Carnatic Ragas Meet Western Chords: A Piano Tutorial

Hi everyone, this is Jason Zach from Nathaniel School of Music. In this lesson, I'm going to show you how to harmonize every possible scale under the sun. And when I say under the sun, I literally mean that. Now, you might be thinking if he teaches that or if he even attempts to teach that, this might take months to be covered in one lesson, but no. We have an app which will show you this based on your own comfort zone. And all we are doing in this app is with the help of the Melakarta raga concepts, which are giving us 72 ragas based on, you know, sort of basic maths if you think about it, wherein Carnatic musicians would say that the Sa and Pa has to be fixed. And then the Re, the Ga will be adjustable, there are three of them. The Dha and the Ni would be adjustable, there are three of them. And the Mas are two in number. The Shuddha Madhyamam and the Prati Madhyamam. So, the Shuddha is basically a western perfect fourth, and the Prati Madhyama will be the sharp fourth, also known as the augmented fourth. And in Carnatic music or while forming the Melakarta ragas, the 72 of them at least, you have to keep the fifth as the perfect fifth. So, that'll be Sa Pa or Sa Pa Sa Pa. You need to remember that, and it'll not be augmented or diminished. If you want to mess with the fifth, you can't do diminished fifth, you'll have to do augmented fourth and retain the perfect fifth. So, what does harmonize mean? Harmonize means basically number one, getting a set of chords to play around with. And number two, if there's a musician with you, your bandmate or an artist or a composer who wants to collaborate with you with an already existing melody or if you have composed an already existing melody and you want to harmonize, meaning you want some chords. What are the ways to do it in in order to sound good number one, in order to have options and be creative if you if someone doesn't like something you should be able to, you know, play around and give them another option. And then be scalable to different levels. So if you just want to start with triads, simple major minor, you know, the safe stuff or you want to go beyond. You want all the options that the raga gives you. Or you want to explore even some of the seventh chords and so on. Now be warned, this doesn't come from any Carnatic music theory. I haven't studied Carnatic music theory either. However, I've had the opportunity of playing with a lot of great Carnatic musicians from the local Indian music scene in South India. So it's [clears throat] been great to have composed with a lot of them, learned from them by composing. For instance, now I can safely use the word Kharaharapriya without, you know, wondering what on earth it is. And it's probably very similar to the Western Dorian and the Hindustani Kafi Thaat and so on. So Melakarta ragas are kind of like thaats, the heptatonic scales, the seven-note setups, if you will. Now what we've tried to do is to make this harmonization process easy number one, at the click of a button where you can pick a key, pick a raga, you have everything show up in front of you. And if you're not a melody player, if you're just a Carnatic musician who likes to sing, perform on stage, I think we have you covered as well because you can use the app to practice your ragas, your kritis and a lot of other things. So before we get started it'll be nice if you can consider hitting that subscribe button and turn on the bell for regular notifications. That'll mean a lot for the school. And that's about it. So let's get cracking. So, first off, you'll see the Melakarta sphere look pretty much like a sphere. You'll see all your ragas here. You can select it. You can play around with it with this kind of 3D visualization. And then if ever you want the janyas of the raga, you can First of all, you have to select a raga of interest. You can select a raga in this rather tricky way. Here, for example, Hanumatodi is moving around. You tap to open. And now the whole screen opens into this particular raga. Okay? And Hanumatodi [clears throat] also will show you its janya ragas. So, you can break it down into the smaller ragas. And basically, if not anything, the basic thing to start off with, I guess, should be to just play the scale, right? >> [music] >> Nice. Or played with a tanpura. >> [music] [music] >> Okay? You can either do aro, avaro, or both. Meaning arohan meaning ascending, avarohan meaning descending, both meaning obviously both. Adjust the speed of playback. And for all you Western musicians out there, you even have a swing feature. So, if I do 2x and swing it both ways, um and yeah, let's see how it sounds. Now, this sounds >> [music] >> suspiciously close to the Phrygian scale, right? So, it will end up being like That's the advantage of learning Melakarta ragas. If you learn this, you don't have to learn anything else, really. Because you've pretty much covered it all. And I'm guessing even Carnatic musicians can't learn so many of them. It might take you more than a lifetime to figure all this out or you have to be a really hard working person, I guess. But anyway, what you have here in the visual is you'll see the sa, you'll have the re quality of the re and also the western equivalent. So R1 is minor second. Then you have the ga, ga2 which is minor third, ma1 which is the perfect fourth, perfect five is always there, pa pa. Then dha1, that's why we don't write pa1, pa2, pa3. There's literally only one pa and one sa. Dha, dha1 minor sixth, okay? Sim- dha2 will be the major [clears throat] sixth and dha3 will be the augmented sixth. Anyway, the ni2 would be the minor seventh and ni3 would be the major seventh. So this is very much like the Phrygian scale which we have, right? So you have a lot of things to explore. You can even see the chords that will be revolving around it. We'll come to the chords later, but I just wanted to show you the sphere mode just to show you the whole thing in a kind of a cool looking way, like just like a solar system planet kind of setup. Uh but you might not want to find this very usable as a learner. So we'll come to that later. Let me introduce you also to the brain mode. The brain mode will show you everything floating around all in one sort of mind map brain kind of way where you'll have the raga, you can open whichever one you want. Let's say uh I have no clue what 90% of the ragas are to be completely honest, but anyway, let's try Hemavati. There we go. You have the formula [clears throat] and then you go. You have the janyas which are available as well. It's about it. Now what you'll find in the brain mode and the sphere mode is you have a way of visualizing everything. You have the janya's which are like your moons running around the planets. However, the business end, I think, for you, if you're a Carnatic learner, would be to look at the chakra navigator. Now, as you know, you have 12 chakras in Carnatic music. You have Indu, Netra, Agni, Veda, Bana, Rutu, Rishi, Vasu, Brahma, Disi, Rudra, and Aditya. Now, what this basically means, if I go to the grid mode now, it will explain the chakra system pretty well. First of all, you divide the circle or the sphere into hemispheres, which will be the Shuddha Madhyama and the Prati Madhyama. Prati Madhyama is basically Ma 2 or the augmented fourth. Shuddha Madhyama is the normal Ma or the perfect fourth. Okay? Let's start with the Shuddha Madhyama. The first chakra you'll see here is the Indu. So, raga number one is Kanakangi, as you can see here. Okay? The moment you put your mouse there, it kind of shows you everything about the raga and so on and so forth. You'll also see a little matrix visualizer, or you can go into this kind of mandala mode. Okay? Which shows you the whole system in the circle. So, I prefer the circle, to be honest. However, you can even choose the matrix or the grid mode. The mandala will show you from Kanakangi to Ratnangi to Ganamurti, Vanaspati, Manavati, and all of this, which is all part of the Indu Indu chakra. So, what this basically means, R1 G1, if you take the key of C, let's say. >> [music] >> So, let me break down what is at least R1 and G1 and all this stuff. At least from a piano perspective, or if you're a more Western-trained musician, maybe you don't know. Or if you're a Carnatic musician or Indian style musician, you want to see how it works in both systems, let's give that a crack first before we continue with identifying all the chakras. So, if I take, let's say the key of C, this will be your Sa Pa Sa octave. [music] Now, what's in between? Let's start with the Re. The three Res which exist in music are Sa Re Sa Sa Re Sa Sa [music] Re Sa. So, minor second, minor second, major second, augmented [music] second. Some of you might think it's a minor third, isn't it? Yes. An augmented second is a minor third, which is why you won't have that many ragas if you do the maths because of the repetitions out there. So, Sa Re Sa Re Sa Re. While the Gas would be Sa Ga. Believe it or not, Sa Ga Sa Ga. What's going on there? Major third, minor third, or Ga three, [music] Ga two, Ga one. So, the Ga one is basically a diminished third following the laws of well, even Western music because major third when flattened becomes minor. Minor third when flattened becomes diminished. So, Sa Ga Sa Ga Sa Ga. So, the first chakra, the Indu chakra, will have Sa Re Ga Re [singing] Sa Sa Re Ga Re Sa. While the next one, the Netra chakra, Sa Re [singing] Ga Re Sa. Very Phrygian. In fact, you'll have the Hanumatodi, which is a raga which I use a lot. Sa Re Ga Re Sa. Then you have the Agni chakra, which is a bit more Arabic in nature or Middle Eastern. Sa Re Ga Re Sa. R1 G3. Then you have the Veda chakra. Sa Re. Now, here's the thing. When you go to the Veda chakra, the R becomes R2 or the major second. Sa Re. So, this Re is already Ga one. So, you can't have R2 G1 ever. Instead, you have to do skip to R2 G2. Sa Re Ga Re Sa. And this is your Veda chakra. The Veda chakra will have all things minor. So, it'll have the Natta Bhairavi, the Keeravani, the Kharaharapriya, the Gowrimanohari, and all the other minor esque scales. What changes is going to be the Dha and the Ni's. So, the Dha and the Ni or the sixth and the seventh degree will decide what kind of minor scale it is. Is the harmonic minor? Is the melodic minor? Or is it the natural minor or the Dorian in Western words at least. And all of these ragas so far have the Shuddha Ma. Sa Re [singing] Ga Ma Pa Ma Ga Re Sa. So, this whole ecosystem would be the Veda chakra. While this whole system would be the Agni chakra. Okay, very Arabic. You'll [music] have in fact the the most famous scale in Carnatic music, raga number 15, Mayamalavagowla, which kind of is what you start off with when you start the the system. Also known as the double harmonic major scale in Western theory. Okay, then coming to the Bana chakra. the bana chakra is where the major scale lives. Also called shankarabharanam and you'll also have harikambhoji which is the mixolydian. You'll also have charukeshi which is mixolydian flat six. If you ask me what is my favorite scale, I would say charukeshi or mixolydian flat six. There you go. We've done a lot of lectures on >> [music] >> charukeshi and you can listen to some of my music. Almost all of it is on charukeshi. Anyway, so then we go to the rutu chakra which is a bit rare. I quite like it. It's a bit bluesy. Okay, and then all the other ragas are on the other side of the sphere. Okay, or the other hemisphere. So, that will be basically the rishi in order, rishi vasu brahma disi rudra and aditya. Aditya will sound very very weird because it'll have the this sort of ecosystem. So, just to show you rishi >> [music] >> with the sharp ma, the vasu brahma >> [music] >> disi rudra finally aditya. Okay, so like this you're going to get 72 ragas for each chakra. They've designed the system beautifully well. It's a great kind of culture to figure things out easily. It's very well organized. So, if you are [clears throat] not from this ecosystem or this world, I'd encourage you to just spend a little bit of time. It'll It'll help you train your ear because every single intervalic permutation is covered in this ecosystem. So, that's the grid mode. You also have a listen mode, which when you practice with a laptop and when a mic is already connected, right now my mic is being used for the recording, you'll be able to listen the app will listen to you and tell you what raga you're singing. So, it might help on stage and that brings me to the the final the the really cool mode of this app. Yes, you have some great search features to search quickly for the raga of interest. We are building a kids mode, which hopefully will be nice to kind of get into a you know, a a child-friendly mode where we have animals for each scale and so on. So, we'll be building it and your suggestions would be much appreciated as well. If you'd like to support us, do join our mailing group and our community groups as well. And yeah, we do have a community as well, which we are building. So, if you would like to showcase yourself playing any of these ragas or singing or just performing a standard kriti or even an improvisation, you could become a member and just start uploading your work and others could also listen and hopefully even collaborate with you along the way. So, >> [clears throat] >> let's see where it goes. Also, do explore the drills mode where we have different exercises to practice the different swaras and let's quickly back up with the stage mode, which I think is the most usable mode for both Carnatic and Western musicians. This is something we're building on. You'll have the kriti with the pallavi, anupallavi and well, the whole song. >> [music] >> Okay. >> [music] >> You can adjust this song or you can adjust this kriti with different instruments. >> [music] >> Of course, it's playing really fast, so you can control the tempo very easily and you can change the raga and it'll give you kritis for that particular raga. So, for example, if I go to Mayamalavagowla, uh you'll [clears throat] have some of the >> [music] >> you'll have some of the Mayamalavagowla kritis which are written the pallavi, anupallavi, the charanam, >> [music] >> and the whole song, obviously. Uh And it's in Western notation, so you can practice reading it and go forward from there. Uh for Western musicians, though, we might not be using it to learn the kriti. So, what would a Western musician ideally want when collaborating with an Indian musician? You go to the Western mode, you have a nice way to visualize the scale, you can even hear it. Let's listen to Mayamalavagowla. >> [music] >> There we go. You can even hear it on a sitar or a veena if you wish. And then coming to the piano ecosystem, >> [clears throat] >> you can look at the uh kritis or the pallavis of that particular raga if you wish. However, what I like to use this for is while the raga is happening, if I turn on the tanpura right now, and >> [music] >> look what's here. These are all the chords that can be harmonized with the G Mayamalavagowla scale. These are all the chords that can be harmonized with the A Mayamalavagowla scale. And it's properly following the formulas of chord construction, triads, and what scale is we've trained the app or coded the app to try and give you even the weird chords or the the unheard of even Western chords like cluster chords. What is a cluster chord or a flat five or the Maya Malava has these augmented chords. I've done a separate lesson on just this one raga. Check it out on YouTube. We'll put a lesson. That's a piano lesson. I've also done piano exercises using Melakarta ragas. Check that out as well and let me know what you think. So, what's happening here? You have the raga >> [music] >> and these are all the chords. >> [music] >> Okay, you can visualize all your chords here. Learn them. So, last [music] one you even have inversions of the chords so you can work on your inversions. By the way, E flat augmented when inverted becomes G augmented and G augmented when inverted becomes B augmented. So, you have that visualization. Each one has a different color and if you want to go by function it's showing you in that whole tonic subdominant dominant kind of ecosystem if ever you want to visualize it in a non linear order or you can look at raga fit. So, what the app is trying to do is tell you or suggest to you. You don't have to take its word for it that the hey, these are this is the order. If you play G major and C minor, you can kind of survive playing the Maya Malavagowla scale. And now if I do the Jania ragas or the actual ragas which people compose, you see the chord options reduce. Like Jaganmohini doesn't give you that augmented chord, unfortunately. Uh Malahari gives you just the first four. Saveri gives you a lot. Of course, the full mailer gives you a a lot. So, each of the ragas will have directional properties as well as different gamaks which happen and different you know, use cases and different emotions. So, basically you pick a raga. Right now, it's Maya Malava. You can choose whatever you want and go to stage mode. You have a tanpura and if you're a musician trying to improvise on any [clears throat] of these kritis do let me know how it feels for you. We can build it and improve it. We're trying to notate it as best as we can with limited resources because traditionally we don't teach Carnatic music at Nathaniel. We're just trying to build it. So, in all honesty, if anything doesn't play back for you or if it's not the right kriti, if you feel there is a better one out there or a more correct one please inform us in the in the comments. And we've taken some effort to make the tanpura show the pa, ma, and ni as well as different octaves of the tanpura. Super low tanpura. Super high tanpura. And I think it's a pretty good sample to start working with. Choose your raga and hopefully yeah, you have different if if you want to practice your music with the different talas, you have the Adi tala, Rupaka, Misra Chapu, and Khanda Chapu. Basically eight beat cycles, six beat cycles, seven beat cycles, as well as five beat cycles. You could tap the tempo based on the speed of interest that you wish to perform on. Maybe we'll be on the Adi tala. And what's the speed? Either 2x. So, for instance, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 or 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8, right? So, you have your speeds. So, hopefully this is a nice resource to practice with the tanpura, with the timing, and with the notation of the kriti and the section. So, wherever we can improve, we'll be happy to work with you and make this a perfect app. Uh and for chord people, it's right here. So, that is an introduction to the melakarta sphere, and also in general how you can harmonize pretty much any raga. Okay? Uh well, the theory behind it is is is rock solid. You write down the scale in a circle. You write down your triads. You can do it manually, but then you'll just do it on one key. There are 12 keys in music, so yeah, that's why you need an app like this. So, have fun with this, and I look forward to hearing your review or what you thought about it or how it has hopefully helped you in the description. Thanks a ton for watching the lesson. Don't forget to like, share, subscribe, and if you'd like uh a proper description of how to use the app and a good walk-through, a guided tour if you will, do consider being a Patreon member. You'll get all the supplementary resources. I'll catch you in the next one. Cheers.