1 The musical notes of Indian Classical Music

Introduction to Indian Classical Music

There are two types of Classical singing in India namely Hindustani Classical and Karnatik Classical.

Hindustani Classical is North Indian style.

Karnatik Classical is South Indian style.

Even though there are two types of classical singing in India, the musical notes are the same

SARGAM

The pure notes are called SARGAM.

SA RE GA MA PA DA NI SA

In Western music, this would be white keys of the piano

C D E F G A B C

SHUDH and VIKRIT notes

The pure notes are called SHUDH (means pure ) swar (means note)

They are also categorized as STAAYI (means fixed) or ACHAL swar

The black keys on piano are called VIKRIT notes. In Western music these are referred as flat notes as well as sharp notes.

FLAT notes are refered as Komal swar

SHARP notes are referred as Tivr swar-bol

FLAT NOTES

In Indian Classical Music, only 4 flat notes are considered

Komal RE , Komal GA , Komal DA , Komal NI

There is no Komal Pa 

In Western music, the Komal swar equivalent would be

Db , Eb, Ab, Bb

SHARP NOTES

In Indian Classical music, the is only one sharp note.

Tivr Ma

In Western Music Tivr Ma is same as F#

ORDER OF SINGING THE NOTES

When you sing the notes in ascending order, it is called AARO i.e

SA RE GA MA PA DA NI SA

When you sing the notes in descending order, it is called AVROH

SA NI DA PA MA GA RE SA

SUMMARY

To summarize SARGAM has 7 pure notes

You add to it 4 Komal (flat) notes

You add to it 1 Tivr (sharp) notes

Hindustani Classical Singing is a study of these 7 + 4 + 1 = 12 notes