Dasanjali Lesson 7

We will start this lesson by reviewing "Hey Prabhu". So far, we have focused on Shuddha or regular notes. Starting today, we will broaden our knowledge by playing EVERY note on the keyboard or harmonium. Thus, we will be learning Komal or soft notes and the Tibre m.

If you have a keyboard, piano or harmonium at home, practice all the notes that we learn in class on one of those instruments. If you do not have one, you may use the online keyboard, although it is not as easy to use.

Quiz and Practice

• Ask someone to play a random Shuddha note in any of the 3 octaves we sing in (N, S ... upto S' R') and guess the note.
• Then, make it more challenging and ask that person to play 2 and then 3 random Shuddha notes and guess all those notes. Remember to close your eyes and concentrate on the notes being played. If necessary, ask that person to play the foundational notes, S, P and S' to give you good reference points.
• Practice the Aalaap of Bhoopaali from Lesson 5.
• Practice the single Taan that we learnt in Lesson 6.
• Practice the 8-beat rhythm, either using your hand as one would use for the Adi taal in Carnatic music or to keep it simpler, 2 sets of 4 beats, mentally remembering to count upto 8 before restarting the count at 1.
• Then, start singing Hey Prabhu in-between the 1st and 2nd beats (it is called Khaali) and continue to maintain the 8-beat rhythm as you sing the song.
• We will now start to learn ALL the notes on the keyboard.

  

• Remember the following
  • The foundational notes S, P and S' are called so, since they are solid and have only one note in each octave.
  • Re, Ga, Da and Ni have 2 notes in each octave, a Shuddha (regular) note and a Komal (softer or smaller) note.
  • Ma has 2 notes in each octave, a Shuddha (regular) note and a Tibre (sharper or higher) note.
• Thus, there are 12 notes in each saptak (13 notes in each octave, including S' on the ascending notes and S on the descending notes).

  S       r       R       g       G       M       m       P       d       D       n       N       S'
  S'      N       n       D       d       P       m       M       G       g       R       r       S
  

• Let us now practise singing the following:

  Sr      SR      Sg      SG      SM      Sm      SP      Sd      SD      Sn      SN      SS'
  S'N     S'n     S'D     S'd     S'P     S'm     S'M     S'G     S'g     S'R     S'r     S'S
  

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• We will now learn a new raag called Darbari Kaanada, which has a mix of Shuddha and Komal notes. This raag should be easy for us to play on the keyboard since we have to use only the white keys.

  (Aaroha)        S       R       g       M       P       d       n       S'
  (Avaroha)       S'      n       d       P       M       g       R       S
  

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• We will learn only the asthayi of a song in this raag and taal keharwa today. We will learn more of this song in lesson 8.

  Prema Mudita Manase Kaho Raama Raama Raam
  Sree Raama Raama Raam Sree Raama Raama Raam
  Sree Raama Raama Raam                        (Prema)
  

• Continuing our tradition of ending each lesson with a familiar and comfortable song, let us now sing Rama Kaho.