Article 3: The minor scale and a bit more

I dropped the last article off with a plan of talking about Keeravani and how other ragas can be mapped onto the western scale. Here goes.

Keeravani's notes translated into intervals are
Sa - Ri2 - Ga2 - Ma1 - Pa - Dha1 - Ni3 - Sa
    IIM   IIm     IIM     IIM  IIm    IIA    IIm

There is a new interval here that I have called IIA. This refers to what is called an Augmented second interval. This is equal to 3 semitones. As a quick refresher, IIM is also called a tone, and IIm is also called as a semitone.

So the interval-lic pattern for the Keeravani raag is
IIM - IIm - IIM - IIM - IIm - IIA - IIm.
Starting with any note on the scale, if we build using this interval pattern, the Keeravani raag will result.

Starting with C for example, this would be
C - D - Eb - F - G - Ab - B - C

Starting with D, this would look as follows:
D - E - F - G - A - Bb - C# - D

This scale pattern is called the minor scale in western music.
So when a piece of music is written in C Major, it comprises the following notes
C - D - E - F - G - A - B - C

When a piece of music is written in C minor, it comprises the following notes
C - D - Eb - F - G - Ab - B - C

With this background, it becomes obvious that any raag (without the gamakam aspect) can be fitted onto the standard piano. Take the root note (Sa) and build the intervals on top of it.

To illustrate, Kalyani, starting on the C note as Sa, would be as follows:
C - D - E - F# - G - A - B - C
The F# is the equivalent of Ma2. Note that it is 3 tones away from C (Sa). This is referred to as a tritone in western music.

The fundamental way in which western music differs from carnatic is that carnatic music is largely horizontal - melody driven. Western music has two dimensions - horizontal and vertical (melody and harmony).

The basic elements of harmony will be the contents of the next article.