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The SARGAM (Indian notations) posted in this website are arranged in the following manner. Readers can take a clue from it and decipher the notations. The following is how generally the Indian notations are written, but it is not the thumbrule. You may find notations written in other style at other places. But for this website, we will be adhering to the following rules.
- CAPITAL LETTERS = Shuddh Swars (Flat Notes)
- small letters = Komal Swars (Low Notes)
- A Note with # [hash] = Tivra Swar (High Note)
- Letter/Alphabet ONLY = Medium/Normal Pitch
- Letter/Alphabet PRECEDED BY a”.” [full stop] or a”, ” [comma] = Low/Softer Pitch
- Letter/Alphabet FOLLOWED BY a ” ‘ “[single quote] = High Pitch
- Notes in{} = “murki” have to be played very fast without any pause
- A Note in ( ) = “kaan swar” has to be just touched before moving on to the next note
- A”~” between two Notes = “meend”. That is, you have to glide from one note to another slowly to produce that wavy effect.
In Indian classical music there is only one Tivra swar and that is Ma. Ma can be shuddh but cannot be komal.
Sa and Pa are stationary, means only shuddh, these cannot be played as komal.
Rest of the notes viz., Re Ga Dha and Ni can be played as both shudhh and komal Notes. Following chart will help you understand this:
| Shuddha | S | R | G | M | P | D | N |
| komal | – | r | g | – | – | d | n |
| TIVRA | – | – | – | M# | – | – | – |
The seven svaras and their names:
Sa – Shadja (षड्ज),
Re – Rishabh (ऋषभ),
Ga – Gandhar (गान्धार),
Ma – Madhyam (मध्यम),
Pa – Pancham (पंचम),
Dha – Dhaivat (धैवत)
Ni – Nishad (निषाद).
The svaras of the sargam are often learnt in abbreviated form: sā, ri (Carnatic) or re (Hindustani), ga, ma, pa, dha, ni.