Abstract

There are ten main scales in North Indian Music. Bollywood and other songs are based upon these scales. The notes of these scales come from a chromatic scale which contains twelve notes (seven suddha* notes “S R G m P D N,” four komal notes “r g d n” and one tivra note “M”). We find that there is a pattern in the formation of all these scales from Bilawal scale. This pattern offers an insight into the formation of the scales. Although these scales consist of different combinations of the twelve notes, all scales, except one, can be formed by rearranging and transposing† subsets of nine notes “S R G m M P D n N.” The remaining three notes of the chromatic scale “r g d” are not needed. Only one of the scales requires an additional note from the chromatic scale in its formation. Since all scales, except one, can be formed from the nine notes, the songs based on the scales can also be played from this set of nine notes, which contains mostly suddha notes. This reduction in the number of notes involved from twelve to nine offers a significant simplification in developing fingering patterns that are required for playing the songs. However, this simplification comes at a cost – the song will get transposed (will shift in pitch). This happens because these notes have not gone through the transposition step in the formation of the scales. In case of electronic musical instruments with a transpose feature, one can easily eliminate this shift in pitch. For instruments without a transpose feature, if one develops fingering patterns for the nine notes, at three different transpose levels, then one can keep this shift in pitch within two semitones. The simplified approach presented is intended for those who want to play musical instruments for fun.