In a keyboard the instrument sound you choose is called a voice. Before you play a song, choose a voice that you like. Practice selecting different  voices, and remember the setting for the ones you prefer. Look your keyboard owner's manual to help you. When you play the songs you can use any sound you wish.  The rhythm controls provide drum beats to play along with. These rhythm beats are also called styles. The drum rhythms or kits can be changed to suit the kind of song. If you have a keyboard equipped with floppy drive or flash  usb media then you may copy rhythm styles in your keyboard which can be played using user style button.  Melody keys are used to play the tune by right hand. The chord keys are used to play along with the melody with your left hand. Chords  make the song sound full and harmonic. If you do not know how to play chords then you may use auto chord accompaniment. 

Learning Keyboard in Desi Style

The article here is to teach you keyboard in Desi Style and in the end you will be able to play Indian and Pakistani raga based film songs. Harmonium, keyboard and synthesizer keyboard are taken to mean the same thing, and are called simply the "keyboard". The  notations are used to describe the keys on the keyboard: In our lessons for convenience, the reference note, called the tonic or the Sa, is assumed to be the first black key, indicated  by the letter "S". If you want to sing-along music then you may assign any key as "Sa", according to your voice scale.

In this article the fingering system of keyboard and harmonium is kept same so, that we will be able to play both instruments. Most people who play harmonium find keyboard difficult due to different finger assignments. Some musicians use first white key as starting or reference note (Sa)  but we will use first black key as our starting reference note for quick learning.. 

Keyboard And Computer Music

Music can be defined as collection of small pieces of regular sound played at predefined time interval.  It is the small water droplets that make the ocean, likewise music is also an ocean that  is made up of  small parts, it is called a “note”.  An ingenious collection of these notes played over a period of time results in a melody which could be a Mehdi Hassan  or A . Rahman  song.  Hence both  western and Indian music has a set of basic notes from which they grow, something like alphabets.  There is new concept  evolving called “computer music”  where a musician  explores beyond the basic  notes  that  are defined  in music.  In cubase  it is possible to explore beyond basics. Today  almost all  the keyboards are computerized and produce MIDI music.  MIDI means  musical  instruments digital  interface. Midi music is editable in computer or in MIDI keyboards and midi music can be produced with 16 individual tracks of different instruments.

Let us see more on Notes.  “Notes” what are they?  Note can be technically explained as a sound frequency. Actually the sound that is produced when you press a key on musical keyboard is called as “NOTE”.  It does  not matter  if you press  the white key or the black key. Each key plays a predefined frequency. A frequency is number of cycles per second. The note gets its shape by the amount of time you hold down the key and release it.  This is called the note length or duration.  Hence to make a “tune” or a “melody” or “song”  you should play a bunch of these notes at proper duration and length.

Western Music Notes Verses Indian

Indian classical music has 7 basic notes (Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni), with five interspersed half-notes, resulting in a 12-note scale. Unlike the 12-note scale in Western music, the base frequency of the scale is not fixed, and inter-tonal gaps may also vary. Before we can learn  how to play  scales  chords  and various progressions it is vital that we  learn  the notes on  keyboard or harmonium  and how  they relate  to each  other. The  best  way to describe the notes on the keyboard  is by comparing  them to the notes of the alphabets. The first seven notes of the keyboard are ( A - B - C - D -E - F - G ). Each note differ with each  other in sound.  Notice that  the seven notes  of  keyboard  repeat themselves over and over again. The notes sounds the same but the pitch differs. For example if you play C and move to  the right  until you  find  the next C,   you  will  notice  that if you  play them simultaneously, both notes sounds the same but one is higher than the other. It is a well-known fact that Indian music is based on melody and Western Music on Harmony. This does not mean that Western Music does not include melody. In western music, the harmonizing effect of different instruments and voices given to a certain melody plays the important role. In a similar manner in Indian music the melody has an upper hand. Usually, it is said and believed that harmony doesn’t play a role in Indian music. But, to my way of understanding, harmony is equally important in Indian classical music performance though, not the way it is used in western music. In Indian music the harmony effect is a steady continuous drone effect created usually by a ‘Taanpura’.

Please read carefully:

Middle C marks the center of the keyboard. As you will notice the C major is the easiest and simplest scale of the twelve. It consists all the  white keys from  any starting  C  to  the next octave  C.

A standard  semi professional music  keyboard  has 48 keys.  You  will see  4 sets  of  12 keys.  This 12  set of notes  is technically called  an  octave. Why 12, why not  13?, Good question.  The aim of  this article is to keep it simple;  Western  is  based  on  logarithmic division. You can start playing Indian or Pakistani  song  from any  note and starting note will  always  become  our  reference note or Sa. Remaining notes will  be arranged  according to thaat or scale of the song. It is more easy to start our Hindi scale or thaat  from first black key. In western music also,  fifth  note from C is as 5^th . In Indian music “Sa” note is  based on your reference note or the key you selected for starting point as Sa. We can further go in deep by playing song in raga of that particular thaat.  

In the western music system the “C note” itself does not change and  “scales” denotes the pitch changes. Western music system has an “absolute” naming for the keys whereas in Indian  the notation is “relative. Desi music have combined  both. In the seven tone-scale the second,  third,  fourth,  sixth,  and seventh  notes  can  be sharp or flat,  making up the twelve notes in the Western scale. However, ragas can specify microtonal changes to this scale: a flatter second, a sharper seventh, and so forth. Furthermore, such variations can occur between styles, performers or simply follow the mood of the performer. In Indian music there is no absolute pitch; instead, each performance simply picks a ground note, and the other scale degrees follow relative to the ground note.

Note:  “Sa” does not “map” always onto “C”.  It could  start at F and still form a S R G M P D N scale in which case the corresponding western notes also change. Presently you may relate the “Sa” of Indian  to “C” of Western which is fortunately identical to each other .  A scale is a set of 7 notes in a proper order and intervals. Just remember this, a scale is set of 7 notes with predefined intervals. The distance between each note is called as interval. It is true that  scales and ragas are not same. You will learn about ragas in raga section of our book. Apart from having seven different notes, there are not many similarities. There is a huge difference between a scale and raga in tonal quality or the sound density. 

Raga has many dimensions to it. First,  it has an emotional overtone.  Just simply going over Sa to Sa can be called as a major scale or Cmaj. Though the notes and intervals are just the same. A raga can have 4 or more notes with intervals. This kind of reduction of notes in a scale is called as modes in western classical music. Experts believe proper training is required to play ragas fluently. This comes by good practice and understanding of note usage. A western trained first-rate musician will be able play a phrase of 1/64 note at a good speed but will find it difficult to play raga without proper training. It is the reason that western music is fast. Indian music is melodic in nature while western music is harmonic in nature. Chords produce harmony. Now you will be ready to believe that it is not possible to play Indian songs with only western training. Desi Style music lessons is the mixture of Western & Indian system.