Graha/Sruthi bedam

[arunk]

People with even a very limited background in western music, where the tonic shifts frequently, might be puzzled by the fuss over a simple tonic shift. The simple beatles song "yesterday" shifts the tonic from Sa to Da in the second line itself ( "all my troubles...".)

err - how exactly ? I think you are over-simplifying here and comparing apples and oranges. The key shifts in western music are not the same as tonic shifts here. First - the entire rhythm section shifts with the bass, organ whatever. If any, it is more like switching ragas in a ragamalika (which is trivial in our music).

What makes grahabedham harder to perceive is (besides its fleeting nature), that the original tonic is still very much there via tampura and even the mridangam. Besides I thought the challenge here is in that in spite of that you enforce the new tonic AND you change the gamakas of the original swaras as per the new raga. It is very different from simply doing a murchana of the swara on which bedham is done. For example, a simple ri murchana of mohanam (ri ga pa da sa ri) with the gamakas of the swaras still delivered as-per mohanam is in no way going to result in madyamavati (nor is all flat going to achieve it either). The steady "Sa" of mohanam becomes the pliable Ni in madhyamavati. Similarly the pliable of Ri mohanam becomes steady sa of madhyamavati etc. The ga of mohanam becomes the signature ri of madhyamavati.

You have none of this in western music (all flat), and besides again the entire ensemble shifts key. For them you do a murchana off a different key - thats like an unconscious a key shift. I also think interpreting the chord changes in Yesterday as some sort of a tonic shift is an incorrect interpretation as in that section neither tonic is emphasized.

Although I do agree that we probably get over-excited by grahabedham - but let us not trivialize too much either.

Arun

[cmlover]

Enjoyed the spirit of you comment Uday (in spite of Arun's retort!). But

graha bhedam can be shown fleetingly but after that it becomes a meaningless "ho hum, who cares" exercise. I personally find it irritating beyond a few seconds.

cannot reconcile with the above quote. A well-crafted grahabhedam reminds me of the old Erolflynn movies inwhich he pursues the villain on the speeding horseback, gets onto his wagon, finishes his 'business' gets back to his horse for a placid ride back into wilderness.
My point is, it is not the duration but the finess of execution that counts. GNB does it most elegantly and had the right balance.

How was Manda in that respect?

[Nick H]

Shifting the key, in Western music, then, is equivalent to shifting ---is this the right word?--- the kattai (shruti). A mere act of transposition. Although transpostion can, i think, depending on the scales and chords involved, get tricky sometimes, it seems trivial compared to what you guys are talking about.

Fascinating stuff.

[arunk]

nick - sorry. No key shift I believe almost always refers only to transposition i.e. like shifting kattai. So my using that term above is not correct and I think confused the issue.

My point again is that in western music modal shift may be achieved simply by taking a different murchana. It is not so in the the case of cm. Besides in WM, the concept of tonic is not as over-powering and over-bearing (for the lack of better word) musically and also from a psychological aspect unlike CM. So IMO, it is much harder to shift the tonic in CM rather than in WM, and more importantly it is much harder for lay listeners like rasikas to perceive the shift in CM.

Arun

[ramakriya]

I can imagine a review where a critical reviewer writes "She could have avoided shades of Mohanam during her Kalyani alapana".

.

ha ha ...

[ramakriya]

In fact I would argue that most of the kalyani varjya prayogas are indulged in for their own sake and not to leverage any graha bhedam angles.

So great is this beauty that the main kalyani equivalent raag in Hindustani, yaman (the other is shudhdh Kalyan or something like that) has an arohana that has been made explicitly varjya: N R G M D N.

What beauty the prayogas N R G and M D N add to the raga.

Uday Shankar - I am sure you know all this and more I am writing for clarity only!

Kalyani is closest to yaman (I'd say 98%) - The chalan as you say explicitely shows the varjya
which may be represented as below:

N R G M D N S
S N D P M G R (G M P) R S

P - R,, is another characteristic chalan of yaman, which kalyAni does not use that often.

Shuddha Kalyan on the other hand is

S R G P D S - S(N) D P(M) G R S, where in the avarOhana, jAru is employed to indicate M and N; Even though this rAga is similar to mOhana kalyANi, M and N are only shown with a jAru, and never show up directly as straight notes.

-Ramakriya

[uday_shankar]

I also think interpreting the chord changes in Yesterday as some sort of a tonic shift is an incorrect interpretation as in that section neither tonic is emphasized.
Arun

I agree that neither tonic is "emphasised". It's just my mindset - I just happen to instinctively listen to everything I hear in terms of swaras and where there's no real tonic, I insert one, i.e., the key of the primary chord I hear . So, for example "yesterday" might fall in my ears approximately (I can't recall all the aksharas exactly, long time since I heard the song) as :

S S S, ("yesterday" chord heard is C-major, C is my tonic)
P D2 N3 S R2 G2 R2, S S, ("all my troubles seems so far away", E-major but the "tonic" is A- minor if you know what I mean)

Of course I don't know exactly that it is Cmajor-Emajor-Aminor, could be any other chord combination symmetrical to this...you get the drift.

The important thing is that the second line P D2 N3 S R2 G2 R2, S S, would seem horrendously non-intuitive if I used the same tonic C as "yesterday". It would be:

G3 M2 D1 D2 N3 S N3, D2 D2,

The above sequence is totally weird with M2 D1 D2, agreed ?

[arunk]

wierd by our standards (ok, technically by theirs too - anything with M2 would be wierd ).

The chord progression is supposedly F (Em) A7 Dm, where (Em) is just a instrumental transition. So ignoring Em, and if we take C as F, it is sort of close to what you said: C E7 Am. But the "All my troubles seem so" is under the E7 chord and so I am not sure you could technically apply the A tonic from Am (far away) to it.

But again, I dont think we should interpret chord changes as change of tonic as per root of current chord. For example, in alapana, kalpana swaras etc. when one changes the pivot to different swaras and weaves patterns, we dont take it as a temporary tonic shift. Besides, I think in many cases chord progressions themselves may point to the real scale based on some key. But I am not sure if that is clear here in this song.

But I could be wrong - I am not at all conversant in WM theory - just ara-kora knowledge.

Arun

[uday_shankar]

But the "All my troubles seem so" is under the E7 chord and so I am not sure you could technically apply the A tonic from Am (far away) to it.

Arun

Yes you can! When the dominant theme is a minor one, as the line "all my troubles..." undoubtledly is, one's mind (at least mine) automatically centers on the key associated with it even if the initial chord is the related major or major-7th. The E7/Aminor or EMajor/Aminor are standard combinations where the dominant theme is in Aminor.

Anyways enough boring fellow rasikas. It's becoming quite irrelevant.

[arasi]

arai kurai (arakora) means half-baked in tamizh (literally, half and even less).
Arun, you know much much more than I do. I am not calling you arai kurai. I am merely translating...

[arunk]

uday - we just have to agree to disagree.

arasi - thanks but I meant that whatever I quote is my interpretation and there is always doubt that there are holes.

Arun

[uday_shankar]

Arun

I'm not sure I'm making myself clear to you. My original thesis was that the tonic for the second line HAS to be different.

So here's one last time:

1. I hear a song, any song.
2. My mind is instinctively rendering it into swaras due to my deeply ingrained Carnatic mindset.
3. I encounter a nonsensical sequence like G3 M2 D1 D2...
4. The mind instinctively switches tonic to make it a more palatable phrase like P D2 N3....
5. It DOESN'T MATTER whether it is the E key or A key. Either key will produce a more palatable phrase. To render it in E, it would be S R2 G3 M1 P D1 P, M1 M1, which is also a palatable phrase. So there you are.

Also, think about this... can ANY melodic sequence in any song stand without a tonic, whether it is explicit or implicit ?! If your answer is that it can't, then I submit to you that the tonic of the two parts of the song HAVE to be different. The second line DOES NOT make melodic sense in any system, western or Carnatic, with the original tonic (i.e., of "yesterday").

Might you be arguing theoretically rather than musically ?

Ok, enough said .

[arunk]

I dont know what I am arguing! I think musically you are on the right track - i had no doubt of that. But IMO you are overreaching in your conclusions. Theoretically, I have no idea what sort of validity it has - as I dont know much about WM theory. It just doesnt seem right.

I do know a chord change resulting in a key shift and/or scale shift is not uncommon in WM. That such a change is really a tonic shift of scale (i.e. spacing between the notes in scale remains same before and after shift) is rare(r) but definitely possible . Can you prove it here as you started out saying there is graha-bedham (not just shift in key/sruthi)?

Besides my underlying point remains the same - viewing some western music melodies as a series of graha-bedhams or viewing a chord changes as key shifts because emphasis changes seems somewhat flawed - it is sort of like saying all non-bhashanga ragas under a mela are really just the same as they are really one scale. It may be so from a western point of view but how meaningful is it?

If it is any consolation, the song Yesterday is supposedly in key F (C), but I read that it shows tendencies towards Dm (Am) scale. Again - your musical instincts was of course right on - but again this does not mean it is a tonic shift which was the original contention. And BTW, melodically rock and jazz use all sorts of note combinations within a scale. Hence the claim that a certain combination "DOES NOT make melodic sense in any system" thus implying it requires a key shift etc. isnt it stretching practice to conform to theory?

But enough said indeed. This is my last post. I am sure we are the only two who will ever beat this already dead horse and even both of us were probably tired a few posts ago

Arun

[clueless]

The only way of getting to mohanam from kalyani is to make S and P varjya (an allowable practice when singing kalyani alapana) and then use R as the reference or tonic. Obviously once the varjya is accomplished you can, by right emphasis, make believe any of the other related pentatonics like suddha saveri, etc..

Thinking a little more, I had an additional question here. From Uday's description, it looks like the order of operations is important. You have to do the allowable varjya first and then shift the tonic. If you shifted the tonic to R first, then you end up with Harikambojhi, and now you have to do a M and N varjyam in Harikambojhi to get Mohanam. Is the second sequence allowable?

Clueless

[uday_shankar]

Hence the claim that a certain combination "DOES NOT make melodic sense in any system" thus implying it requires a key shift etc. isnt it stretching practice to conform to theory?
Arun

Arun, Arun . Tonic is NOT a theoretical construct. It is a deep seated PRACTICAL need to some, dude. You never answered my question, do you think a melody can be free-standing without any notion of a tonic associated with it ? It is so hard to have a two way conversation with you.

[uday_shankar]

(not so) clueless,

You're right that varjya should happen first and then the tonic change. The reasons are more complex.

Everything is dictated by two things a) aesthetics and b) perception management. Approaching the matter purely theoretically, it is technically possible to create an impression of Harikamboji by emphasising R as the tonic, and then go for the varjya. In practical terms, it violates both principles a) and b) above.

Perception management means how much the audience (and in many cases the musicians too) can manage the complexity of shifting the tonic to Harikamboji and then throwing out the varjya.

Aesthetically, remember that when you shift the tonic to R for Harikamboji the original varjya swaras S and P become M and N which are not meaningful varjyas in Harikamboji. So it would be meaningless to drop them at that point from an aesthetic standpoint. Got it ? Everything should flow aesthetically. Kayani followed by varjya followed by bhedam.

[ramakriya]

Thinking a little more, I had an additional question here. From Uday's description, it looks like the order of operations is important. You have to do the allowable varjya first and then shift the tonic. If you shifted the tonic to R first, then you end up with Harikambojhi, and now you have to do a M and N varjyam in Harikambojhi to get Mohanam. Is the second sequence allowable?

Clueless

No - The fact is that, you can sing kalyAni without touching S and P for sometime without the feeling of strayed away from the rAga; and also, if you place enough stress on the R note, creating a false graha, you can bring out mOhana easily.

If you move to harikAmbhOji from kalyANi shifting the tonic, then drop the N and M (of the resulting scale - corresponding to S and P of original kalyAni scale) - then you can get mOhana . BUT you are not really singing harikAmbhOji after you drop the M and N. Compare that to kalyAni case where legally you are still in kalyAni territory even after dropping S and P.

I have not even considered if harikAmbhOji would sound correct (because of the gamakas) when you transition from kalyANi because that is besides the main point.

-Ramakriya

[ramakriya]

Oh I see Uday and I were writing the same thing at the same time

[uday_shankar]

Amazing!

[arunk]

i thought i said last post . But Uday on what basis can you make the sweeping conclusion "DOES NOT make melodic sense in any system"?

I should have left it as 'let us agree to disagree'. I will reiterate that now

(forgot to add before) PS: Sorry for being a pain.

[uday_shankar]

But Uday on what basis can you make the sweeping conclusion "DOES NOT make melodic sense in any system"?

The answer: On the basis of reasonable musical intuition arising from listening to and/or playing Indian as well western classical/rock music idioms.

We have to exercise some common sense here. The Beatles played pop/rock or whatever, and in those genres a sequence like G3 M2 D1 D2, etc. doesn't make sense. Now if you look hard enough, you might be able to find SOME jazz or whatever idiom where it might make sense but isn't that entirely out of context and the argument would be merely for the sake of it ?

Now you go turn on your tampura or strum a guitar string for a tonic reference and try singing G3 M2 D1 D2 N3... to yourself and see if it makes any melodic sense (if you haven't done so already, you've only been arguing theoretically all along ).

How can we understand music if our arguments are not musical ?

[uday_shankar]

"...you started out saying there is graha-bedham (not just shift in key/sruthi)? ..."

Arun

That's a misquote. You anger me. Go back and read what I have said instead of your own preconceived misreading.

OK last post for the next decade. Sorry fellow rasikas for boring you with this completely useless nonsense.

[sureshvv]

Actually Uday/arun... your bickering is both entertaining and illuminating... Pray continue!

PS: I am not a WWF fan

[drohit]

Slightly digressing

Uday:

I had a question for you from a laerner's perspective. You said that whenever you hear any song, you start translating it into swaras. How does one develop that ability?
The problem I face many times is even when I get phrases of a raga right, I cannot immediately transfrom them into notes.

If you can provide some ways to improve the notatinig skills, it may benefit others than me too.

Thanks
Rohit

[vijay]

drohit - welcome to the club - the only solution is hard listening! Keep trying to follow alaapanas from note to note...you can usually identify tonic rests fairly easily - keep in mind the characteristic phrases and try to spot them. Hum some songs to yourself and try and identify the basic melodic structure. Try it with WM and HM/Film Songs - that should help hone your sruthi sense better

Anyway, I am grappling with this myself so perhaps some expert advice would help me as well!

[arasi]

Vijay,
Great suggestions! In my (not so expert) view, they are valuable.

[vasanthakokilam]

Uday, Arun: I realize that you two do not want to continue this and have gone to your respective corners , but see if the following point is relevant to this off-topic discussion. ( this post will be moved as well along with others )

I think Arun's main point is about Uday's coming on a bit strongly ( which of course is Uday's right ) against the CM lakshya gnyanam based rasikas who are fascinated by graha bhedam and how WM enthusiasts might be puzzled by this fuss. But then interestingly the discussion went into lakshana.

I consider myself more lakshya-based since I can not translate melodic phrases into notes. So coming from that camp, here is my fascination with graha bhedam. The main lakshya difference between WM and CM is we associate a higher level concept to characteristic note sequences. That is the raga. Along with that goes a whole lot of built in associative memories, emotions etc. I do not think WM rasikas intuitively do that. They may not even look for a higher level common melodic theme for two pieces in the same scale and give it a higher level meaning, let alone do that across scales. I have no doubt that they sense the change whenever something changes but without necessarily explicitly giving each one a swaroopa or figure or shape or a definition with a name. That may be the reason for their possible rolling their eyes at our fascination.

Given that, it is fascinating to me that just by playing with the aural perceptions of the listener, you get to create that illusion. It is like the aural equivalent of the visual phenomenon where depending on what you focus, different pictures emerge, like this familiar young woman-old woman example.



This picture has fascinated researches and have been used in many research efforts in understanding visual perception and whether there are differences in such perception between the sexes or is affected by age etc. I think our graha bedham is fascinating in this sense.

At the risk of overstating my fascination with this, I would also think that this can be used for research efforts for understanding such background and focus based ( "tonic" ) aural switches by using CM rasikas as test subjects. Are there sex-based differences? Age-based differences? etc.

[arasi]

VK,
Thanks for adding visual dimension to the auditory discussions AND for taking me back to my undergrad years. This old lady getting younger for a moment

[chalanata]

drohit,
the best way to attain swara gnana is to practice alankara in all ragas. there is no other easier way.
VK,
the old lady-young lady example has become a 'cliche' now and because of its having been used quite a no of times it has lost its novelty;
this is also nothing new; the concept can be explained better by the age old sankara's 'snake-rope' theory.

[cmlover]

VK
I agree with chalanata about how trite that picture is as well as commonplace the psychological message conveyed! Let us try something new. Here is the Western (Egyptian?) Lady who is nondescript.


No amount of peering will give you any other clues as much like listening to the WM passively. But then just do a headstand (invert the picture



With that much of effort you would discover the coy Indian cutie hiding within her tresses! Just like discovering the beauty of CM inside WM; of course with effort and deep cogitation

(don't worry! I hold no copyrights on these pics

[vasanthakokilam]

chalanata: Yes, it is a 'cliche' picture but not sure if by dismissing it as such you are trying to dismiss the pareallel I was making about graha bhedam as well.

Also, this has not much to do with Shankara's snake-rope story. This is much more mundane: Depending on what you focus visually, you get different pictures, similar to the focus on which swara you latch on as the 'tonic' in the grahabheda case, different ragas emerge while the artist is playing the same set of notes ( excluding gamakas ).

CML: Your doctoring of the picture is quite clever. Your point is not confined to the graha bhedam, I suppose. All I see in the inverted picture is a 'dot' wearing female santa claus with a black beard

[arasi]

VK,
Fur clad dames, besides being passe are also targets for a can of spray paint these days.
I see your point too. With all the analysis and calculations which make the study of CM fascinating, what matters in the end is the joy it brings--an inexpressible, intriguing feeling of beauty. Call it spiritual if you wish. The images of music can be as tricky to discern as this picture. I think there is a point in your posting it. It is similar to the ear playing tricks with the music we hear--some of us with preconceived notions and others with an unschooled freshness in their approach.

In teasing you, CML got to add to the collection and got creative (a hand at graffiti?) in the process...

[cmlover]

VK
" An aged widower brahmin Tamil PaNDithar was carryin a heavy head load of vegetables with the pumpkin glaringly visible. His friend who also was a scholar jokingly queried:
"thalaividivasam?" (thalaivi +divasam = Is it for the shrAddha ceremony of your wife?)

The struggling brahmin responded quickly:
thalaividivasam! (Of course it is my wife's shraddha ceremony; Or indirectly it is "thalai vidi vasam" (it is the fate on my head!)

Have your pick Like the same music evoking different emotions in different folks. Can somebody give an example of a raga (with an example) evoking diametrically opposite emotions (eg., anger /tranquility (raudram/shAntam) ?

[shanks]

Guys,
Listen to this recording of S Kalyanaraman; the bedam occurs about 3:50 into the recording. But you can feel that he is setting up for the bedam exercise from the moment he starts on hamsanandi.

http://rapidshare.com/files/47604818/S_ ... m.mp3.html

there is the theory or concept and then there is execution - what matters for a musician is the execution. And you see a fabulous example of execution.

Uday: When you start talking about tonic shift as in the beatles song, what they are doing is transposing to a different tonic, but the melody itself remains the same. You will also find that while one guy is on a tonic, there is another guy singing in another.

I have heard music that was written/notated in G minor being played in D minor - the guys playing it could transpose on the fly.

Shankar

[jagan]

An analysis of Swara / Graha Bedha and how it leads to inconsistencies in the sruti, swara and oscillations and the resultant mutilation of the raga (Raga Chidaivu) is available in the book " Isai Kalai Vallunargal " by the great veena vidwan Prof. V.S. Gomathi Sankara Iyer, of Annamalai University. (Pages 184 to 210). But it is highly technical.

[Jigyaasa]

Here is a lecdem of kalyanraman on this sibject for an hour or so.

http://rapidshare.de/files/20484545/gra ... 1.mp3.html

http://rapidshare.de/files/20485538/gra ... 2.mp3.html

Could some1 who downloaded this lecdem PLEASE repost it... I missed it when it was around but would deem it INVALUABLE... So I'd be extremely grateful if some1 could oblige...
Also, I have heard of a shrutibhEdam from AnandabhairavI to nAsikAbhUshaNI or vice-versa from a not-so-reliable source... Is this theoretically correct? Does anyone know of an artiste having worked on shrutibhEdam with vivAdi rAgAs?

[thathwamasi]

Just read about the earlier clip. I have been dying to listen to that clip, if its the Lalgudi Thillana in Tilang. Lalgudi Sir plays it in Madhyama Shruti, which if we tend to listen from Sama shruti, will make it sound like Varamu (though it isnt varamu technically because of the use of Ga3 as well as Ga2 in the place of Ni1 and Ni2 for tilang).

Please can someone post it. The anupallavi of that thillana is something I can drool over again and again and again.

Thanks
T

[ramakriya]

Just read about the earlier clip. I have been dying to listen to that clip, if its the Lalgudi Thillana in Tilang. Lalgudi Sir plays it in Madhyama Shruti, which if we tend to listen from Sama shruti, will make it sound like Varamu (though it isnt varamu technically because of the use of Ga3 as well as Ga2 in the place of Ni1 and Ni2 for tilang).

Please can someone post it. The anupallavi of that thillana is something I can drool over again and again and again.

Thanks
T

Thattwamasi,

I hope I have this clip, and will try to upload.

-Ramakriya

[ramakriya]

Until I find the violin track, here is the tillAna played by Dr. N Ramani.

http://www.musicindiaonline.com/p/x/z4K ... As1NMvHdW/

-Ramakriya

[Sundar Krishnan]

Hello “msakellaâ€

[msakella]

Dear brother-member, Sundar Krishnan,

In the pdf file, Symbolised Kampitas and Gamakas, furnished in my mp3 CD, AMS Easy Methods-2007, in the 1st page itself the Kampita and Gamaka are defined along with examples. While the oscillation of a note in relation with its adjacent (either upper or lower) note is Kampita, the note which starts oscillating from its second upper note up to the original note only is Lalitha-gamaka and the note which swings between the second upper note and the immediate lower note of a particular note is Sampradaya-gamaka.

Among the 12 notes while Shadja and Panchama are permanent plain notes and the upper and lower adjacent notes of both Shadja and Panchama which are R1, N3, D1 and M2 are permanent Kampitas (till now 6 notes are over) the remaining 6 notes can be used as either plain-notes or Kampita-notes or Gamaka-notes. But, among them, the Sampradaya-gamaka should be applied only to 3 notes, Sadharana-gandhara (G2), Shuddha-madhyama(M1) and Kaishiki-nishada (N2). In Kampita the Shuddha-madhyama should always be sung or played basing upon its lower adjacent note, Antara-gandhara only. The Shuddha-madhyama (m1) in Khamas should be used with Kampita either in the Arohana or Avarohana and with Sampradaya-gamaka of the downward glide from D2 to G3 in the ‘sangathis’ ‘p s n d M’ or ‘s s n d M’ – pnDnp pmMrG M. In Shankarabharana the Madhyama should be used either as a plain-note or Kampita-note or Gamaka note.

Lalitha-gamaka and Sampradaya-gamaka are the 2 varieties of gamakas. Please don’t think that Lalitha-gamaka occurs in Lalitha-raga only. Shuddha-madhyama (M1) in Lalitha-raga is a plain note only.

As this is a practical subject this must be explained through a demonstration only but not in terms of letters and words. If you are not satisfied (you may not) and if you have broadband internet you can contact my ID ‘msakella2002’ either on Yahoo Messenger or Skype around 8 am or pm (IST) ony day to speak to me in which I can demonstrate the details. amsharma.

[Sundar Krishnan]

Hello Mr Uday Shankar, [and also Mr A M Sharma (“msakellaâ€

[Sundar Krishnan]

Dear Mr A M Sharma (“msakellaâ€

[msakella]

Dear brother-member, Sundar Krishnan, When I saw your first post I thought that you want some clarification of Gamakas and I replied in a way I can. Now, having gone through your two posts, as a non-expert in English but knowing a little of music, at last I became unable to make out what you want to know. In my case, in such cases, personal discussions only help much than this kind of messages. So I hope you don’t mind if I stop here. amsharma.

[Sundar Krishnan]

The foll Pt Nos refer to the Point-Numbers in my msg dt 2008-10-03 14:31 (http://www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=92518#p92518)

Pt No 2) I would have appreciated if “msakellaâ€

[vasanthakokilam]

[quote]Sundar Krishnan wroe:
I also do not have yr “Symbolised Kampitas and Gamakasâ€

[vrsh-a]

can someone please repost the s kalyanaraman lecture demo files
thankz

~vrsh-a

[nmdharan]

hi the discussion is very good!! Actually speaking, while one does graha bedam, I think the progress has to be made note by note!! its obvious that when singing sankarabaranam, sa-sa should be sung followed by ri-ri and so on because one cannot just jump from sa to ma (this is the assumption that i make from the theory that i have read. I am not sure if it is upto the singer to choose that ragaas they sing becausee then there is no need to explain the pattern that forms with graha bedam and moorchana)!
I am looking forward for any further inputs.