What is the basic scale in Indian music and what notes make up that scale?
A musical scale is a series of notes which begins from a starting point and proceeds in ascent or descent. The starting point for the development of any scale in Indian music is called Shadaj and is a tone which is more commonly known in its shortened form as Sa. This Sa tone is not a fixed note. It is merely a starting point called the keynote or tonic of the scale from which all the following notes are then related by tonal frequency.
Much like in Western music the Indian scale consists of 7 notes or swars called saptak (containing seven).
These are Shadaj (Sa), Rishab (Re), Gandhar (Ga), Madyam (Ma), Pancham (Pa), Dhaivat (Dha) and Nishaad (Ni). Whilst many people refer to them as the equivalents of the Western notation system which uses C, D, E, F, G, A and B this is not strictly correct. That is because these notes have fixed frequencies whereas Sa can be played as the starting point from any tone. All the following notes after Sa are now related to that starting point. A more accurate equivalent is the moveable solfege system which uses the syllables Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La and Ti and is prevalent in Britain and America. This system allows for the keynote of a piece, like in Indian music, to be referred to as Do and then the following syllables are related to that point. If for example a song were sung in the key of G then that G tone would be the Do. This moveable solfege system was abandoned in other European countries in the nineteenth century in favour of the fixed solfege system where the syallables correspond exactly to their equivalent tones.
Broadly speaking there are 3 registers (scales) or 3 saptak in Indian music that are made up of these 7 notes. The lower register is called mandra saptak, the middle register is called madya saptak and the higher register is called tar saptak. These are loosely the equivalent of the Western octave with the proviso that the Sa can be from any starting point.
Sa and Pa (that is the 1st and its related 5th) are fixed tones in any given saptak. They are referred to as immovable or achal. Re, Ga, Dha and Ni all have flat equivalents or vikrit (moveable) forms. These flat equivalents are called komal tones. Ma on the other hand can also be said to have a vikrit form but instead of a komal or flat it has a sharp equivalent called tivra Ma. This means that although there are 7 pure notes or shuddha notes in Indian classical music, there are 12 notes in any given saptak in total taking into account flats and sharps.
The Indian scale is diatonic. That means that it can be divided into two parts, each with 4 notes. The first half consists of Sa, Re, Ga and Ma and is called purvang and the second half consists of Pa, Dha, Ni and the higher register (tar saptak) Sa and is referred to as uttarang. In Carnatic music or south Indian music the scale is chromatic and proceeds entirely by semi-tones.
The different combinations of fixed notes form this scale in ascent and descent and rules governing their melodic movements within that structure is termed a raga. The raga is the melodic concept of Indian music and knowledge of the basic scale and the notes that make up this scale is essential in understanding that concept.
The keys of an Indian harmonium
