Basics of Carnatic and Hindustani Classical music

Because the origins of both Carnatic classical and Hindustani classical music are the same, they share the same basic concepts. The raga is the melody and tala is the rhythmic cycle. The elements of raga can be classified as nada and sruti. A raga is constructed according to the swaras it consist. Swaras are Sa, Ri, Ga, Ma, Pa, Tha and Ni similar to the western C, D, E, F, G, A and B respectively. A set of these swaras can be called a sapthak. Raga can be created using five or more of these swaras either going up the scale, aaroha, or down the scale, avroha. Through its journey, Indian music has also discovered 72 melakarta ragas or ragas which touch all seven notes of a scale. Adding on, the sruti is the pitch of a particular song. Meaning that a song which is in a particular raga can be the sruti of the song. The sruti can be changed to suit the singer but the raga of the particular song cannot be changed. A singer is to sing a song sounding all the swaras the song specifies.