Music & Matters

What makes one a good singer or an instrumentalist or a musician?

Sum total of the 7 basic notes or swaras plus 5 additional ones - in all 12 make for the notes.

Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni - these are the basic notes to begin with.
Do Re Mi Fa So Laa Ti - hope I got this set right!

Sa and Pa (Do and So) remain at a particular fixed level whatever be the pitch in which we begin.
The pitch is a scale in which one is comfortable to sing in.
We will talk about singing here as there is so much to say on this subject.

To continue, Sa and Pa are called fixed notes (they don't have siblings!). They are single and dont mingle.
All the left out notes - Re, Ga, Ma, Dha and Ni come in pairs. But they are not identical twins either. Re, Ga, Ma, Dha and Ni have an elder or younger sibling to put it simply. Which in effect means both notes have the same name but to distinguish both from each other we give them names such as Shudh and Komal or Shudh and Teevra (Sharp and minor or is it major and minor?!) according to the higher or lower step that note occupies - if say Re is alloted step Nos. 2 and 3 then the Re which occupies step 2 is called Komal (delicate) 'Re' wheras the Re which occupies a higher step than the preceeding one is called as Shudh 'Re'.
This order I am mentioning is the one I picturise in the Hindustani style of music.
There is a different order of singing the basic 7 notes in Carnatic and Hindustani which tells them apart from each other, style-wise.

I picturise all the total 12 notes somewhat like this:

Sa Re Re Ga Ga Ma Ma Pa Dha Dha Ni Ni
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

When someone is taught music they are asked to sing after the basic 7 notes and never all the 12 like indicated above. one takes only among the pair of notes.

For Hindustani the order step wise can be imagined to be as follows:
Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni
1 3 5 6 8 10 12

In the Carnatic the order step-wise can be imagined to be as follows:
Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni
1 2 5 6 8 9 12

You will notice how in this style and that style the basic notes consists of 7 but a bit different from each other.
Notice how the steps change from this one to that when you sing the 2nd note Re which differs and then the Dha which again differs.
It is as if one style favours 2 higher notes or simply put 2 elder sisters from among the 7 basic notes while the other one favours the 2 younger sisters of the notes from among the 7 basic notes.
Both have the same step numbers for the remaining 5 notes namely Sa, Ga, Ma, Pa and Ni.
This subtle difference is different to hear and to sing they sound so much styles apart from each other. but when you put it down to a flight of stairs with each note representing one step at a time then we know we are skipping steps here and there to make all that difference and lend that uniqueness to that sytle of music.

Having said the above in terms of steps and (staircases) so that one can understand what all this difference is all about, we may move on to the next thing which strikes me.

Each is sung is a different fashion. Hindustani music is light, subtle and sung in a very delicate way - you can say from the throat. Whereas in Carnatic it is sung with force and a lot of gamaka (a gamaka is having to shake the voice or the string in the instrument a little this way and that way before settling on that note's step. For eg., lets take the case of 'Re' and see how best I can describe in theory how it is sung in both styles!
in Hindustani the Re comes next only to Sa. So we take step 1 and sing the first note 'Sa' which has a fixed place as you will see for Pa also each and every time. Then we have Re and we go to the 3rd step without disturbing step number 2 in any way. its like gently side or over-stepping step 2 and go on to step 3.

Whereas in Carnatic right after the 1st note of Sa you go on to the 2nd step and while doing so you bring along the flavour of the 1st step also and shake your voice in between before settling down on step 2. And its not done subtly either! A lot of vibrations this side and that is made before reaching step 2. That is the voice occilates between 1.75 to 2.25 before settling into 2! I hope I am making myself clear with this eg. likewise all the notes are sung by bringing the notes below and above that note but a word of caution here will be in order. When I say below and above vibrations I should clarify with another eg for this. Between notes Re and Ga there are big gaps - a jump from 2 to 5 straight away - so from Re to Ga would be 2.05 to 5 and dwelling between 5.1 and 5.25 for split seconds before resting on step 5 fully and so on.

You may now be conversant with 12 imaginary steps. Then what could be these scales that we are talking about?
Many of us have our own plus and minus where our voice or pitch is concerned.
Step 1 of singer 'A' may be step 5 of singer 'B' but after starting from whatever step as step 1 the order of taking steps remains the same though now you will notice a difference in the pitching of one singer from the other. Many of us are aware of some singers singing in lower pitches more comfortably and some are comfortable singing from higher pitches.
Then there is something called octaves which is nothing but 12 steps on ground floor to the first and then from first floor to the second floor and then from the second floor to the third floor covering a range of 36 steps in all! Usually a singer is comfortable in the higher steps like say 6th step from ground floor, going through 1 to 12 of the steps on first to second floor with ease and then reach until say 5 steps of the steps on the second to the third floor. If a singer is able to cover the entire 36 stairs without struggling (read going off-key :D) then its a very well trained voice indeed.

Now we know of the 12 notes, the basic 7 in two of the styles in India, then the pitch or the starting point which one is comfortable with and then the range or octaves which can be touched with ease.

Music is a big ocean in which many of us drown and lose ourselves whether it is just to listen or to sing or to participate as in a chorus.

These 12 notes are combined in different ways to produce a raga which is the backbone of both styles of music in India. Ragas are permutations and combinations of notes and are easily identified due to a set of notes gone about in a particular manner only.
Hindu mythology tells us that the mother and father of music are Lord Shiva and Parvathi.
They are the mother and father of music. Lord Shiva represents the raag Bhairav and the Goddess Parvathi as Bhairavi. From these two are born children and grand children and hence you have a whole lot of aunts, uncles, cousins, 1st, 2nd removed aunts, uncles and cousins. You have a whole family even in our raga based system.

Again we have ragas based on the seasons.
We have ragas based on different emotions.
We have ragas based on different the different time durations of the day and night in the 24 hours. So we have the early morning ragas like Bhopali, Lalit, Bhairav, etc, (usually devotional songs and compositions are sung in such ragas which suits and sets the mood and tone at the beginning of the day when one is just waking up) and the noon ragas when one is a bit brisk and can sink in some fast paced and lively notes), then the evening ragas like the Yaman Kalyan (where the mood is one of leisure and rest when the day's work is done almost and its pleasure time) and the night ones like Deepak, etc. which spark the light in us as its all dark outside.
This is as best as I could describe from what I have myself experienced of music and learning and singing all these years.
Then there are those seasonal ones like raag Basant, (Bahar and Basant Bahar are all combinations taking one or two notes from this raag and that raag to give birth to another raga) which suggests spring time which is like a garden full of colorful flowers. Also the raag Peelu which is a favourite to set the Holi songs in - Holi is a celebration of the arrival of spring hence the colored water is thrown over each other playfully through a big water syringe (pitchkaari in Hindi).
Behind each raga there is a story. These stories are interesting. Most are mythological like raag Kedar, while some are creations of greats like the Tansen, the royal court musician in the Moghul period in India.
Ragas have a minimum of any 5 notes from Sa to Ni in the ascending order and in the descending order too 5 notes are a minimum. Like for eg in Bhopali there are 5 notes in both ascending and descending order - Sa Re Ga Pa Dha (Sa from the higher octave) and while descending Sa of the higher octave to Dha Pa Ga Re Sa of the starting point or lower octave or coming back to the beginning note from where one starts this raga.
If described in steps then it would 1, 3, 5, 8, 10 then step 1 of the higher octave then return back the same way from 1 of the higher octave and then 10, 8, 5, 3 and 1 of the steps you started and travelled while going up.
Raag Bhoopali is a raag which is full of the bhakthi or devotion and any number of bhajans and compositions exist.
My father the most love Iyer Saab used to tell me that there were Ustads he knew who would learn just 4 ragas one for each time slot and practice it until they are experts in it. Even these 4 were sung each time a little differently but within the steps permitted.
The raagas were sung soulfully.

It is not enough to have a sweet voice.
It is not enough to have the swar gyaan (to have the musical instinct which tells us which step to tread and which one to avoid which is what is all about this swar gyaan). It is not about the dexterity with which one can meander across the 3 octaves or 3 sets of staircases.
It is not about knowing and recalling the Lyrics right each time.
It is not about keeping perfect step with the rhythm or the beats.
It is the combination of all this something more.
It is the ability to bring the ethos of the raga.
It is the ability to touch the soul of the raga.
It is the ability to understand the lyrics and convey it in the way it is meant to be such as happy words to be sung with happiness, separation words to be sung with a tinge of sadness or melancholy, etc.
It is the ability to enjoy the raga, rhythm, lyrics all at one go within oneself.
When one is not consicous of the audience it helps a lot to enjoy that music more as you try to enjoy it yourself first. The audience will automatically be with you in this state very soon.

Music is a form of meditation.
It is a balm for any soul and sweet medicine for the mind and body.
Music is like a prayer through which one reaches God quicker.

Enjoy music and live life to the fullest, as the one who does not enjoy some form of music is certainly missing an important ingredient in life.

Cheers!

Mahalakshmi

I must admit that I learnt my ragas very quickly because of Hindi film songs set to tune in each of them. How I would listen to the ever-green Sangeet Sarita on the Vividh Bharati early in the morning from 7.30am to 7.45am