What is an Alankar

8/2/2019 What is an Alankar

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What is an Alankar?

ALANKARS

Alankars are different sets of the swars that will enable you to practice and familiarize yourself

with the different sounds. You should practice these till you can play them correctly withoutlooking at the keyboard. While you practice how to play, please sing-along too so that you canimprove your voice and can learn how to sing more in tune.

The term Alankar literally means an ornament or decoration; it is the repetition of musical notesfrom a Raga in a particular pattern. +


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Alankars are of four types:

1. Asthai Alankars, which returns to the initial note2. Arohi Alankars, which is a ascending sequence of notes3. Amrohi Alankars, which is a descending sequence of notes4. Sanchari Alankars, which combines elements of the above types.

Alankars are extremely useful for practice and are a great way of getting familiar with yourkeyboard or harmonium. Here are some Alankars for practice; try to play them continuouslyfor an extended period of time; its extremely important that your fingers move smoothly onthe keyboard because when you are playing a metered melody, an extra second's hesitationis enough to send you out of synchronization with the taal or rhythm.In the context of Indian classical music, the application of an alankar is essentially to enhancethe inherent beauty of the genre. Or we can say when a group or cluster of notes embellishesanother swar, they form the alankar. There are almost 33 types of alankars but few are beingused these days, for example, meend, andolan and murki.

Types of AlankarsMeendThe term meend has a wider implication. It is generally understood as a glide from one note toanother in instruments like sitar as well as vocal music. Gliding from one note to another in aghazal brings beauty which Ghulam Ali and Mehdi Hassan have shown in their performances.Proper rendition of meend not only depends on the accuracy of the starting and ending swarsbut also on the exacting knowledge of the kan-swars of the ragas. Only there types of alankarshave been survived in this era of music.

Andolan

The Andolan alankar is a gentle swing or oscillation that begins from a fixed note and touchesthe periphery of an adjacent note. Specialty about andolan is that in the course of theoscillation, it touches the microtones or shrutis that exist in between. The note that is beingoscillated within an Andolan is known as andolit swar. It must be noted that these andolit swarsare raga specific and should not be applied to any raga that uses these notes.

Murki

Murki is cluster of notes that sounds like a short, subtle taan. A murki can also comprise aseries of such short clusters. A combination like RRSnS could be a murki depending on theforce of delivery. Although some special murkis are used in khayal singing, it is really a veryhandy device for a thumri singer. In fact, the bols of a thumri, the ragas they are normally set to

and the mood of this form of singing especially demand the usage of murkis. Thus, thumris areoften built around this alankar.

General MessageKeyboard or harmonium are supposed to be same. First of all we select best sound or voice inkeyboard to play. Here we select strings which is best for learners. Some keyboards areequipped with floppy drive and some are without. For Harmonium first open at least 3 big knobsand then blower. In alankar lessons we have used right hand for playing. In Harmonium neverblow air until any note is pressed, otherwise air will not be able to go out from anywhere andthe Harmonium will start leaking air from sides or anywhere. In harmonium we use our left handto blow air and right hand is used for playing keys. Use right hand finger to play black keys onlyand adjacent three fingers on black and white keys both. Thumb is very rarely used on blackkeys. For keyboard you need to use right hand.


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About Diagrams:Here we have shown arohi notes (ascending notes) and amroi notes (descending notes) inmadh saptak. We have shown one diagram in raga yaman because there are seven notes inascending and seven notes in descending. In raga asavari we have shown notes in two

separate diagrams because there are five notes in ascending and seven notes descending. Inarohi of raga asavari two notes "ga" and "ni" are not used.Note:- In any raga you will only practice ragas with a single diagram of arohi and amrohi notes.

Raga Asavari Alankar:

Arohi: S R m P d S'

Amrohi: S' n d P m g R SNote:- Click play button and let the music to fully download. After fully download you can listencomplete music smoothly. To listen again press play button again.

Asavari

Do not forget to push blower to blow air otherwise no sound will be heard. To push blower, use

your left hand near the left edge of harmonium. Play or sing-along below given five ragaasavari alankars with harmonium or keyboard. Sample raga asavari alankar 1audio file isprovided for your listening.


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Number of sequence (Beats)

Play Asavari Alankar1 Midi

Number of sequence (Beats) 33




http://www.ragatracks.com/thaat_midi/asavari_alankar1.midhttp://www.ragatracks.com/thaat_midi/asavari_alankar2.midhttp://www.ragatracks.com/thaat_midi/asavari_alankar3.midhttp://www.ragatracks.com/thaat_midi/asavari_alankar1.midhttp://www.ragatracks.com/thaat_midi/asavari_alankar2.midhttp://www.ragatracks.com/thaat_midi/asavari_alankar3.mid


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Note:-More Alankar lessons of important ragas are provided in Sargam Book for your

practical practice. Oder sargam book which is very essential for a sing-along singer andharmonium player. You can also practice these lessons with your electronic keyboards usingstrings instrument. For Yamaha PSR keyboard owners, tabla styles with teen taal is alsoavailable. You can enjoy more with alankar using real tabla styles of Yamaha. Order now forsargam book and tabla styles package.

Raga Yaman Alankar:

Arohi: 'N R G M D N S'Amrohi: S' N D P M G R S

Download Yaman Alankar(Adobe pdf Zip with mp3) 882 Kb

Mp3 links in pdf will work if Unzipped and opened in same folder
http://www.ragatracks.com/thaat_midi/asavari_alankar4.midhttp://www.ragatracks.com/thaat_midi/asavari_alankar5.midhttp://www.ragatracks.com/www.ragatracks.com/yaman_alankar_zip.ziphttp://www.ragatracks.com/www.ragatracks.com/yaman_alankar_zip.ziphttp://www.ragatracks.com/thaat_midi/asavari_alankar4.midhttp://www.ragatracks.com/thaat_midi/asavari_alankar5.midhttp://www.ragatracks.com/www.ragatracks.com/yaman_alankar_zip.zip


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Note:Do not forget to push blower to blow air otherwise no sound will be heard. To pushblower, use your left hand near the left edge of harmonium. Play or sing-along below givenfive raga yaman alankars. Raga yaman alankar 1 sample audio file is also provided foryour listening.


Yaman Alankar1 Midi


Yaman Alankar2 Midi


Yaman Alankar3 Midi


Yaman Alankar4 Midi
http://www.ragatracks.com/thaat_midi/yaman_alankar1.midhttp://www.ragatracks.com/thaat_midi/yaman_alankar2.midhttp://www.ragatracks.com/thaat_midi/yaman_alankar3.midhttp://www.ragatracks.com/thaat_midi/yaman_alankar4.midhttp://www.ragatracks.com/thaat_midi/yaman_alankar1.midhttp://www.ragatracks.com/thaat_midi/yaman_alankar2.midhttp://www.ragatracks.com/thaat_midi/yaman_alankar3.midhttp://www.ragatracks.com/thaat_midi/yaman_alankar4.mid


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Yaman Alankar5 Midi

PLAY ALANKAR MIDI MUSIC IN VANBASCO NOTATION

PLAYER

What is Vanbasco Midi & Lyrics Notation Player?

When you will play our Alankar midi file in Vanbasco Player then it will show

real time notation lyrics being shown in the Karaoke window of VanbascoPlayer.

At the same time in Piano window of Vanbasco Player the particular noteswill be shown being played in real-time. Now there is no need of musicteacher. Vanbasco will teach how you will play alankar in harmonium andkeyboards.

Vanbasco Player with SMALL PIANO download link: Download Vanbasco Player

Vanbasco BIGGER PIANO Skin download link: Download Bigger Piano Skin

To install a bigger piano skin, first download the .zip file, e.g. skin zip. Thenextract the contents of the downloaded file to the installation folder of vanBasco's Karaoke Player. In other words paste unzipped bigger skin file in theprogramme folder of Vanbasco Player.

Documents

What is an Alankar