About santhaa
(updated 22nd Nov. 2007)
santhaa
is now a set of 6 tracks designed for you to learn elements of the
Indian raga Yaman, along with one traditional song in that raga.
These tracks contain all the material in the 10 tracks which were earlier
available as a CD on MP3.com. Each
track can now be individually downloaded from
my artist page on IACmusic.com.
You don't
need to know any system of musical notation to use it: you learn
by repeating each line after the teacher's voice. A soft prompting
voice is available on the right channel. If you would rather not
hear the prompting, just listen to the left channel.
Further down on this page, you will get some material - narrative
and notation - to help you learn with santhaa. You may want to print
it and have it with you as you play the tracks.
If you face any difficulty or have questions feel free to e-mail
me using the e-mail link on my
home page.
Santhaa contains a total of six tracks:
Alap part 1 and Alap part 2: a two-part lesson for learning alaps without tabla accompaniment
Bandish and Improvisation: two tracks for learning the song and tala-bound alaps
within the
framework of the song
tanpura for practice: a tanpura drone for you to practice singing. (This track has very short
fade-in and fade-out so that if you put your player on "repeat" you will
have an almost
continuous drone.)
tabla for practice: an accompaniments track with tanpura and tabla for you to practice
the song
Play the lesson track you feel most comfortable imitating, and repeat
each line during the gaps provided. The lessons do not have to be
learned in the order in which they appear. However, Alap part 1
should be done before Alap part 2; and Bandish
should be done before Improvisation
From time to time you can record your own voice over a lesson on a karaoke
system, or on a separate recording device while a track plays. Hearing such
a recording can help you evaluate your progress.
However, it is not a good idea to play a recording containing your own
voice for further practice since any errors get "reinforced", that is,
burned into memory. For practice always sing with the original track.
About raga Yaman
In Indian classical music an artist, be it a singer or an
instrumentalist, is said to perform a raga. Each "raga" is a
palette of melodic phrases from which the artist can choose at will
as they improvise. Thus a raga is like a mode, but more than just
a mode.
One tonic (base note or reference pitch) is selected for the
performance and constantly played in the background. There is no
modulation or change of key within an item of performance.
Yaman, one of the oldest ragas of Indian classical music, permits all
seven notes of the octave in both ascent and descent. All notes
except the fourth are in their natural versions; the fourth is
augmented (sharp). Many other ragas share this scale with raga
Yaman.
About teental
The rhythm being played on the tabla during the song eree aalee
piyaabina is called teental. It is a 16-beat cycle
divided into 4 divisions of 4 beats each. (You can think of each
division as a bar.) The table below is one way we can represent it
on paper. You can keep time to teental by hand gestures indicated
in the top line. ("index", "middle" and "ring" mean count on the
named finger.) The tabla syllables and beat numbers appear in the
second and third lines respectively. The symbols X,2,O,3 from the
bottom line, indicating first beats of each division, will recur in
all notation subsequently.
You can practice keeping time with the track "practice with
tabla" playing.
| clap
|
index
|
middle
|
ring
|
| dha
|
dhin
|
dhin
|
dha
|
| 1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
| X
|
|
|
|
|
| clap
|
index
|
middle
|
ring
|
| dha
|
dhin
|
dhin
|
dha
|
| 5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
| 2
|
|
|
|
|
| wave
|
index
|
middle
|
ring
|
| dha
|
tin
|
tin
|
ta
|
| 9
|
10
|
11
|
12
|
| O
|
|
|
|
|
| clap
|
index
|
middle
|
ring
|
| ta
|
dhin
|
dhin
|
dha
|
| 13
|
14
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15
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16
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| 3
|
|
|
|
|
About the notation
Given below is the musical notation of the refrain (sthayii)
of the song, followed by the stanza (antaraa). There are
two separate tracks for learning these parts.
Each row of the notation corresponds to one cycle of
teental. A row has four lines of symbols within it. Each
row is naturally divided into four blocks representing the
divisions of the tala. The symbols X,2,O,3 at the bottom
of each block tell you what part of the tala cycle the
notation n the block is for.
Inside a block, the second line from the top is the main
notation line. Grace notes appear in the topmost line where
needed. The third line contains words of the text.
The note names used are:
Indian solfa piano
name name key
Sa Do A
Re Re B
Ga Mi C#
ma Fa# D#
Pa So E
Dha La F#
Ni Ti G#
A dot on top of a note indicates higher octave; a dash - lower octave.
Tracks Alap parts 1 & 2
In these tracks, usually a passage is first vocalised on note names
Sa, Re, Ga etc. and a second time on the vowel aa.
This second vocalisation is melodically different on purpose.
Copy each passage you hear as closely as you can. If you are used
to reading some kind of notation, I have sung the note names so that
you can write the passages down in the system you are familiar with.
Tracks Bandish and Improvisation
In the first track you will learn the song and in the second
a number of "improvisation" examples. After you have learned the
examples, try your own improvisation!
The word sakhi is sung on the seventh and eighth beats
of the tala cycle. Feel free to sing it if there is room in that
part of the cycle even if the leading voice did not, and you have
to skip sakhi if the leading voice is not silent during those
beats.
sthayI
The refrain of a song is called sthaayii.
The words of the sthayI are:
sakhi eree aalee piyaabina
kala na parata mohe ghadi pala chhina chhina
On the recording each line is sung several times and line 1 is
repeated after line 2.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dha
|
|
| Ni
|
-
|
Pa
|
-
|
| ye
|
~
|
ree
|
~
|
| O
|
|
|
|
|
| Ga
|
|
|
|
| Re
|
-
|
Sa
|
-
|
| aa
|
~
|
lee
|
~
|
| 3
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Ga
|
Re
|
Pa
|
Ga
|
| pi
|
yaa
|
bi
|
na
|
| X
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
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| Pa
|
Ga
|
Pa
|
Pa
|
| ka
|
la
|
na
|
pa
|
| O
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ma
|
Dha
|
Pa
|
Pa
|
| ra
|
ta
|
mo
|
he
|
| 3
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dha
|
|
| Ni
|
-
|
Pa
|
-
|
| gha
|
di
|
pa
|
la
|
| X
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Re
|
Re
|
Sa
|
Sa
|
| chhi
|
na
|
chhi
|
na
|
| 2
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
antaraa
The stanza (there is only one) is called antaraa.
The words of the antaraa are:
jabase piyaa paradesa gavana keenho
ratiyaan kaTata moree taare gina gina
We will begin this lesson by revising the lines of sthaayii first.
|
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| Pa
|
Ga
|
Pa
|
Pa
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| ja
|
ba
|
se
|
pi
|
| O
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Dha
|
-
|
Pa
|
Pa
|
| yaa
|
~
|
pa
|
ra
|
| 3
|
|
|
|
|
| .
|
|
.
|
|
| Sa
|
-
|
Sa
|
Dha
|
| de
|
~
|
sa
|
ga
|
| X
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
.
|
.
|
.
|
| Ni
|
Re
|
Sa
|
Sa
|
| va
|
na
|
kee
|
nho
|
| 2
|
|
|
|
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|
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|
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|
.
|
.
|
.
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| Ni
|
Re
|
Ga
|
Re
|
| ra
|
ti
|
yaan
|
ka
|
| O
|
|
|
|
|
| .
|
|
|
|
| SaNi
|
DhaNi
|
Pa
|
Pa
|
| Ta ~
|
ta ~
|
mo
|
ree
|
| 3
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Ga
|
|
|
|
| Re
|
Re
|
Sa
|
Sa
|
| gi
|
na
|
gi
|
na
|
| 2
|
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