Editing Carnatic music (section)

==Important elements==

===Śruti===
{{Main|Śruti (music)}}

''Śruti'' commonly refers to musical pitch.<ref name="autogenerated3">{{cite web|url=http://www.karnatik.com/glosss.shtml|title=Royal Carpet: Glossary of Carnatic Terms S|work=karnatik.com}}</ref> It is the approximate equivalent of a tonic (or less precisely a key) in Western music; it is the note from which all the others are derived. It is also used in the sense of graded pitches in an [[octave]]. While there are an infinite number of sounds falling within a scale (or raga) in Carnatic music, the number that can be distinguished by auditory perception is twenty-two (although over the years, several of them have converged). In this sense, while sruti is determined by auditory perception, it is also an expression in the listener's mind.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.soundofindia.com/showarticle.asp?in_article_id=952096767 |title=Sound of India |access-date=18 December 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081211064155/http://www.soundofindia.com/showarticle.asp?in_article_id=952096767 |archive-date=11 December 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===Svara===
{{Main|Svara}}

''Svara'' refers to a type of musical sound that is a single note, which defines a relative (higher or lower) position of a note, rather than a defined frequency.<ref name="autogenerated3" /> ''Svara''s also refer to the [[solfege]] of Carnatic music, which consist of seven notes, "sa-ri-ga-ma-pa-da-ni" (compare with the Hindustani ''[[sargam (swara)|sargam]]:'' sa-''re''-ga-ma-pa-''dha''-ni or Western do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti). These names are abbreviations of the longer names ''shadja'', ''rishabha'', ''gandhara'', ''madhyama'', ''panchama'', ''dhaivata'' and ''nishada''. Unlike other music systems, every member of the solfege (called a [[swara]]) has three variants. The exceptions are the drone notes, ''shadja'' and ''panchama'' (also known as the [[tonic (music)|tonic]] and the [[dominant (music)|dominant]]), which have only one form; and ''madhyama'' (the [[subdominant]]), which has two forms. A 7th century stone inscription in Kudumiyan Malai<ref>S. Santhanlingam, ''Kudumiyan Malai'', Tamil Nadu Government Archeology Department publication, 1981</ref> in [[Tamil Nadu]] shows vowel changes to solfege symbols with ra, ri, ru etc. to denote the higher quarter-tones. In one scale, or [[raga]], there is usually only one variant of each note present. The exceptions exist in "light" ragas, in which, for artistic effect, there may be two, one ascending (in the ''arohanam'') and another descending (in the ''[[avarohana]]m'').

===Raga system===
{{Main|Raga}}

{{See also|List of composers who created ragas}}

A ''raga'' in Carnatic music prescribes a set of rules for building a [[melody]] – very similar to the Western concept of [[musical mode|mode]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.karnatik.com/glossm.shtml|title=Royal Carpet: Glossary of Carnatic Terms M|work=karnatik.com}}</ref> It specifies rules for movements up (''aarohanam'') and down (''avarohanam''), the [[musical scale|scale]] of which [[note (music)|notes]] should figure more and which notes should be used more sparingly, which notes may be sung with ''[[gamaka (music)|gamaka]]'' (ornamentation), which phrases should be used or avoided, and so on. In effect, it is a series of obligatory musical events which must be observed, either absolutely or with a particular frequency.<ref name="Nettl1974">{{cite journal | last = Nettl |first = Bruno |author-link=Bruno Nettl|title = Thoughts On Improvisation: A Comparative Approach| journal = [[Musical Quarterly]]|volume = LX |pages = 9–12  |year = 1974 | doi = 10.1093/mq/LX.1.1}}</ref>

In Carnatic music, the ''sampoorna ragas'' (those with all seven notes in their scales) are classified into a system called the ''[[melakarta]]'', which groups them according to the kinds of notes that they have. There are seventy-two ''melakarta ragas'', thirty six of whose madhyama ([[subdominant]]) is shuddha ([[perfect fourth]] from the tonic), the remaining thirty-six of whose madhyama (subdominant) is prati (an [[augmented fourth]] from the tonic). The ''ragas'' are grouped into sets of six, called ''[[chakra]]s'' ("wheels", though actually segments in the conventional representation) grouped according to the [[supertonic]] and [[mediant]] scale degrees. There is a system known as the ''[[katapayadi sankhya]]'' to determine the names of ''melakarta raga''s.

''Raga''s may be divided into two classes: ''janaka raga''s (i.e. melakarta or parent ragas) and ''[[janya]] raga''s (descendant ragas of a particular janaka raga). Janya ragas are themselves subclassified into various categories.

===Tala system===
{{Main|Tala (music)}}
''[[Tala (music)|Tala]]'' refers to a fixed time cycle or metre, set for a particular composition, which is built from groupings of beats.{{citation needed|date=September 2012}} ''Tala''s have cycles of a defined number of beats and rarely change within a song. They have specific components, which in combinations can give rise to the variety to exist (over 108), allowing different compositions to have different rhythms.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.karnatik.com/glosst.shtml|title=Royal Carpet: Glossary of Carnatic Terms T|work=karnatik.com}}</ref>

Carnatic music singers usually keep the beat by moving their hands up and down in specified patterns, and using their fingers simultaneously to keep time. ''Tala'' is formed with three basic parts (called ''anga''s) which are ''laghu'', ''dhrtam'', and ''anudhrtam'', though complex talas may have other parts like ''plutam'', ''guru'', and ''kaakapaadam''. There are seven basic ''tala'' groups which can be formed from the ''laghu'', ''dhrtam'', and ''anudhrtam'':

* Ata tala
* Dhruva tala
* Eka tala
* Jhampa tala
* Matya tala{{citation needed|date=September 2012}}
* Rupaka tala
* Triputa tala

A ''laghu'' has five variants (called ''jaathi''s) based on the counting pattern. Five ''jaathis'' times seven tala groups gives thirty-five basic ''tala''s, although use of other ''anga''s results in a total of 108 ''tala''s.