The Sun has started lengthening the duration of the day and also the temperature scale here in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Summers are good though for Bansuri playing. Cold makes it difficult for your lungs to breath. Also, your mouth and tongue become dry regularly.
In my previous post, I shared some information about the instrument. Now, I shall try to share the basics of what we have to learn and play on the instrument.
I will talk about music in general and a bit more detail about Hindustani Sangeet. Hope you find it useful.
Music
Any music, in any part of the world, comprises of two main components: a) Notes b) Rhythm.
a) Notes: A note is actually a predefined method(pitch) of producing sound. It is this method which differentiates between any ordinary noise/sound and music.
If you consider, except a few languages, all others are based on sound. The alphabets that actually form a language are nothing but a particular sound humans can produce through the vibration of their vocal cords. When these same sounds are produced with the frequency and wavelength specified for a note, you create music.
b) Rhythm: Space, or pause between two consecutive notes is of utmost importance in music. It is this pause itself which makes the music worth listening and enjoying. These particular pauses which decide the time duration between two consecutive notes is said to be rhythm.
A beautiful way to understand it is to consider notes as pearls, and rhythm as the string that arranges the pearls together in a marvelous order. Together they form the necklace of divine music.
Hindustani Sangeet
Hindustani music is the term given to the music of ancient India. India is probably the only country that has an entire treatise "Saamved" dedicated to music and such arts. There are obviously many other books and scriptures on Indian music.
Hindustani Sangeet originated from Bhagwan Shankar and Bhagwati Parvati. This music was originally in the form of 6 main ragas. Namely, Bhairav, Malkauns, Deepak, Shri, Megh and Hindol. Out of these, Malkauns is said to be originated from Bhagwati Parvati and the rest from Bhagwan Shiv.
The notes that we discussed above are 7 in total. Their names are Shadaj, Rishabh, Gandhar, Madhyam, Pancham, Dhaivat and Nishad. Taking the starting letters of each of these gives us the names we commonly use i.e.:
Sa(Shadaj)
Re(Rishabh)
Ga(Gandhar)
Ma(Madhyam)
Pa(Pancham)
Dha(Dhaivat)
Ni(Nishad)
Shadaj or Sa is the first note. In Hindustani Sangeet, Sa is the reference note or the first note on the basis of which all the other notes are positioned.
One interesting question that may arise in your mind is that how to measure the distance between two notes. How to position them??
To answer these, we come across the concept of Shruti. Shruti can be understood as the lowest possible pitch interval that can be perceived by human ear. There are total 22 Shrutis in Hindustani Sangeet.
According to this Re is always at a distance of 3 Shrutis(3 pitch intervals) from Sa. Hence, Hindustani Sangeet is a relative music concept in which each note is placed with respect to its neighboring note.
Now, moving forward, to define rhythm, we have the concept of Taal. In Hindustani music, taal is a particular rhythmic pattern in which a composition is rendered. It is generally created by different percussion instruments, most common among them is the Tabla.
By beating different parts of the instrument, different kinds of beats are generated. These beats are vocalised in Hindustani Sangeet and are called bols. For example, Dha, Dhin, Ta, Tin etc.
The speed at which these taals are played decides the tempo of the composition. There are 3 main tempos in Hindustani Sangeet: Vilambit(Slow), Madhyam(Medium) and Dhrut(Fast).
The most common taal in Hindustani Sangeet is Teental or Tintaal which has a cycle of 16 beats and is divided into 4 equal parts. Hence, each part has 4 beats.
This one has been a very lengthy talk, hope it is not too much in one go. Will take a pause here. Will start with the Bansuri next time.
May music bless us all...
Thank you for taking out time to read me.
C U Soon...
Thanks.
Ninad.
In my previous post, I shared some information about the instrument. Now, I shall try to share the basics of what we have to learn and play on the instrument.
I will talk about music in general and a bit more detail about Hindustani Sangeet. Hope you find it useful.
Music
Any music, in any part of the world, comprises of two main components: a) Notes b) Rhythm.
a) Notes: A note is actually a predefined method(pitch) of producing sound. It is this method which differentiates between any ordinary noise/sound and music.
If you consider, except a few languages, all others are based on sound. The alphabets that actually form a language are nothing but a particular sound humans can produce through the vibration of their vocal cords. When these same sounds are produced with the frequency and wavelength specified for a note, you create music.
b) Rhythm: Space, or pause between two consecutive notes is of utmost importance in music. It is this pause itself which makes the music worth listening and enjoying. These particular pauses which decide the time duration between two consecutive notes is said to be rhythm.
A beautiful way to understand it is to consider notes as pearls, and rhythm as the string that arranges the pearls together in a marvelous order. Together they form the necklace of divine music.
Hindustani Sangeet
Hindustani music is the term given to the music of ancient India. India is probably the only country that has an entire treatise "Saamved" dedicated to music and such arts. There are obviously many other books and scriptures on Indian music.
Hindustani Sangeet originated from Bhagwan Shankar and Bhagwati Parvati. This music was originally in the form of 6 main ragas. Namely, Bhairav, Malkauns, Deepak, Shri, Megh and Hindol. Out of these, Malkauns is said to be originated from Bhagwati Parvati and the rest from Bhagwan Shiv.
The notes that we discussed above are 7 in total. Their names are Shadaj, Rishabh, Gandhar, Madhyam, Pancham, Dhaivat and Nishad. Taking the starting letters of each of these gives us the names we commonly use i.e.:
Sa(Shadaj)
Re(Rishabh)
Ga(Gandhar)
Ma(Madhyam)
Pa(Pancham)
Dha(Dhaivat)
Ni(Nishad)
Shadaj or Sa is the first note. In Hindustani Sangeet, Sa is the reference note or the first note on the basis of which all the other notes are positioned.
One interesting question that may arise in your mind is that how to measure the distance between two notes. How to position them??
To answer these, we come across the concept of Shruti. Shruti can be understood as the lowest possible pitch interval that can be perceived by human ear. There are total 22 Shrutis in Hindustani Sangeet.
According to this Re is always at a distance of 3 Shrutis(3 pitch intervals) from Sa. Hence, Hindustani Sangeet is a relative music concept in which each note is placed with respect to its neighboring note.
Now, moving forward, to define rhythm, we have the concept of Taal. In Hindustani music, taal is a particular rhythmic pattern in which a composition is rendered. It is generally created by different percussion instruments, most common among them is the Tabla.
By beating different parts of the instrument, different kinds of beats are generated. These beats are vocalised in Hindustani Sangeet and are called bols. For example, Dha, Dhin, Ta, Tin etc.
The speed at which these taals are played decides the tempo of the composition. There are 3 main tempos in Hindustani Sangeet: Vilambit(Slow), Madhyam(Medium) and Dhrut(Fast).
The most common taal in Hindustani Sangeet is Teental or Tintaal which has a cycle of 16 beats and is divided into 4 equal parts. Hence, each part has 4 beats.
This one has been a very lengthy talk, hope it is not too much in one go. Will take a pause here. Will start with the Bansuri next time.
May music bless us all...
Thank you for taking out time to read me.
C U Soon...
Thanks.
Ninad.
Nice blog, thank you for sharing such an amazing and informative post. Want to make a noise in the audio industry, the Sound Engineering courses is the best place to start.
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