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Music lessons edited by great music
composer Nisar Bazmi |
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Learn with free Harmonium teacher. What is Theory of thaat and rules for playing thaat with Indian film songs. You can also play film songs with thaat bilaval.
songs,bilaval . free harmonium teacher |
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Theory of Thaat
Pundit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande divided the popular Ragas into 10 Thaats. Here again historian disagree. Some think that all his inventions were actually result
of lifetime research of his Guru. Which even Pundit V N B himself admits. Regardless of the origin of his doctrines, he is the face of this theory and his contributions and their positive effect on
the Hindustani music is undeniable. The prime motive to choose only ten Thaats was to keep the system simple. In his opinion the ten thaats were sufficient to cover all three
types of Raga. 1. Ragas With Komal Re and Dha
2. Ragas with Shudh Re and Dha
3. Ragas with Komal Ga and Ni
The
set of seven notes or scale which can produce a raga is called a
thaat. The system of classification for the ragas are defined in
different groups. Each group is called a thaat. There are again
several systems of classification of the raga. Presently in
Hindustani Classical Music the 10 thaat classification of ragas
is being used.
There are certain rules for these Thaat or scales.
-
A
Thaat must have seven notes out of the twelve 12.
-
Thaat
are not sung and played but the ragas produced from the Thaat are sung.
-
Thaat
are named after the popular raga of that particular thaat.
-
For example
bhairavi is popular raga and the thaat of the raga bhairavi
is
named after the raga.
Following 10 Thaat are widely
accepted in the world. First learn them by practice then try to
learn ragas. While learning keep the diagram of
thaat in front.
|
Thaat
|
Ascending |
Descending |
Notes Properties
|
|
1. Bilawal |
S,
R, G, m, P, D, N, S'
|
S', N, D, P, m, G, R, S
|
All Shuddh or Natural Notes |
|
2. Kafi |
S,
R, g, m, P, D, n, S'
|
S', n, D, P, m, g, R, S
|
Ga, Ni, Komal |
|
3. Asavari |
S,
R, g, m, P, d, n, S'
|
S', n, d, P, m, g, R, S
|
Ga, Dha, Ni Komal |
|
4. Khamaj |
S,
R, G, m, P, D, n, S'
|
S', n, D, P, m, G, R, S
|
Ni Komal |
|
5. Kalyan |
S,
R, G, M, P. D, N, S'
|
S', N, D, P, M, G, R, S
|
No Komal, Only Tiver Ma |
<
|
6. Bhairav/Behro |
S,
r, G, m, P, d, N, S'
|
S', N, d, P, m, G, r, S
|
Re, Dha Komal |
|
7. Bhairavi |
S,
r, g, m, P, d, n, S'
|
S', n, d, P, m, g, r, S
|
Re, Ga, Dha, Ni Komal |
|
8. Marwa |
S,
r, G, M, P, D, N, S'
|
S', N, D, P, M, G, r, S
|
Re Komal, Ma Tiver |
|
9. Poorvi |
S,
r, G, M, P, d, N, S'
|
S', N, d, P, M, G, r, S
|
Re, Dha Komal, Ma Tiver |
|
10. Todi |
S,
r, g, M, P, d, N, S'
|
S', N, d, P, M, g, r, S
|
Re, Ga, Dha Komal, Ma Tiver |

Download Vanbasco Player
Vanbasco Big Piano Skin Comparing western scales with thaat.
1. Ionian is Bilawal
2. Dorian is Kafi
3. Phrygian is Bhairavi
4. Lydian is Kalyan
5. Mixolydian is Khamaj
6. Aeolian is Asavari
1. Ionian I = C D E F G A B (all natural white notes)
2. Dorian II = C D Eb F G A Bb (2nd and 7th flat)
3. Phrygian III = C Db Eb F G Ab Bb ( 2nd, 3rd, 6th and 7th flat)
4. Lydian IV= C D E F# G A B (4th sharp)
5. Mixolydian V = C D E F G A Bb (7th flat)
6. Aeolian VI = C D Eb F G Ab Bb (3rd, 6th and 7th flat)
Rules for playing
thaat and songs
Play
one scale (thaat) at a time, repeatedly. Practice all ten thaat unless you are very comfortable playing each of them correctly, without having looking at the keyboard. Playing a song of any kind,
does not demand any specific finger placements. So, a particular
finger does not play a particular note of the song. After you
get familiar with the thaat sargam you may
use your fingers according to the EASE while playing a
song.
However,
there is a big, very big difference here. The difference is
this: In the thaat, shown above, our playing was restricted to
only ONE (call it middle) octave. But the song may take you
beyond one octave. So, now, we need to practice in the three
octaves, namely, the middle, the higher, and the lower octaves .
Careful!!
Work patiently and diligently.
For
playing a song, the rules are:
(1) The ease and convenience of
playing;
(2) You should not run out of fingers -- whether you are playing
to go up (right), or to go down (left).
(3) Try using the first
three fingers more frequently; try to reserve the fourth finger,
and, especially, the fifth finger, for playing the last one or
two notes, before you have to go descending. This requires that
you keep moving your wrist, to the left or to the right, as
required, so that the fingers get re-arranged conveniently --
and you always have a finger to reach and play the note required
by the song. By practice, you will formulate your own rules, in
addition to these two rules.
Thaat
and Western Scales
The music of India does not emphasize harmony and
does not feature counterpoint. In fact, most Indian classical music features a
single melody instrument (or voice) accompanied by tabla rhythm. There is no
counterpoint and no chord progression at all except in modern film songs.
Instead, the interest and complexity of this music lies in its melodies and
its rhythms. When there is more than one independent melodic line happening at
the same time in a piece of music, we say that the music is contrapuntal.
The independent melodic lines are called counterpoint.
The music that is made up of counterpoint can also be called polyphony.
Traditionally, vocal music is more likely to be described as polyphonic
(example ring tones) and instrumental music is more likely to be
described as counterpoint.
Western scales come in only two different flavors:
major and minor. The two are quite different from each other, but the major
keys all sound very similar to each other and the minor keys also all sound
very similar to each other. This is because the relationships between the
various notes of a major scale are always the same.
The seven-note thaat of
Indian Pakistani music on the other hand come in many different flavors
(example all ten thaat). The interval pattern varies from one thaat
to the next, and so the relationship between the notes is also different.
1. Thaat
Bilawal
Play all midi music of thaat
bilawal sargam in virtual player (vPlayer). You will see virtual keyboard keys being pressed in your computer in player. Practice on your
keyboard while watching keys being played. Midi of all 10 thaat will be provided with the book.
This
C Major scale in western system or thaat bilawal begining from first white key is same. For the practice of sargam use finger "5" for last note
of Sa’ in the next saptak.
Some Ustad have used
white first key
as a starting point in teaching
so, the
below given diagram is for knowledge only. C major which is a
western scale and contain all natural white keys is equal to
thaat bilawal.

Thaat Bilawal Natural White Notes
Diagram 1
Note again: Sa is always achal or
qyme sur. The first note
or key attached
just after Sa is
always Komal Re shown
with black
key and is known as komal r. Then
Tiver Re with capital
R and finger number 2,
Komal Ga with
black key, Then Tiver Ga, Komal
Ma then Tiver Ma with blank black key, Achal Pa
Then Komal Dha,
Tiver Dha, Komal Ni Tiver Ni,
Then Achal Sa as S’.
Tiver notes are always shown with capital letters and Komal sur are
always shown with small letters.
Or
we can write whole sargam as S r R g G m M P d D n N S’
In diagram 1 we have selected Thaat Bilawal with white key as our Sa
or first note. We can start thaat bilawal
from white or first black key (shown here just for
information). It is
easy to play music if we start thaat from first black key. Whether
our first key is white or black the arrangement of komal and
tiver notes will remain as defined before. Achal notes have no saathi swar like komal or
tiver (here komal and tiver are saathi swar).
Sa and Pa will always remain achal or qyme swars and will
always be written in capital letters. We will write komal swar in
small letters and tiver swar in capital letters. This rule will
apply for all thaat and ragas through out the books and website.
Sa Re Ga m Pa Dha Ni Sa (there
is no black keys)
rh S R G
m P D N S'
[Ascending]
(1 2 3) (1
2 3 4 5) [Finger #]
lh S'
N D P m
G
R S
[Descending]
(5 4 3 2
1) (3
2 1)
[Finger #]
Starting
Thaat Bilawal with first black key (default point)
Starting
Thaat Bilawal or any thaat with black key as Sa. The
first black note of middle saptak will be as our beginning note. This selection of first note is only for
learning purpose. After practice you can fix your first Sa from
any note according to your voice scale but the remaining notes
will be arranged according to a fix system which has been explained earlier.
E xample:
First note achal sa,
then komal re, tiver re, komal ga, tiver ga, komal ma,
tiver ma, then achal P, komal dha, tiver dha, komal ni, tiver ni
then achal sa of next taar saptak. See below given diagram.

Diagram 2

Thaat Bilawal Sargam:
Ascending: Arohi:
S R
G m
P D
N S'
Descending: Amrohi: S'
N
D P
m G
R S
Practice
the above sargam in ascending and descending order for at least
three days. One hour practice is necessary per day
You can also use keyboard rhythm or styles during
practice. First practice in slow rhythm and gradually increase
your rhythm and playing speed. In the end your
fingers will be able to press required notes perfectly
and smoothly in any speed.
Playing
Songs of Thaat Bilawal
Play
the songs given below in Thaat Bilawal. Your fingers should only
press notes of thaat bilawal and you will not be bound for
finger numbering like practicing thaat. You can also
enter lower taar saptak and
higher mandr saptak as
songs requires. One can also play a song in thaat but beauty of
song only emerges from the raga of the specific thaat. In thaat
we are bound to seven notes but in raga the notes may be more
than seven or less than seven or exact seven.
Songs
may take us from one saptak to another. Most of the songs
start from madh or middle saptak.
In
thaat practice we remained in only one saptak the madh or
middle but the song may take us to other saptak like taar or mandr saptak. All three saptak have the same sets of notes but with
different pitch or voice. While practice of thaat sargam,
continuously play in all three saptak in ascending and
descending order. After practice try to play the songs in thaat
bilawal which are given below. It is assured if you practice regularly
you will be able to play all yourself.

Thaat bilawal
shown in all three saptak with finger numbers according to achal,
komal and tiver system

Thaat
bilawal in all five saptak - Actual Thaat Bilawal Notes

C Major scale notes and thaat bilawal notes beginning from first white are same
C Major in all five octaves - Notes shown for comparison only
Note:- Whenever we play a scale, a key is assigned a particular finger. But when we play a song, we do not assign a particular finger to a particular key. Play
songs of thaat bilawal according to diagram 2 or 3.
Songs which can be played with thaat bilawal:
-
Jab koi pyaar se bulaye gaa mujh ko ik - Taal Kehrva, Mehdi Hassan,

Tum ko dekha to yeh khyaal - Ghazal - Taal Kehrva, Jagjeet
Ik piar ka nagma hai - Taal Kehrva, Kishore Kumar 
Pakistani Qumi Tarana
Ae dil kiski ki yaad mein - Taal Kehrva,
Note:- Above given songs are not raga bilawal songs and can only be played with thaat
bilawal.
Theory of thaat and rules for playing thaat
based songs. You can also play film songs
with thaat. Thaat rules.
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