga1)
Sadharana Gandharam (Ga2)
Anthara Gandharam (Ga3)

These are three consecutive pitches. The first, Suddha Gandharam, or Ga1 for short, is the lowest pitch among the three. You won’t hear Suddha Gandharam very often in concerts. The reason for this will be clear once we learn about the concept of Vivadi swarams. That said, Ganamurthy is a popular ragam which has Ga1.

One step higher, there is Sadharana Gandharam or Ga2. This appears in so many well known ragams such as Thodi, Kharaharapriya, and Hindolam. So, next time you enjoy a rendition of Samaja vara gamana, remember that it has Sadharana Gandharam.

A special aspect of Sadharana Gandharam is, it is seldom played or sung as a plain, steady pitch. It’s almost always rendered with Gamakams. Gamakams are various glides, oscillations and other ornamental techniques used to beautify music. Sadharana Gandharam yields itself to be beautified in so many ways.

Anthara Gandharam lays one step above Sadharana Gandharam. Sankarabaranam, Mohanam and Kalyani are some of the very popular ragams that have Anthara Gandharam. It sounds majestic when rendered plain and steady; it can also be decorated with some gamakams.

Mastering

Now that we know about the three swarastahanms of Gandharam, we can do some practice to master these swarasthanams. First, we should remember that the swarastahanams are based on Sa. If we take Ga1, it is at a certain distance from Sa. Ga2 is at a distance slighly longer than Ga1’s distance from Sa. Among the Gas, Anthara Gandharam is the farthest away from Sa. We should practice these swarasthanams with the help of Sa.

Alighing ourselves to Sa, (I promise I’ll go into detail about Sa in a later post), we should learn to sing Ga1, Ga2, and Ga3. We should be able to sing these swarasthanams at will, in any order.

Similarly, we should also be able to listen to a sound and tell whether it is Ga1 or Ga2 or Ga3 for not a Ga at all.

Sadharana Gandharam is so often bent, oscillated, twisted and decorated that, most students don’t know how to sing (or play it accurately) without any Gamakam. This should be considered as a defect. Plain pitch positions of swarasthanams are foundational. They are the basis upon which gamakams are formed. So, every student should master these pitch positions.

Learning Activities

Shruti Carnatic Tuner (Android app) detects the swarams you sing or play on instrument. It even shows your accuracy. It can also play reference sounds of swarasthanams to help you to align yourself to the swarasthanams better.

The following are the activities you can do with Shruti Carnatic Tuner to master Ga:

Listen to Ga1, Ga2, and Ga3 swarasthanams. Sing along. Are you able to hear the difference?
Stop the reference sound and sing Ga1, Ga2 and Ga3 swarasthanams. Are you able to sing them perfectly?
If you play an instrument, play the three swarasthanams of Gandharam. Are you able to play them accurately?

You may have noticed that it’s difficult to switch between swarasthanams. Also, to beginners, all swarams sound the same; it requires some practice to know the difference between them.

Sadhakam (Android app) helps you to improve your swara gnanam, so you just know the swaram and swarasthanam when you hear a sound. Do the second activity on Level 1 on Sadhakam, which works out the three swarasthanams of Ga.

Carnatic Swaram: Ri

Fri, 05 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In Carnatic music there are seven musical notes, the Sapta Swaras. They are Sa, Ri, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha and Ni. In this series we’ll take a look at each of these swarams, the pitch positions they take (swara sthanams), and the relationships between them.

Pitch is something you would have already felt when singing. Some notes sound low pitch and some sound high pitch. There are fixed number of pitches. We are going to understand how these pitches are related to sapta swaras. We will also understand how these sapta swaras are related to each other.

The first swaram, Sa, is of great importance. It will be dealt in detail in another post. This post is about Ri. For now, it’s suffice to know that all swarams fall in place based on the position of Sa. Let’s move on.

Rishabam is the second swaram in our Sapta Swaras. It is abbreviated to Ri, or simply r in music notations. Note that Ri is right next to Sa in the sapta swaras sequence. So it has a pitch higher than Sa but pretty close to it. But what is the exact pitch of Ri? For that, we have to understand swara sthanams.

Swara Sthanams

Each swaram in sapta swarams can be placed at specific pitch positions. These pitch positions are called swara sthanas. Some of the swarams belong to only one swara sthanam. For example, Pa has only one swara sthanam. However, there are swarams that have multiple swara sthanams. Ri is one such swaram. It has three swara sthanams. These are three consecutive pitches. When we say Ri, it can be one of the three pitch positions that belongs to Ri.

The first pitch position or swara sthanam of Ri is just a little higher in pitch than Sa. When you sing Ri at this pitch, it is called Suddha Rishabam, or shortly, Ri1. Suddha Rishabam occurs in ragas like Mayamalava gowla and Saveri.

The second swarasthanam of Ri is one step higher than Suddha Rishabam. It’s called Chatushruti Rishabam, shortly Ri2. It occurs in ragas like Mohanam, Sankarabaranam, and Kalyani.

Shatshruti Rishabam (Ri3) is one more step higher. Nata is a popular ragam which has this swarasthanam.

It will help if you visualize Ri1 on top of Sa, then Ri2 on top of Ri1, and finally Ri3 on top of Ri2.

Mastering

Understanding the theoretical aspects is one thing, mastering the practical aspects is another. If you are a music student, you should learn to sing or play these swarasthanams accurately. You also need to learn to identify the swarams you hear.

Traditionally, as a music student you learn swarasthanams through varisai exercises (sarali, janta, etc). For instance, when you sing sarali in Mayamalava gowla, you are learning to sing Ri1. When you learn Vara veena geetham in Mohanam, you’re learning to sing Ri2. However, changing from Ri1 to Ri2 is not sufficiently practiced. That’s why you may have difficulty switching between ragams.

Try singing Mayamalava gowla for sometime, then immediately switch to Mohanam. You may have trouble switching from Ri1 of Mayamalava gowla to Ri2 of Mohanam. You may have the feeling that you’re somehow stuck in Mayamalava gowla mood and struggle to get into Mohanam mood. Read this post which elaborates on this.

In short, you need specific and focussed practice activities in order to master swara sthanams.

Learning Activities

The following are the activities you can do with Shruti Carnatic Tuner to master Ri:

Listen to Ri1, Ri2, and Ri3 swarasthanams. Sing along. Are you able to hear the difference?
Stop the reference sound and sing Ri1, Ri2 and Ri3 swarasthanams. Are you able to sing them perfectly?
If you play an instrument, play the three swarasthanams of Rishabam. Are you able to play them accurately?

You may have noticed that it’s difficult to switch between swarasthanams. Also, to beginners, all swarams sound the same; it requires some practice to know the difference between them.

Sadhakam (Android app) helps you to improve your swara gnanam, so you just know the swaram and swarasthanam when you hear a sound. Do the first activity in Level 1 on Sadhakam, which works out the three swarasthanams of Ri.

Notation: Alilaimel - Mohanam - Tiger Varadhachari

Mon, 21 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Varnam: Alilaimel Kan Valarndha
Ragam: Mohanam
Thalam: Adi
Composer: “Tiger” K Varadhachari
Sahityam: M Arunachalam Pillai

I update and improve these notations from time to time. You are encouraged to share the link to this page rather than sharing, hosting, or linking the pdf file directly.

This notation is based on the book Tamizh Geetha Varnangal published by Annamalai University in 1953.

Learning to Identify Swarasthanas

Wed, 07 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

How would one learn to identify swarasthanas when listening to carnatic music? Are varisai exercises enough to gain this critical skill?

A carnatic music student slowly gains swara gnanam mostly indirectly during various stages of learning. Only basic varisai exercises like Sarali, Janta and Alankarams focus directly on swarasthanas. In later lessons, due to the increased complexity, the student’s attention is directed towards so many other aspects in addition to swarasthanas. As the student fumbles through varnams, kritis and swara kalpana, (s)he gathers bits of knowledge on swarasthanams as an indirect outcome rather than as a fundamental skill required to learn music.

Limitations of Varisai Exercises

It is generally recommended that one should practice varisai exercises in various ragams to improve grasp on swarasthanas. However, varisais don’t drill swarasthanas sufficiently due to their inherent limitations:

Patterns are predictable

Varisai exercises have very simple and predictable patterns. So, our brain can trick us by going into a mimicking mode rather than thoroughly understanding and singing each swaram carefully.

Try this:
Ask a student to sing sarali in a ragam, say Mayamalavagowla, stop her in the middle and ask her to sing a specific swaram. For example, when she is singing something like pa-dha-ni-sa, stop her and ask her to sing ga or ri. Chances are she might fumble a bit before reaching correct swarasthanam, though she was able to sing the same swaram during its turn in the sequence.

This fumbling is very much similar to young learners struggling with multiplication tables. Ask them the multiplication table of 7, they can easily recite it from the beginning. But if you ask them what is 6 times 7 directly, they still have to recite the table from beginning to give you the answer. This means, they are yet to master this table. Similar is the case with students not able to hit any swarasthanam at will.

Only one variety of a swaram is worked out each time

If you are singing an alankaram in Mayamalavagowla, you are only concerned about Suddha Rishabam and not Chatusruti/Shatsruti Rishabams. Most students practice varisai exercises only in Mayamalavagowla and move on without even touching other swarasthanams. If you also practice the same exercises in Kalyani too, you bring some variety to Ri, Ma and Dha. Good. But how about the shift from one swarasthana to a different one for the same swaram?

Try this:
Sing one line of your favourite sarali exercise in Mayamalavagowla. Immediately, sing the same line in Kalyani. Were you able to switch to Kalyani swarasthanams from Mayamalavagowla without difficulty?

Many are not comfortable with this switch. You can observe this defect not just in beginners, but also in students of all levels and even in some teachers and professionals. They will have difficulty changing from the mood of Mayamalavagowla. Sometimes, they try to recollect or hum a line from a Kalyani kriti or geetham, thus transforming themselves to the mood of Kalyani, then they’ll be able to sing anything in Kalyani. This trick is not a solution but only an imperfect workaround, which underlines the lack of mastery over swarasthanams.

“Many carnatic musicians I myself know, they would be qualified to give a Ragam-Tanam-Pallavi in Todi correctly. But if we just ask them to sing Prati Madhyamam, immediately, they have to think a little bit. If someone asks you your name, you don’t have to hesitate, you’ll tell immediately. Like that we have to know all the 12 notes, not just the notes of one raga.”
— Prince Rama Varma in his lecture Introduction to the 12 notes.

This switch from one ragam to another, fundamentally switching from one set of swarasthanams to other, is not worked out sufficiently in varisai exercises.

Varisai exercises are wonderful and quite unique to our system. They play an important role in freeing up the vocal range and setting foundations for fingering technique in instrumentalists. Imparting swarasthana knowledge is only one of their design aspects among many. Depending solely on varisai exercises for mastering swarasthanas is an ineffective approach due to the limitations explained above.

The solution

We need a practice system designed with exercises solely geared towards improving swara gnanam. It is also important that the exercises should not succumb to the same limitations discussed above. This means the exercises should have (a) certain level of unpredictability, (b) variations of a swaram within the same session of the exercise.

Sadhakam (android app) provides such a system. It plays short swara sequences and you have to identify the swarasthanams. For example, in the first exercise, it plays Sa followed by a Ri. You have to tell whether the Ri played is Suddha Rishabam (Ri1), Chatusruti Rishabam (Ri2), or Shatsruti Rishabam (Ri3). Once you answer, the app tells you whether you are right or wrong, it also shows you the correct answer. This way you start associating the swarasthanam with its sound in your mind. More details here.

The unique aspect of these exercises is that you are exposed to all swarasthanas of a swaram in quick succession and repeatedly. You hear all three rishabams—Ri1, Ri2 and Ri3—in the first exercise, several times in random order. This gives you opportunity to closely observe, compare and learn to distinguish different varieties of Ri. In later exercises the same swaram is presented in different contexts—in avarohanam, in conjunction with a different swaram, in thara sthayi, etc. This way you thoroughly work out various possibilities of the swaram and develop a solid understanding of the swarasthanams.

In conclusion, do continue to practice your varisais in different ragas. Also dedicate some of your time for focussed swarasthanam training, as provided by Sadhakam app.

P.S. This post is an elaboration of my quora answer on this topic.

Patnam Subramanya Ayyar

Wed, 31 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

July 31, 2019 marks the 117th death anniversary of Patnam Subramanya Ayyar (1845-1902), a great carnatic composer, performer and teacher.

Thyagaraja Sishya Parampara

He was a second generation disciple of Saint Thyagaraja (Thyagaraja –> Manambuchavadi Venkatasubbayyar –> Patnam Subramanya Ayyar).

Composer

He was the one who composed the immortal varnams Era Napai (Thodi), Evvari Bodhana (Abhogi) and more. He not only contributed kritis, thillanas and javalis but also created the catchy and cheerful ragam Kadanakuthoohalam along with the popular kriti Raghuvamsa Sudha in the same ragam.

Performer

As a singer, he was unparalleled in rendering Begada ragam to such an extent he was fondly referred to as Begada Subramanya Ayyar. Though he was a prolific composer, he usually sang Thagaraja Swamy’s compositions and rarely sang his own compositions.

Teacher

He was a master teacher too. His disciples included Ramanadapuram (Poochi) Srinivasa Ayyangar, Tiger Varathachariyar and Mysore Vasudevacharya who went on to become luminaries of carnatic music.

Kadana Kuthoohalam Recordings

Here is Patnam Subramanya Ayyar’s Raghuvamsa Sudha in ragam Kadana Kuthoohalam rendered memorably on violin by Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu.

This is one of the very few recordings of Dwaram that is available to us. It also captures Dwaram’s unique style of playing violin which is vastly different from contemporary styles.

Raghuvamsa Sudha by Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu (YouTube)

Yet another master piece in Kadana Kuthoohalam, a Thillana composed and sung by Mangalampalli Balamurali Krishna.

Notation: Paridhanamicchithe - Bilahari - Patnam Subramanya Ayyar

Tue, 30 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Kriti: Paridhanamicchithe Palimthuvemo
Ragam: Bilahari
Thalam: Kanda Chapu
Composer: Patnam Subramanya Ayyar

I update and improve these notations from time to time. You are encouraged to share the link to this page rather than sharing, hosting, or linking the pdf file directly.

Carnatic Swarasthana Challenge No. 1

Thu, 18 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

How good are you in identifying swarasthanas when you hear a musical sequence? Try this challenge:

Importance of this exercise

There are six valid combinations of Ri and Ga in Carnatic music (and very similarly there are six combinations of Dha and Ni). Cycles of Ri-Ga combinations and Dha-Ni combinations are the basis of the 72 Melakartha scheme, which is one of the backbones of our raga system.

So, it is critical that every student masters these combinations.

Answer

If you are fuzzy about Carnatic swarasthana numbering, read this post before checking the answer.

The sequence you heard is Sa Ri₃ Ga₃. That is, Shadjam - Shatshruti Rishabam - Anthara Gandharam.

This combination popularly occurs in Nata Ragam.

How to develop this skill?

I wrote a detailed post on this topic. Please read Learning to Identify Swarasthanas.

To help students aquire this essential skill, we built Sadhakam app. In fact, the above challenge is just one of the many challenges from the app. The exercise having this challenge, works out all the combinations of Ri and Ga thoroughly. This way sadhakam provides a rigorous yet easy way to master swarasthanas.

Prince Rama Varma on Swara Gnanam

Thu, 06 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Prince Rama Varma, an eminent carnatic musician and teacher, points out a shortcoming in swara gnanam that’s common even among advanced carnatic musicians. He also explains why it is common in our traditional raga-by-raga learning process:

Excerpts from his talk:

10:06 “We (Carnatic musicians) are always trained to identify swarams of one raga only.”

11:45 “Many carnatic musicians I myself know, they would be qualified to give a Ragam-Tanam-Pallavi in Todi correctly. But if we just ask them to sing Prati Madhyamam, immediately, they have to think a little bit. If someone asks you your name, you don’t have to hesitate, you’ll tell immediately. Like that we have to know all the 12 notes, not just the notes of one raga.”

12:37 “Like a keyboard, in our throat, in our ear, in our brain, all 12 notes have to be fixed.”

This is exactly why we built Sadhakam: Carnatic Swara Gnanam Practice (Android app). It has direct swaram centric exercises that will help you fix all the swarasthanas in your throat, ear and brain as Prince Rama Varma advices.

Sadhakam app in action: In a swaram quiz, the app has played a sequence and the user should guess the swarasthanams. Then the app shows whether he/she guessed it right or wrong. It also shows the correct answer to help the user learn the correct swarasthanams.

Carnatic Swarasthanas

Sun, 03 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Carnatic music has 16 swarasthanas packed in 12 distinct positions. The 12 tones are more or less universal; many systems of music around the world have them, may be with some differences in the ratios/frequencies of individual notes. (Checkout Shruti Carnatic Tuner for precise swarasthanas used in Carnatic music)

In addition to the usual 12 notes, Carnatic music has 4 more swarasthanas, however they simply share their positions with existing notes. Sounds tricky? Not really, read on.

You can choose any frequency to be your Sa, the Shadjam, and all other swarams take their places based on your Sa. In practice you’ll most likely choose one of the standard frequencies, defined by kattai/shruti/mane number, depending on whether you sing or play an instrument. For example, many male vocalists usually sing at 1 or 1½ kattai shruti, female vocalists 5½, instruments like veena, violin at around 3 kattai. When multiple musicians come together, a common shruti is chosen and instruments and voices adjusted to that. Again, experiment with Shruti Carnatic Tuner to get a practical understanding of how different katti shrutis work and what’s suitable for you.

Your choice of kattai decides where your Sa is. Once Sa is decided, Pa also falls in place. So, swarams Sa and Pa each take one specific position (Swarasthana) and just stay there. The remaining swarams take multiple positions. There are two distinct varieties of Ma, so this swaram takes 2 swarasthanams.

The remaining swarams- Ri, Ga, Dha and Ni, take 3 positions each. Interestingly, there are overlaps between positions of Ri and Ga. Six swarasthanas (3 varieties each of Ri and Ga) occupy only four distinct places. Similarly, there are overlaps in Dha and Ni positions.

The fact that there are three varients each of Ri, Ga, Dha and Ni, and how exactly they overlap are key aspects of Carnatic music. The entire 72 Melakartha Raga scheme is based on this. However, some books ‘simplify’ swarasthanams by omitting some overlapping swarasthanams and calling the remaining as “1 & 2” or “small & big”. This is a terrible mistake and causes confusion especially in music notations.

The table here lists out all 16 swarasthanams. Correctly numbered short forms are provided. You can also see how they are related. For example, Ri2 and Ga1 are listed in the same line. It means they have same pitch. What is the implication? That pitch will be treated as Ri in some ragas, and as Ga in some other ragas.

Tips:

In a raga, if both Ri and Ga are present, Ga’s pitch should be higher than Ri’s pitch. You can verify this by comparing the numbers. Ga’s number should be equivalent or higher than Ri’s. For example, Ri2 and Ga3 are valid combinations in a Carnatic raga, but Ri3 and Ga2 are not.
In a raga where only either Ri or Ga is present, and you don’t know whether to interpret a sound as Ri or Ga, it’s most likely
- Ri2 rather than Ga1
- Ga2 rather than Ri3

Of course, the same logic applies to Dha and Ni.

If you are interested in Carnatic Swarasthanas, try Sadhakam: Carnatic Swara Gnanam Practice (android app). It trains you to recognize swarasthanas you hear. It works with all 16 swarasthanas as listed in the table, with correct numbers and short forms. Sadhakam only plays swarasthana combinations that are meaningful in Carnatic music and avoids all invalid combinations. See this post to know how Sadhakam app can help you to improve your swara gnanam.

Building up Swara Gnanam

Thu, 13 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Sadhakam: Carnatic Swara Gnanam Practice is an android app which helps students build their Swara Gnanam. Practicing with the app, doing the interactive exercises, students gradually develop their ability to identify swarams they hear. Hearing a sound and being able to tell the swarasthanam instantly is a wonderful skill, isn’t it?

This article describes how the app works, various stages of swara gnanam development, and how to get the most out of it. The app's functionality is quite simple. It has many exercises. Each exercise focus on one aspect of learning. For instance, the first exercise makes you understand and distinguish the three swarasthanams of Ri.

Exercises are interactive. The app plays a sequence, and you should identify one or more swarasthanams. You answer by choosing one of the choices. The app tells whether you are right or wrong and proceeds to the next challenge.

This feels like a quiz game. Some users may feel it would be better if they can hear the swarams and combinations before taking the quiz. But the quiz itself is the learning process! Let’s say you start the first exercise and you are immediately asked to identify a Ri. You have absolutely no clue whether it’s Ri1 or Ri2 or Ri3. You can replay the question again and again and listen carefully. Still doesn’t ring a bell? Just take a wild guess and answer. You may be right or wrong, but you shall make a note of the correct answer. Next time in the same session if you get the same combination you might get it right.

Skill development happens in different stages when you practice this way. Initially, in an exercise session, you may make some mistakes but get many of the questions right based on learning from your mistakes. For instance, you answered Ri1 when the correct answer is Ri2. If the next question is actually Ri2 again you’ll get it. If the subsequent question is Ri1 or Ri3, you’ll compare the sound with the Ri2 in your memory and be able to make a reasonable guess based on whether the new swaram sounds higher or lower. This is the very first stage (let’s call it Stage 1). You make some blunders, based on that you learn something.

But the learning in Stage 1 is very temporary. Let’s say you did reasonably well in an exercise in the morning. You were able to redo the exercise a few time in a row and get good scores repeatedly. But you try the same exercise in the evening and you do terribly, at least the first time. You redo the exercise a couple of times you are better again, as good as you were in the morning. Don’t loose heart, just keep practicing. After a day or two you might get Ri1 correct any time but may have a little bit of confusion between Ri2 and Ri3. Let’s say this is Stage 2.

With lot more practice you reach a stage where you don’t have to think. You hear the sound and you just know whether it’s Ri1 or Ri2 or Ri3. (Stage 3)

If you have learned typewriting you’d have experienced the same stages. Initially you would be mindful of the keys, later you have some confusion between keys. But once you crossed these levels, you just type the words automatically. Our brains just need a lot of time and lots of repetition to internalize patterns. That’s why the exercises in Sadhakam app are short, reasonably fast paced and repeatable. So, don’t worry too much about making mistakes, just practice, practice and practice a lot!