Indian Classical Ensemble - Note on Hindi Notation

 Date for Entry: (Monday 18th September 2017)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Thursday 24th March 2022)

[Written as Report]

Dear Diary,

    On Monday 18th September, minutes going to seven in the night, was my first night of being a member of the UWI Indian Classical Ensemble. I first saw the teacher Mr. Maharaj and got his permission to join the group. Once he said that I "yes, sure" I rest down my bags and began to get a Tenor pan from the storeroom. I did not know if I had to audition to be in the ensemble. 

    I knew that I was going to have to be on the lookout for any new types of music coming. There was no one to really talk to about what the class was like. I still felt glad that they allowed steelpan to be a part of the group. I know that whatever was to be given for us to learn, I would give it a lot of hard work. I would try my best to do what was given no matter how hard it may come.

    Mr. Maharaj began the class with a welcome. He began to write out some things on the whiteboard which I soon began to understand was the song. But I had a feeling it would be the piece we would be starting off with because of the solfege. I learned that night that they called the solfege SARGAM in their style of music (as their version of Doh, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Doh). 

    In addition to the introduction of the Hindi Sargam, we were given some extra notes. I made sure to write down all of the instructions so that I can learn them and detect them and know how to play them if they should show up in the notation from sir. 

Here are some of the things I learned from the lesson:

Hindi Word / Articulation	English meaning
Thaat	Scale
Thaat Marwa	Main scale
Vedi Swar (Main Note)	Sa (or Doh)
Samuadi Swar (2nd Note)	Re (or Ra)
Jaati – Shaduv	6 up to 6 down
Aaroh (Ascending)	Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni Sa (Doh, Re, Me, Fa, Sol, La, Ti Doh)
Avroh (Descending)	Sa, Ni, Dha, Pa, Ma, Ga, Re, Sa. (Doh, Ti, La, Sol, Fa, Me, Ra, Doh)
Pakad	Identifying phrase
Raag	A cluster of notes (melodic structure) that are set to rules, which depicts emotions and is pleasing to the mind of the listener.
Alankar (An Exercise)	An exercise in any particular scale that can be done either fast or slow. Most often times it can be done in simple triple or simple quadruple.
Jeati	Omitted note
	The note is flattened
	Note is to be played an octave Higher
	Note is to be played an octave lower that

    We also did seven out of ten alankaars (exercises). Some were tough but easy and we all did in the key of D Major. They are quite similar to the pan examination proficiency exercises that I usually do with Mr. Sharma. I took a picture of the music solfege he wrote out and put it up on the projector. 

Before beginning the piece, were given the pakad to play a very times and after listening to sir singing out the first section, we were given some time to figure out the same on our instruments. We were also given the pattern of the Raag Sohini notes.

    Towards the end of the week, I was sent an email by Mr. Maharaj with a sheet of the ten alankaars. I decided to score it out and put a book together with the course outline that he included for everyone. Over time we were given the ten Indian Thaats from Pundit Bhatkhandi. I also scored them out and had them included in the little 'handbook' that I had complied.

 

Link(s):

1. Indian Classical Handbook.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

Indian Classical Ensemble - Degree (Yr1, Sem1)

  Date for Entry: (Monday 18th September 2017)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Thursday 24th March 2022)

[WRITTEN AS REPORT]

Dear Diary,

The entry below will discuss the various pieces of music done for this ensemble.

RAAG SOHINI.

Raag Sohini: (D, Eb, F#, G#, B, C#, D) – Fifth degree omitted.

    The ensemble was given this piece called “Raag Sohini” on the first night. On Monday 23rd September 2017 in the Indian Classical Ensemble while running through “Raag Sohini” we got more pieces to the songs. These new parts were called Taans. It was really tough because they had more complicated rhythms and then to figure out the music to it was not nice at all. 

    I knew I had to try and listen to what Mr. Maharaj was singing to figure it out but when I had my mind forgetting everything like they are in a river floating away, it doesn’t come back, it just goes away and down the waterfall until it disappears completed. Sir had a long time trying to have me get the music but memory wasn't my best apparently, lolz. 

    It was that same week that I took out the papers I had and went to score the music. I had a feeling that there would have been 'no such thing as scores' in the ensemble so I decided to do it myself. You will see that over some time that there would be several pencil markings since all of the music was under editing and changed in class. In addition, the same could have been done when a new section(s) were added for us to learn. 

    The score version below was used for the mid-term. Each of the four alaaps was chosen for us to play individually and then sir wrote the mark secretly on his mark sheet. I recall being asked to play alaaps two. I don't remember which of the ten scales I was asked to play. There were two of them and I think each play that you made was final. 

    For the taans section, we were allowed to play any of the four. The funny thing was that everyone selected the easier ones because they found it difficult. So they most likely would have selected tan one or two. When it was my turn, I took the most difficult one which was Taan four and went with it. Everyone shouted like pepper burned them. By the time I was done, I could only hear surprised laughter and shouting. Sir did not say anything except for "good" and that was the assessment for us.

    Being able to notate the entire piece, I was given confidence and knowledge of what I was supposed to do. Yes, it will sound difficult. The secret I realized was that the tempo was just fast. That was the only trick to the ear. While the tempo was quick, the only types of notes involved were a semibreve being the longest note to a quaver being the shortest. And yes, the quavers will sound like semiquavers.

    Some weeks had gone by and I was very anxious because there would have been several versions of the score created. I did not know o the process that Sir would use to give us the music. It was really a lot of music to notate but I had it one during the weeks and then emailed it to some of the other groups' members. 

    From five versions of the piece, an ending was given and no more music was given to add or deduct again. The ending was a short repeat of the main idea and a rallentando. Version 7 was lost with other documents. I plan on doing over the notation. I see several other errors from those first times transcribing the piece.

Link(s):

1. “Raag Sohini” - Versions 5 & 8.** [Available by Request Only.]
2. “Raag Sohini” (V9) FINAL.**

EK AJNABI.

* Monday 23rd October 2017 *

Today in Daaga Auditorium it was very cold. It was a good thing that the lecturer cut class and allowed us to go home early. All of us had to wait outside first because a class was going on before. To me, it looked like an English class because someone was looking like a student who was reading a speech or report. When class was over Chekiea and Kayla waited with me to get a drop back at DCFA and then it was there that the three of us were talking about Assessment on Wednesday and they spoke about Mr. Mannette sending us reminder messages. I met Karen at the back after class and we walked outside down the stairs. She looked like she was looking forward to going to lunch with me again as we did last week but I had to go home.

    In Western Music today, we finally finished the Renaissance Era and began a part of the Baroque. There was a lot of writing and a lot I could understand what Miss Ramlal was talking about. Miss Neaves class went alright. Today I sat in between Andrew on my left and Samantha on my right. She had the cough and old just as I did and we both had the same deep voice tone with our noses clogged. I kept a pan stand and a bookstand so that when my class for Aural Training is over, I would not find a problem trying to get a good one while students in UWI Steel take all of them.

    During the Indian Classical class, we went through “Raag Sohini” that we had. Since I wrote out the music on my Musescore software, there were three printings done for it. Tonight, I see that there will be a fourth printing to be made and tape the pages together. As I got home that night, I went through the music from the recording I made last week on my phone and tried to remember what exactly we did, I made a few sight adjustments on the first page and then the correction on the third page caused the music to go onto another one. This now told me that I had to find a folder and clear pocket pages to hold my sheet music quickly.

    The other interesting part about Indian Classical tonight was that Mr. Maharaj gave us a group assignment that would be for marks. We had to practice an Indian song and decide how it should go and have it ready in time for the Concert at the end of November. This sounded like fun but it was tough trying to figure out the rhythms in the video from the singing men and women. One thing I did not like about the video was that it had a Bollywood actor I did not like so much in it so I look either on the floor most of the time or the roof and took in the sound of the music. Even taking in the sound of the music.

In addition to tonight, “Ek Ajnabi” which was the second song we got to learn tonight needed a slight correction. I could remember about two or four times when Eshay the girl on the other Tenor pan and Brandon the next boy on the Double Tenor ended up making mistakes because there were new changes to the song that we did not know about. I still got to make the changes and I made them on the Musescore software after correcting “Raag Sohini.”

Link(s):

1. "Ek Ajnabi" - Sargam Sheet.
2. "Ek Ajnabi" - V4, 5, 6, 7, 8.** [Available by Request Only.]
3. "Ek Ajnabi" (V9) - FINAL.

MEHENDI LAGA KE RAKHANA.

* Date Unknown/Forgotten *

This piece was introduced very late in the semester. About only three to four classes were spent on it. The score used for the recital was version three. It was a rushed down score and all the rhythmic patterns were not notated properly. 

A lot of rhythmic patterns were difficult to understand. It was corrected in the fourth version and the sargan was added. 

Link(s):

1. "Mehendi Laga" - Versions 3.** [Available by Request Only.]
2. "Mehendi Laga" (V4) - FINAL.

Daryl Zion M. Ali