Exploring Ragas & Rhythms, part TWO ~ What is Raga?

Transcript

[Music] [Music] hey welcome back I'm excited about diving into part two of raagas and rhythms we're gonna focus on illuminating the beautiful concept of raga the melodic essence of Indian classical music through the application of the classical music system of India we'll develop our ears awareness and sensitivity to this amazing music will nurture specific skills that prepare us for a raga jazz experience now when I say raga jazz I do not mean that we're incorporating the stylized language of jazz but rather the open and creative spirit that jazz music is carried forward over the past century regardless if you're a jazz musician surely many of these ideas can be incorporated into work that reflects a variety of jazz styles all of this will bring us closer to our goal of bringing these beautiful raagas and rhythms into our own musical vocabulary and improvisation okay let's recap and expand upon the three key practice skills that we learned in video one skill number one the first key skill is deep focused listening through the listening we're developing a seasoned ear for Indian music this will set our foundation in place make sure you hear as much raga music as you can and intentionally listen for the specific things we're addressing skill number two we talked about the importance of singing everything this skill gets us internalizing the language of Indian music the slow internalization of the material is where you want to focus whether you're singing or reciting rhythms the ability to reproduce and memorize this material vocally is proof of our understanding and skill development skill number three once we diligently apply these lessons this work puts you in a position to integrate the concepts in melodic severe agha into your own playing and singing the path of mastery comes by learning to sing on our instrument from the inside while we play with an integrated awareness of the rhythm before we can truly integrate this material we need to have a clear understanding and practical application of certain core elements of the music this leads us to our lessons for today now we're going to get into some deeper concepts which are integral to this music if it starts to feel a little bit overwhelming please be patient a fuller understanding of these ideas will be realized as you diligently practice and listen so just go slow and trust the process okay we know that raga is the melodic essence of Indian music but there's a lot of confusion about this so what is raga some musicians oversimplify and sum over complicate it for instance to say a raga is just a scale is very misleading a scale is just like a skeleton to the personality of the raga which carries many more attributes now traditionally a raga is through a multi movement form these movements could be thought of as a suite of compositions within an overall performance in this grand structure we utilize different modes of improvisation as we develop the themes of the raga structural elements of raagas remain constant throughout the improvisation and the repertoire performed the elements are like a map of the raga this is what we're going to talk about next the very things that give each and every raga their unique character and individual personality I like to think of this subject as the science of the raga ok now here are three elements that break down the nuts and bolts of the North Indian raga system the first element is Aarohi Aarohi these scales go up one way and come down another they really outline the backbone of the raga more than just a plain scale or a set of notes for example many raagas ascend with five notes and descend with seven here is the auto he Alvaro he for the evening raga were studying called the omen almost going to accompany our singing on the Scion geek [Applause] they got my [Music] listen [Music] [Applause] the second element is voddy and some Avadi these are the king and queen notes which ruled the raga practically these are the most emphasized notes listen how in yamaraja the major seventh knee and the major third gaw are emphasized in these simple raga phrases need god my [Music] Hey the money god [Music] finally our last element is Challen I like to describe Shaolin as the phraseology of the raga it provides the broader map of the melodic movements and the central motifs or themes for instance in raag Yaman [Music] my [Music] uhh my tiny [Music] my [Music] god [Music] after one learns the science a true artist must learn to breathe life into the raga prana is breath and it's analogous to the creative spirit or soul in jazz music when the artist transcends the rules and technique into expressive musicality the performance of a raga is a form of modal improvisation but with a highly organized melodic vision in the West way of functional harmony in the sense that the chords themselves provide harmonic movement tension and release but Indian music is completely free of modulation or even basic chord changes harmony is just a combination of multiple pitches the harmony that exists in Indian music is the resonance between the voice or lead instrument and the tanpura drum [Music] [Music] it is here that we discover the harmonic elements in Indian music it is harmony but without the same complexity of western music the same principle of harmonies at play but the function and expression is different my sense is that this primordial form of harmony is at the center of all musical phenomena this simple concept we may called Ronal harmony and we certainly do experience it in Indian music remember from video 1 shut jaw or saw is our mother now our room pitch sandbar [Music] are constantly emanating from your tongue for a dream and this gives us a simple harmonic space [Music] once sauce fixed on the best pitch for your instrument or voice the other notes take their identity by their interval to saw striving to hear identify and feel deeply the sound of each interval is key to journal harmony now unfolding the phrases of the raga will come much easier the important thing is to hear each note and each phrase very clearly and reproduce them with your voice and then your instrument along with the beautiful drum [Music] so let's take some new melodic patterns to learn from a short traditional raga etude these etudes are also called Sargon's because they utilize the indian solfege system you can follow along with the notation below we're in the key of C Lydian my tiny dainty they got a got my dog need God is signing up a mamita Wow okay now you know a little part of what are the most popular evening or August of India we have the sheet music available for you and various keys on the raga jazz music webpage so learn this piece and join us in the next video to learn about the fascinating rhythmic world of Tala thanks for joining us see you next time [Music] you