sangita lipi - The first ever carnatic notation workbook

[Sharanya Krishnamurthy]

For the first ever time in the history of Carnatic music, the art of writing notation has been given a standardized, easy-to-understand-and-use format. Authored by musician and researcher Vidwan Shri K.N.Shashikiran, the Carnatic notation workbook 'Sangita Lipi' aims to revive the art of notation-writing. With mp3 recorders becoming ubiquitous, students record compositions with them, making the concept of notating compositions virtually defunct. But digitally recorded music cannot possibly used for reference in the middle of a practice session or performance. This is where Sangita Lipi will come in handy for both students and performers.

Notation is a way of documenting songs for posterity. It will help in analyzing how ragas and compositions have evolved over the years and how they vary from one school of music to another.

Besides, many songs contain numerous variations (sangathis) which one may forget over time. A book that has all the compositions one has learnt, all notated in a systematic manner, would be the best memory aid!

Notation-writing helps a student learn faster. It improves one's swara-gnana, helps identify rhythmic intricacies and understand gamakas better. It is for these purposes that Sangita Lipi was conceptualized.

Sangita Lipi contains notation templates for all the commonly used talas - Adi (1 kalai, 2 kalai and tisra nadai), Rupaka, Misra Chapu, Khanda Chapu and the Suladi Sapta talas. Each song has a label, where the name of the song, the composer, the raga and its scale, the tala, the date and pitch can be written. The notation template is easy to understand and use - there are distinct markings at the end of each count, tala-component and tala-cycle, making the art of notation-writing an easy and enjoyable exercise!

The book also contains detailed explanations about notation, the various symbols used and how to notate. There is a guide to six language scripts that can be used to notate - Devanagari, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and English. The book also explains the various talas, the popular gamakas and the notation symbols used for them. There is a list of popular varnams and kritis, which can be used for reference.


Published by the College for World Music & Dance, Australia and priced at Rs. 250, the book is a must-buy for all students and performers of Carnatic music.

[msakella]

Going through your extensive post and believing it a reliable book for writing notation I have ordered for it expecting to learn something from it but to my utter disappointment therein found only five symbols for all our various Gamakas ( I have already brought out 60 symbolised Gamakas in my CD, AMS Easy Methods-2007 which is available from

http://sangeethamshare.org/chandra/AMS- ... hods-2007/),

a detailed list of compositions occupying nearly 30 pages and nearly 130 pages of Tala-wise-columns all for Rs.250/-. An A4 ruled book is far cheaper and convenient to write the compositions than this book. amsharma

[Rasika911]

60 symbolised gamakas are not required for the learning of carnatic music. Maybe you should write to the company or author and discuss your problem.

[msakella]

Dear brother-member, Rasika911, As I feel this discussion is more relevant with Kampitas & Gamakas I wrote my opinion under the sub-thread ‘Kampitas & Gamakas’ under the main thread ‘Sangitakalalaya’. amsharma

[srikant1987]

Memorising techniques to produce 60 gamakas out of context, and employing them to play an alapanai is like playing carrom board by measuring friction coefficent between the board and the coins, the striker, the paint on the board against the coins and the striker, the coefficient of restitution of collision between coins and between coins and the striker and then, after performing calculations for a few hours, determining at what angle to strike with how much force.