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5A Indian music – Unit 5: World Music

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Accompanying worksheet

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♫ 5A Indian Music ♫Unit 5: World Music

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Learning objectives

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To understand the concept of the raga.

To understand some basic theory of Indian music.

To understand how rhythmic division takes place in Indian music.

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Raga

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Swar

Indian music has seven main notes, or swars. Each swar is named.

Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni

(Do) (Re) (Me) (Fa) (So) (La) (Ti)

This naming system is similar to the Western method.

The notes used are called a saptak, or scale. Indian saptaks do not include the first note repeated an

octave higher as Western scales do.

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Swar

At least five swars must be used, otherwise the performance cannot be called a raga.

Ragas do not have to be based around all seven notes. Ragas fall into one of three different groups:

audava or pentatonic (5 notes)

shaadava or hexatonic (6 notes)

sampoorna or heptatonic (7 notes)

Ragas are based on modes, called thaats. The notes used in the raga will depend on which

thaat has been chosen.

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Thaat

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Arohana and avarohana

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Tala

Talas have between 4 and 16 matras (beats) which are divided into vibhags (bars). Each new vibhag is marked by a different stress or action.

Ragas are accompanied by a cyclical rhythmic pattern. This is called tala. There are over 300 different kinds of tala in Indian classical music.

This tala is called Tintaal and is divided into 4+4+4+4. The first, second and fourth vibhags are marked with a clap, whilst the third vibhag is marked silently with a wave.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

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Sam, tali and kali

Sam is the first beat of each repetition of a tala. All the playersin the raga start and finish on the sam.

Kali means ‘empty’ and is the beat marked by a wave, whichhighlights the start of a new vibhag.

Tali means ‘clap’, and the clap highlights the start of a new vibhag.

Sam Kali TaliTali

1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8

9 10 11 12

13 14 15 16

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Vibhag

Each vibhag is not always of equal length.

Notice that the start of each vibhag is still marked by a stress or action.

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This tala has four vibhags, which are divided up into 2+3+2+3.

♫ Make up your own tala of between 4 and 16 beats. Make sure you emphasize where

each vibhag begins. ♫