Western music uses a technique called solfege for sight-seeing and ear training. I'm sure at some point in time, you've heard people sing out Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do.
Indian music uses a solfege-like system called sargam. Similar to Solfege, sargam uses 7 notes (called swaras) to make a scale and you can modify the words to match different pitch intervals. For example, in Solfege a major scale is Do Re Mi and minor scale will contain Do Re Me.
These changes in pitch allow you to sing different scale modes called that. Phew! I haven't figured out all of the thats but I will in the upcoming months.
As a side note, the word sargam is an acronym made up of the first four notes in the scale. META....
Western Solfege
Western solfege was derived from an old Latin script that used words like Ut, Resonare, Mira, Famuli, Solve, Labii.
So these sounds:
Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do
Were derived from this text:
Ut queant laxis
resonare fibris,
Mira gestorum
famuli tuorum,
Solve polluti
labii reatum,
Sancte Iohannes
Indian Solfege
Sargam shares a similar type of evolution.
These sounds:
Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni, Sa
Were born out of these words: shadja, rishabh, gandhar, madhyam, pancham, dhaivat and nishad.
Sometimes, you'll also see sargam written like this:
S, R, G, M, P, D, N
Resources
Anatomy of a Sitar for Guitarists
This diagram shows you the anatomy of the sitar. The diagram is really for reference but there are a few things worth mentioning. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Base The entire...
