Melodic phrasing within a raga

Playing a raga's aarohanam and avarohanam is like reciting the alphabet. Musicians do not use a raga that way: they move in short phrases that turn back on themselves, rest on certain swaras and arrive at the end of a tala cycle. This lesson works on those habits in Mohanam, using phrases you build yourself, sung in swaras and then played. It is a first step towards the improvised swara passages heard in concerts.

By the end of this lesson you will be able to:

• Build short phrases in Mohanam that turn back instead of running straight up or down.
• Feel the difference between resting swaras and passing swaras.
• Sing and play an eight-swara phrase that fills one cycle of Adi tala and lands on Sa.

The aarohanam and avarohanam tell you which swaras a raga uses and in what order they may go up and down. They do not tell you how the raga moves. In performance, a raga is heard through phrases with a few common habits:

• Phrases turn. Rather than running straight up the aarohanam, a phrase moves forward two or three swaras, steps back, and moves on: Ga Pa Da Pa, not Ga Pa Da Sa.
• Some swaras are resting places. A phrase comes to rest on certain swaras and passes quickly through others. Which ones depends on the raga. In Mohanam, Sa, Pa and Ga make natural resting points.
• Phrases fit the tala. Musicians shape phrases so they arrive at a point in the tala cycle, often the start of the next cycle or a fixed point in the composition. Improvised swara passages in concerts, called kalpana swaras, are built this way.
• Gamakas live in phrases. How a swara is approached (a slide, an oscillation) belongs to the phrase, not to the swara alone.

Every raga also has characteristic phrases that identify it, and those can only be learned from compositions and recordings. The exercises here train the general habits, using Mohanam because its five swaras are easy to find and hard to make sound wrong.

Hearing resting places.

1. Let the open A string ring as the Sa drone.
2. Play Ga (fret 4) and hold it for four counts. It sits comfortably.
3. Play Da (fret 9) and hold it. It wants to fall to Pa, or rise to Sa.
4. Do this for each swara and decide for yourself which feel like resting places.

Building a cycle. Keep Adi tala with your hand. Sing an eight-swara phrase in Mohanam, one swara per count, that ends on Sa on count 8. Try starting on Ga or Pa and turning back at least once. When it sounds complete, play it, adding a jaru into the final Sa.

Then listen. Put on a recording in Mohanam and try to sing back one short phrase in swaras. It will be hard. That difficulty is the point: it is how the raga's real phrases enter your ear.

Do these in order. Each one is small. Tick the ones you have practised.

• 1.Resting places

  4 min

  1. Play the Mohanam swaras over a Sa drone (the open A string).
  2. Stop and hold each swara in turn for four counts.
  3. Note which ones feel like places to rest (Sa, Pa and Ga usually feel settled) and which feel like they must move on.

  You have it when

  • You can name two swaras that feel like resting places and two that want to move.
  I practised this one

• 2.Phrases, not scales

  5 min

  1. Play the four short phrases from the tab: each goes forward and then turns back.
  2. Sing each in swaras first, then play it.
  3. Add a jaru (slide) into the last swara of each phrase.

  You have it when

  • You can sing and play all four phrases, ending each on a resting swara.
  I practised this one

• 3.One cycle, landing on Sa

  5 min

  1. Keep Adi tala with the hand: eight counts.
  2. Compose a phrase of eight Mohanam swaras, one per count, that ends on Sa on count 8 (or on count 1 of the next cycle).
  3. Sing it, then play it. Then make two more, each starting on a different swara.

  You have it when

  • You have three eight-swara phrases that land on Sa in time with the tala.
  I practised this one

Keep Adi tala at about 60 BPM, one swara per count. Phrasing needs time to listen; speed is not the goal here.

• Running up and down the aarohanam. Change direction within the phrase. Two or three swaras forward, one back, is a good starting shape.
• Ending phrases on any swara. End on a resting swara (Sa, Pa or Ga in Mohanam) so the phrase sounds complete.
• Assuming these exercises teach the raga's real phrases. They train the habits. Each raga's characteristic phrases are learned from compositions and recordings, ideally with a teacher.

In concerts you will hear kalpana swaras: swara passages improvised within the raga and tala, always arriving back at a set point in the composition. The eight-count phrases you made are a tiny version of that. Listen to a Mohanam recording and try to sing back one short phrase in swaras.

Short version (10 minutes)

Find the resting swaras in Mohanam, then sing and play the four phrases.

Standard version (about 30 minutes)

Do all three exercises, then sing and play a two-cycle passage of your own (sixteen swaras) that lands on Sa.

• A raga moves in phrases that turn, rest and arrive.
• Resting swaras end phrases; passing swaras lead somewhere.
• Fit phrases to the tala and aim for a landing point.
• Real characteristic phrases come from listening to compositions.

You are ready to move on when you can honestly say:

• I can name the swaras that feel like resting places in Mohanam.
• I can sing and play phrases that change direction and end on a resting swara.
• I can make an eight-swara phrase that fills one Adi tala cycle and lands on Sa.