In a previous post, we discussed a few drawbacks of the Western staff notation. We also stated there that our westernized-indian notation (called the JIM notation) tries to fill in a few of the gaps. In this post we would like to discuss in some detail why we prefer the JIM notation.
Let’s start with a very brief description of Indian classical music and it’s main drawbacks.
Indian classical music, while being very rich and expressive in its form – lacks a universally-accepted written notation. It is an art form that is traditionally handed down from a teacher (guru) to a student. The drawback with the oral transmission of skill and knowledge is that it is limited to students who can have face to face interaction with their guru. For example, if one wants to learn a composition from a famous Indian composer, it would involve the difficult task of finding someone from his lineage of students.
Many schools, teachers and students of Indian music today rely on some form of written notation but in a majority of cases, these attempts at a written notation fail to express the full range of musical information required to understand a piece of music.
The JIM notation is based on the seven basic Indian notes Sa Re/Ri Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni. These are comparable to the Western Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti.
What is the benefit of using these notes?
- The use of these notes enable singing of a song without the use of lyrics.
- Since the notes are not pictographical but are basically letters, they require no ‘translation’ and can be immediately interpreted by the mind to link to the corresponding note on the instrument. This enables students to ‘sight-read’ much faster than when learning staff notation.
- Since the ‘S’ (Sa) simply denotes the tonic on any scale, transposing a song to a different scale becomes very simple. The notes remain the same, requiring nothing more than a shift in the scale / hand position. This cannot be done in staff notation, where transposing is often a difficult and time-consuming process.
The JIM notation also lends itself to the writing and learning of ragas. Ragas are a central feature of Indian classical music and will be discussed in more detail in another post. Ragas are particularly hard to write using staff notation, which limits a song to a certain ‘key’. Such limitations do not exist with the JIM notation.
At the same time, the JIM notation is rich in expression and functionality, as will be explained in a future blog post in more detail. It consists of a precise structure and consists of all the basics of musical notation such as note values, rests, bars, repeat symbols, time signature and the like. Thus, the JIM notation adapts the functionality of staff notation to Indian notes. So, the communication of music can be easier.
Having said that however, we always should bear in mind that Indian classical music relies less on composition and more on improvisation and so a musician is never bound by his notes, and there is always room for improvisation during a performance. This is quite different to a Western orchestral performance, where all the musicians are bound by precise notation and the beauty of the piece relies on the harmony more than any improvisation by individuals.
In summary, we see that the JIM notation tries to bridge the gap between western and Indian music and brings with it many advantages.
- Intuitive and easy to learn
- Easy to sing without lyrics
- Rich in functionality
- Easy to transpose
- Translates well to both Indian and Western music
