Indian Rāgas 101: Conversion chart

I have mentioned in prelude that the system of notation of Indian music is relative, c.f. the absolute system of Western music. It turns out, this is a matter of great convenience when writing down music: the notation of Indian music is considerably simpler. There is no staff to memorise, no triads to mug up and no seventh chords to gloss over.

To begin with, we must choose a ‘Sa’, the root of all tunes. Supposing we choose middle C (about 260 Hz) as tonic (or ‘Sa’), then it follows

C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B

If we choose ‘C’ as the tonic (‘Sa’), the rest fall into place

is exactly equivalent to

S r R g G M m P d D n N S`

(remember r = komal re, g = komal ga, m = teevra ma, d = komal dha, n = komal ni)

However, ‘Sa’ is nota fixed note; we can pick any arbitrary key as ‘Sa’, and things would still work the way expected

Choosing F as ‘Sa’ hardly makes a difference

This little detail out of our way, we can now formulate a most convenient conversion chart (try them out at https://www.apronus.com/music/flashpiano.htm)

Scales

How to divide an octave differs between cultures;

1. the pentatonic (divide an octave in 5 notes) is the oldest, and many different primitive cultures across continents have come up with it independently; it is usually splelt as S R G P D S`; this is exactly the notes of the raag Bhupali. The pentatonic is found as a base system in all genres of music, and is also the easiest to play (just go on tapping the black keys in a piano). The scale can be tweaked to any degree: the natural minor pentatonic scale translates as S g M d n S` (Malkosh) or S R g P d S`, the harmonic minor pentatonic is S g M d N S`, and the melodic minor pentatonic is S R g P D S` (akin to ‘Shivranjani’) or S g M D N S`
2. the major heptatonic scale (7 notes per octave) is the usual S R G M P D N S`; the natural minor variant translates as S R g M P d n S` (i.e. the Asavri thaat); the harmonic minor is simply S R g M P d N S`, and melodic minor is S R g M P D N S`
3. chromatic (i.e. 12 notes per octave) is the familar 12 notes S r R g G M m P d D n N S`; note that by the very nature pianos are tuned, any consecutive 12 keys in a piano would follow this relation (well, not exactly, but close enough)
4. Indian music further divides an octave in 22 notes, which can be produced only by specialised instruments (and of course, human voice)

Intervals

There is, strictly speaking, no well defined concept of an interval in Indian music; however, one may wish to give the 12 notes fancy names (an ‘augmented second’ sounds more impressive than just D# or ‘komal ga’)

1. minor second, semitone= S r
2. major second, diminished third = S R
3. minor third, augmented second = S g
4. major third, diminished fourth = S G
5. perfect fourth, augmented third = S M
6. diminished fifth, augmented fourth, tritone = S m
7. perfect fifth, diminished sixth = S P
8. minor sixth, augmented fifth = S d
9. major sixth, diminished seventh = S D
10. minor seventh, augmented sixth = S n
11. major seventh, diminished octave = S N
12. perfect octave = S S`

Triads

Because of the mostly free flowing nature of Indian music, there is no fixed system of triads either; the combination of notes in triads may be written as follows

1. major triad = S G P
2. minor triad = S g P
3. diminished triad = S g m
4. augmented triad = S G d

Seventh chords

The combination of four notes is also quite uncommon in Indian music, a few of them touch a few notes of select raags, but overall, raags do not move in such quartets.

1. major major seventh = S G P N
2. major minor seventh, dominant seventh= S G P n (superficially resembling Khambaj thaat)
3. minor minor seventh = S g P n (resembles the notes of Kaafi thaat)
4. half diminished seventh = S g m n
5. fully diminished seventh = S g m D

This conversion chart was prepared while undergoing this absolutely brain-wrecking course. Although the conversion has no relevance to Indian music, Western audiences may find a degree of familiarity in knowing that the building blocks of Western music have their Indian equivalents.