02. Getting started with Hindustani music

So you are intrigued by the fact that there is such a complex system of classical music, and you wish to get to know more about it. How do you set about this project?

To the person already familiar with Indian film songs, there is a fairly painless way to enter this new-but-so-old world of the raga. Many film songs (especially the older ones) are based closely on classical ragas. This is somewhat of a short-cut, an instinctive approach to developing the ability to recognise a classical raga. In the beginning, ragas sound like a film song, evoking memories faintly at first, but becoming more clear with repetition. The easiest way, therefore, is to associate a favourite song with its raga: for example, the famous school prayer sung by the young Jaya Bhaduri in the film Guddi, is the raga Kedar;  she also sings “Bolo re papihara” in the raga Miyan Ki Malhar. There: you already know two well-loved ragas! There are many, many, more such very popular airs that all film buffs know intimately, and they are actually pretty good expositions of the best Hindustani ragas. Devotional songs or bhajans are another very popular and easily accessed route to learning to recognize ragas. All you have to do is to find out the names of the ragas, which are often given in popular compilations of bhajans or film songs (available in the local magazine stalls in bus stops and market pavements, not so much in regular book shops!). I will try to give a few examples (like the two mentioned above) as I go along.  

In fact this is such an effective method for the beginner, that it is really surprising that it is not adopted more widely. Perhaps this is because the classicists feel that something as complex and magnificent as the raga system ought not to be approached from so mundane a level. The traditional approach is to train the voice on the notes, the sa-re-ga-ma (which our major music company has taken for its main label!), and introduce the singing of actual raga and compositions very gradually, which of course is the way to go for an aspiring singer. But it may discourage a person who wishes to become a discerning listener rather than a performer, and may be the sort of esoteric attitude that has made so much of traditional Indian learning and knowledge inaccessible not just to the foreigner, but even to most ‘natives’.

So one need not, I feel, be ashamed to approach the lofty eminences of classical music on the hands and knees, so to say, of popular film songs or bhajans (something like recognizing a great Western composer in a popular Hollywood score: the famous opening bars of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, for instance, have been immortalized by… the Pink Panther signature tune!). In fact there used to be a regular programme at 7:30 every morning on Vividh Bharati, the commercial broadcasts of All India Radio, based on this theme of ragas in film songs. Every 15-mimute programme would take up one raga, and show it in a film song or a popular song  (geet)  or devotional bhajan, and then show the same raga in classical vocal and instrumental performances. I’m not sure whether this programme still continues, but there are now popular TV shows and competitions which include some bits of classical music too, mixed up with popular music.

For those who are totally alien to the sound of Indian airs, I don’t have much to offer. In fact it will be interesting to hear from Western musicians or music lovers who have made the transition to Indian raga music, how they trained the ear and the brain to work with the Indian scales and styles. This problem is not just one of the culture you are born into or grow up in: many youngsters in India, too, have grown up preferring Western popular music, or jazz, or blues (that includes my own kids!), and they have the same problem adapting to Indian raga music. The very sound is so different, that it may take years to overcome the almost instinctive preference for Western nursery jingles of one’s baby years, and popular Bollywood music is probably the only bridge between the two music worlds.

01. An introduction to the North Indian classical music system and tradition

Indian music is based on the concept of raga, which can (very loosely) be interpreted as a musical scale, or more correctly as a melodic theme based on a distinct musical scale. If one doesn’t appreciate this, then Indian classical music would sound (to put it inelegantly) like a dirge, and this is the main reason why the uninitiated not only get put off by it, but also get a little short-tempered with any of their companions who know enough to derive some enjoyment from it.

Of the two main branches of Indian classical music, the problem mentioned above is probably more acute in respect of the north Indian system, called Hindustani , classsical music, compared with the south Indian, or Karnatic, system. This is because the south Indian musician tends to present his art in a series of set songs, or kriti (a work or opus, as it were), 'set' in the sense that the sequences of musical phrases and note sequences are as per the original composer, with less time given to the performer’s own improvisations. Thus the average listener is rewarded by early recognition of what the singer is doing, and if he knows the raga or the composer, he can even feel knowledgeable and in charge.

In Hindustani, in contrast, the introductory part, which expands the raga without words, occupies a large portion of the performance; the song or composition which follows (termed the cheez, or thing, i.e. a compositional piece, or a bandish, something  that is bound or tied to a melodic line), is itself used only as a very loose frame, or foundation on which to improvise. In fact the singer may not even enunciate more than the first two or three words, the signature, as it were. The rest of the expansion is borne on vocalisations of different sorts consisting essentially of connected musical phrases or taan. Some singers or styles of singing prefer to use an open vowel like [a:] (which puts off many people because they are forced to watch the facial contortions and bad teeth of the performer, which detracts from their appreciation of his or her music!). This may be interspersed with improvisation using the words of the song (bol-taan) and alternatively the names of the notes (sargam or sapat taan, akin to solfege or singing doremi along with Julie Andrews). These passages give more specific information on the notes used, and hence the raga or its particular variation or provenance, and show less of the singer’s mouth parts, and hence may be visually more pleasant!

An aside: making the a:- a: aakar taans by moving the jaw (the lower one, which is the one that moves) up and down, called jabde-ka-taan, is a no-no. It comes out as a:-ya-ya, which is not nice. You have to use your throat muscles, to produce a smoother a-a-a!