The Techniques and Graces of a Raga: Raga is a melodic form of Indian Classical Music consisting of certain Swara or a scale. But the scale alone can’t build a raga. There are a number of techniques of using the Swara to build the raga. Those techniques build the raga and make it beautiful and fresh and new in every presentation. Today we will discuss some of those techniques. If you can identify the below techniques successfully your journey with Indian music will be more joyful. However, the learning process to identify those also joyful experiences.
Table of Contents
The Techniques and Graces of a Raga: Indian Classical Music
Alankar
Merely a simple and straightforward rendering of the notes would leave the Raga bare. Therefore Alankaras or ornamentations are used to decorate and beautify the Raga.
Palta
The word Palta is used to describe various interesting progressions of note-patterns such as:
Sa-Re-Ga-Ma-Ga-Re
Re-Ga-Ma-Pa-Ma-Ga
Ga-Ma-Pa-Dha-Pa-Ma
Meend [Mind ] and Soot :
When the musician, instead of playing two notes separately and successively, glides from one to the other, we have a Meend. This is very effectively used in Alaps. A Soot is a longer Meend.
In Hindustani music, meend [ मीण्ड, Urdu: مینڈ ] refers to a glide from one note to another. It is an essential performance practice, and is used often in vocal and instrumental music. On the veena, sitar, sarangi and other plucked stringed instruments, it is usually done by pushing the strings across the frets to vary their effective length and tension; compare portamento and finger vibrato. This can be done on wind instruments like the bansuri by using the fingers to cover the holes in a manner that the changes between discrete pitches are imperceptible. It is considered a sort of alankar, or ornament.
Meend is an important part of any classical performance; however, it is a technique not possible on a hand-held harmonium often used in musical concerts (or on the santoor). For this reason, traditionalists singing khyal prefer an accompaniment on an instrument such as a sarangi that can perform meend.
Nishit Day is demonstrating meed using Sitar:
Gamak :
Gamak is a heavy and vigorous oscillation between two notes, the nature and extent of the oscillation determining the type of Gamak.
Gamaka (also spelled gamak) refer to ornamentation that is used in the performance of North and South Indian classical music. Gamaka can be understood as embellishment done on a note or between two notes. Present-day Carnatic music uses at least fifteen different kinds of ornamentation. Gamaka is any graceful turn, curve or cornering touch given to a single note or a group of notes, which adds emphasis to each raga’s individuality.
Gamaka can be understood as any movement done on a note or in between two notes. The unique character of each raga is given by its gamakas, making their role essential rather than decorative in Indian music. Nearly all Indian musical treatises have a section dedicated to describing, listing and characterising gamakas.
The term gamaka itself means “ornamented note” in Sanskrit. Gamakas involve the variation of pitch of a note, using heavy forceful oscillations between adjacent and distant notes. Each raga has specific rules on the types of gamakas that might be applied to specific notes, and the types that may not.
Demonstratiobn of Gamaka:
Alankarik Swaras :
These are auxiliary notes which are used to enrich or embellish the main note in a note progression, through preceding and succeeding nuances.
Kan :
While producing a note, the nuances made by touching its preceding or succeeding Alankarik notes are called Kans.
Andolan :
When the musician gently sways a note, generally over the higher grace notes of the particular note, it is called Andolan.
Krintan :
This terms relates principally to plucked string instruments. The left-hand forefinger is placed on a note and the middle or ring finger on the next higher note. On plucking the gher note is sounded, immediately after which the middle or ring finger is moved transversely across the string which is virtually a secondary plucking of the string. The result is the production of two notes in quick succession, in a split second. In Krintan the higher note always comes first. Krintan is emulated by some accomplished vocalists.
Sparsh :
Sparsh is the opposite of Krintan. The note under the forefinger is plucked first and before the vibration of the string dies down, the middle or ring finger is forcefully brought down on the string to produce the next higher note. Sparsh, therefore, moves from a lower to a higher note. Like Krintan, Sparsh also is emulated by some vocalists.
Murki :
When a musician makes a brief and brisk ornamentation around a note, culminating in the note being emphasised, it is called Murki. Murki is a lighter form of ornamentation, gener ally used in Thumri or light classical forms.
Bade Ghulam Ali Khan – Vocal – Raga Pahadi
Taan :
While performing or elaborating the structure of a Raga, the notes do not lie in isolation but are often grouped together organically. These groupings, sung or played at a faster pace, are known as Taans. Through them, the musician weaves extempore patterns at moderate and quick tempos and expands the basic melody. Taans constitute an area where the artiste’s creativity and ability to compose impromptu get full play.
Gamak Taan :
This is a Taan which uses Gamaks predominantly or throughout.
Aakar Taan and Sargam Taan :
In vocal music when a Taan is sung solely with the “aa” sound, it is known as Aakar Taan. On the other hand, when the names of the notes are used it is known as Sargam Taan.
Sapaat Taan :
Sapaat means ‘sweep’. When all the notes of a Raga are used in the exact ascending and descending order of the scale it is known as Sapaat Taan. Depending on the performer’s capabilities a Sapaat Taan may span even three octaves.
Saral Taan :
When a Taan follows a straight course, without much change of direction or without major jumps skipping part of the Aroha or Avaroha, then it is known as a Saral or straight Taan. Saral literally means ‘easy’ or ‘simple’.
Kut Taan :
Kut means ‘crooked’. When the notes follow a crooked course with many unpredictable jumps and changes of direction and also with many alterations of pattern, a Kut Taan is generated.
Choot Taan :
Choot literally means ‘run’ and in music, it means a skip or a break of continuity. When a Taan consists of small snatches of a fast succession of notes, having unexpected gaps or jumps in the normal sequence of Aroha or Avaroha, it is called a Choot Taan. A Choot Taan may have gaps as long as one octave. Nazakat Ali Khan and Salamat Ali Khan – Vocal – Raga Abhogi
Bol Taan :
When a musician strings together rapidly, snatches from the lyric it is known as Bol Taan. He improvises by elongating or contracting them.
Kampan Taan :
When the voice trembles and shakes rapidly over a particular note, covering the entire range between the preceding and succeeding note, it is known as Kampan Taan.
Toda :
In the playing of plucked string instruments, the art of plucking has grown considerably in variety, from single plucking to more complex ones, while executing a Taan. This gives rise to a wider variety of patterns out of the same sequence of notes. When each note is played by a single direct plucking, then the progression of notes has termed a Taan; when there are complex and multiple pluckings of some notes the progression is known as Toda. Toda is totally in the realm of plucked string instruments.
Meerkhand [ Merukhand / Khandmeru ] :
This is a powerful tool in the hands of the musician for facilitating the action of vistar or elaboration. It is an application of the mathematical process of permutations and combinations to music. Out of a given set of notes, the performer brings out all possible combinations such as:
Sa Re Ga
Sa Ga Re
Re Sa Ga
Re Ga Sa
Ga Sa Re
Ga Re Sa Thus with 3 notes we have 6 possibilities, with 4 notes 24, and so on. In a sense, Meerkhand is a process of Palta but while in a Palta the same note may be used more than once (as for example Sa-Re-Sa-Ga-Re-Sa), in Meerkhand a note can be used once only. It is to be remembered that a nonchalant or careless use of Meerkhand may easily lead a musician astray -into the boundaries of a Raga totally different from the one which is being sung or played, as all the expressions may not obey the rules of Aroha and Avaroha of the Raga being sung.
To end this section we will first listen to Nazakat Ali Khan and Salamat Ali Khan singing Raga Abhogi, and see the use of var ious Alankaras and Taans.
Nazakat Ali Khan and Salamat Ali Khan – Vocal – Raga Abhogi
Let us now listen to some Taans by Amir Khan, when he sings Raga Marwa.
Amir Khan – Vocal – Raga Marwa
Read More on Indian Classical Music :