Dear All,
I have Chromatic Hohner 16 holes harmonica. I am learning classical style of India’s SARAGAM sa, re, ga, ma, pa dha, mi saa.
I found 7th hole as saragam’s beginning (sa, re,ga, ma,… ). however, i also feel 8th is also beigning hole of saragam. So, how to identify “actual begining of sa,re,ga,ma”… saragam?
Please guide.
Hallo Chandra
Thanks for your post! On the chromatic harmonica, sa (=do) is found as a blow note in holes 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 12, 13 and 16, and as a draw note with slide pressed in in holes 4, 7 and 12. This means that there are different possible ways of playing this particular note. The player will usually choose the option which fits most conveniently to the preceeding and following notes.
The complete major scale you describe is probably easiest to play in the key of C starting on 5- or 9-blow. If you start on 7-blow as you describe, the first 6 natural notes also correspond to the first 6 notes of this scale, but in the key of G. The 7th note however will be a semitone lower than the mi note you’re looking for. You can raise it to the correct note value by pushing the slide in. Then you would have the complete SARAGAM scale in G.
There are a number of Indian harmonica groups on Facebook, where I’m sure you’ll be able to find guidance from players who are much more familiar with Indian musical genres than I am.
Hope this helps,
regards
Steve
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