Books On Music Notations

Melodic notation is a visual record of heard or envisioned melodic sounds or a bunch of visual guidelines for the execution of music. It normally takes composed or printed structure and is a  relentless cycle. It mostly has one of either intentions: as a guide to memory or as correspondence. Based on the former, it helps the forming of an arrangement to a degree of complexity that is incomprehensible in absolutely oral practice. Based on the latter option, it fills in to preserve music (albeit deficiently and defectively) throughout extensive periods, facilitates execution by others, and presents music in a structure reasonable for study and examination. In the musical notation of Indian rāga, a solfege-like framework called Sargam is utilized.

As in Western solfege, there are names for the seven fundamental pitches of a significant scale (Shadja, Rishabha, Gandhara, Madhyama, Panchama, Dhaivata, and Nishada, generally abbreviated to Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni). The essential components of melodic sound are pitch, or the position of melodic sound on the scale (span, or distance, between notes); length (consequently mood, meter, beat); tone or timbre; and volume. Practically speaking, no documentation like musical notations can deal with these components with accuracy. Most adapt to a determination of them in fluctuating levels of refinement. Some handle just a solitary example — e.g., a tune, a cadence; others handle a few concurrent patterns. Some recognized figures in this field are-

1. Saint Thyagaraja

Saint Thyagaraja changed the face of the torpid Carnatic Music. This type of Music depends on one of a kind "Ragas and Talas" (melodic notes) like any remaining types of Indian traditional music. It delightfully communicates Bhakti (commitment) and Sringara (love). It was initially performed for the recognition of God. Afterwards, it included singing about the magnificence of extraordinary kingdoms. Thyagaraja had an affinity for music since the beginning. Ramayana and Lord Ram additionally impacted the melodic legend. He sang numerous kritis (a reflection type of arrangement in Carnatic music) of Lord Ram. He prevalently made the kritis in the Telugu language.

2. Muthuswami Dikshitar

Muthuswami Dikshitar, or Dikshitar, was a South Indian writer, vocalist, veena player, and an amazing author of classical Indian music, who is viewed as one of the melodic trinity of Carnatic music. He had composed around 450 to 500 melodies, the majority of which are broadly sung by artists today in Carnatic music shows. The greater part of his arrangements are in Sanskrit and the Krithi structure, i.e., verse set up with good music. Muthuswami Dikshitar ventured out to many sacred holy places all through his life and formed krithis on the divinities and temples he visited.

FAQ's

Q1. What does Sa Re Ga Ma Pa mean?

The meaning of the seven swaras is-

• SA stands for : Agni Deva

• RE Rishabha stands for : Brahamma Devta

• GA Gandhar stands for : Sarasvati (Saraswati)

• MA Madhyam stands for : God Mahadev

• PA Panchama stands for : Goddess Laxmi

• DHA Dhaivata stands for : Lord Ganesha

• NI Nishad stands for : Sun God

Q2. What is Sargam notation?

Notation of Sargam is a music documentation language for Carnatic music. Every documentation begins with a particular raga, tala, and mela. At times, the notes utilized in rising scale and sliding scale, known as arohana and avarohana, are expressively characterized at the beginning of the composition.

Q3. Why is music notation needed?

Musical notation tells a musical performer what notes to play, how fast or slow to play them, and perhaps instructions about dynamics or timbre. Both the theatrical script and the musical score are, at their core, forms of communication. Musical notation (reading & writing music) needs to be studied to transfer ideas just like reading & writing a language. How would someone know what Bach or Beethoven or Mozart sounded like since no one alive would have heard them? Through musical notation, we know what their music sounded like. The importance of rhythm is so that the music makes sense and doesn't sound random.

Q4. What does a musical notation consist of?

Musical notation is a series of symbols and markings that inform musicians how to perform a composition. It can take a number of forms: Standard notation on 5-line musical staves. Lead sheets with a melody written on a 5-line staff and chords written using a letter-and-number-based notation. The 5 lines in music notation are called ‘staff’ or ‘stave’, in the notation of Western music, five parallel horizontal lines that, with a clef, indicate the pitch of musical notes. The symbols used include ancient symbols and modern symbols made upon any media such as symbols cut into stone, made in clay tablets, made using a pen on papyrus or parchment or manuscript paper; printed using a printing press or other printing technology

Q5. How is music symbols used in notation?

Symbols serve two distinct social-cognitive functions: communication and representation. Vygotsky proposed that symbols are learned within a social context and, once internalized, can be used not only to share meaning with others, but also as mental tools to construct an understanding of the world. In sheet music, music symbols are used to describe the way a particular piece of music should be played. That's why sheet music is still so important for communicating how to play a piece of music.

Some other uses are

Symbols increase scientific communication in the world.

Symbols help to make equations and data shorter.

Symbols help scientists in writing equations with symbols and not with full names. 

Q6. Is there a better way to notate music?

The Dodeka music notation is an alternative music notation that writes musical notes in a more intuitive, easier-to-learn, and less confusing way. The notation is clear, visual, and easy to understand, as well as works with every musical instrument.

The Dodeka music notation uses a chromatic scale of 12 pitches and follows an equal pitch intervals configuration, with 4 lines per octave. In this configuration, the 12 notes of an octave appear in four positions vis-à-vis the staff lines, that is, either on, between, above, and below the lines.

Each pitch has its unique place on the staff.  Notes in this notation appear as they are. There are no more key signatures or accidental signs.

Q7. How to read music notes for singing?

The symbols seen on pages of sheet music represent the pitch, speed, and rhythm, as well as the expression and techniques used by a musician to play the piece.

The step-by-step introductions to reading music are

Learn the Basic Symbols of Musical Notation :  The Staff, Treble Clef, Bass Clef, Sheet Music Symbols, and Notes on a Staff.

Pick up the Beat : the beat is used when dancing, clapping or tapping the foot along with a song.

Play a Melody : A scale is made of eight consecutive notes.

The C major scale is composed of C, D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. The C major scale is practiced mostly to learn the other major scales.

Q8. How to read music notes for piano?

Studying the piano and learning how to read sheet music in the most efficient way possible, one simply needs to learn the names of the piano keys,  lines and spaces on the musical staff, time signatures, understand note values, and then discover how the musical symbols on the page relate to his right and left hands on the keyboard. Notes can sit on a line or in a space. The height of the note determines the pitch. A higher line means a higher pitch, so moving up the stave represents moving right along the keyboard. We add ledger lines above or below the staff if a note is higher or lower than the 5 staff lines.