Sargam Lessons

Keyboard Harmonium In Desi Style ID-

Pic.1a Full twelve-tone scale in madh saptak

• Each time we change our Khraj note (Sa) the position of notes in scale will also be changed
  according to below given arrangement where our Khraj note is first white key in the below given
  diagram.

Pic.3a Selecting Khraj note (Sa) from first white key

So, how do you distinguish between octaves? Mandr saptak is situated in extreme left of harmonium or
keyboard and notes of mandr saptak have a sign of apostrophe on left side e.g. 'S. Middle saptak is
without any sign and taar saptak is in extreme right. Notes written in taar saptak are shown by a sign of
apostrophe on right e.g. S'.

Full twelve tone scale in all three saptak

We will use as the fundamental note the C# which lies in middle octave in western system. This will
correspond to Sa in madh saptak of Indian system. So by combining both systems the other notes will
correspond as follows:

Most of the singers sing in the particular scale according to their sound pitch. Many male vocalists will
use C# or D# as their fundamental starting note. Female vocalists tend to place their fundamental
somewhere in the range from F# to A#. Female sound pitch is higher than male. Lowercase (small)
letters are shown as "komal" or flat notes, and the uppercase (capital) letters are shown as "tiver" or
sharp. All notes except for Sa and Pa have an alter ego, whose nature is either komal or tiver.

Identifying notes and their position:

• Shuddh (natural) notes are notated as S, R, G, m, P, D, N,


• Komal (flat) notes are notated as r, g, d, n


• All Tiver (sharp) notes are notated as R, G, D, N and Tiver Ma is also notated as M