22 Shrutis Simplified - Chapter 2: The Fundamentals

India contains a vast storehouse of ancient knowledge. Indian Classical Music, known to invoke spirituality, is based on the principle of perfect consonance. Carrying the wisdom of the ancients forward, for perhaps the first time ever, the exact mathematical positions of the notes used in Indian Classical Music have been discovered and documented in this Knowledge Series '22 Shrutis Simplified'. The mammoth research has been undertaken by Dr. Vidyadhar Oke. The conceptualization & creation of this series was done by Dr. Sangeeta Shankar, making it accessible and understandable to everyone.
The aim of this series is to understand, grasp & apply the knowledge of the 22 shrutis. The 22 Shrutis are based on universal laws & principles. Every concept has been broken into parts and explained in a great level of detail. Downloadable charts will be added to the description soon. We invite musicians of all abilities, and listeners with a discerning ear to mention their valuable comments & discuss the unlimited possibilities opened up due to the documentation of this knowledge.
'Chapter 2: The Fundamentals' covers the principles of sound frequency, harmonics and gives a detailed understanding of the differences between the 22 shruti scale and the commonly used equitempered scale. This is in continuation of Chapter 1: In a Nutshell. For a further understanding of the ratios, distances, positions and how they were arrived at, do watch Chapter 3: The Science Behind It. Chapter 4 and 5 contain practical demonstrations and 'how to use' in today's technology.
Research by: Dr. Vidyadhar Oke
Conceptualized & Created by: Dr. Sangeeta Shankar
Camera: Karan Tolani
Video Edit: Rakshit Malhotra, Nandini Shankar

[@umeshsharma7040]

Beautiful, amazing, to-the-point, and still thorough. No extra stories, no extra analogies, no extra talks -- everything to-the-point, pure gold! Sangeeta ji: You are quite something! You are a gem! So much knowledgeable, and such a beautiful presentation by you. God bless you! 👏👏🙌🙌🌹🌹.

[@amitghorpade]

Brilliant work!!!

[@farhanfarooq8410]

Mam You are really distributing Gold . Thank you so much God bless you 😊

[@onesyphorus]

thats so cool!!' i am trying to understand 19 edo, so seeing 22 (ik not edo) notes per octave is very interesting here!!' love from SL 🇱🇰

[@anjalikaleledhodapkar7874]

Beautiful playing of the violin! Goosebumps!

[@sakuntalaramaswamy7915]

Most Interesting and Elevating Presentation. Beautifully Brought out Facts, with super analogy. 👌👌👌❤❤❤

[@benupchettri]

Amazing video …thank u so much ❤

[@-1-alex-1-]

I read about 22 shrutis in a book, wanted to know more and came across this video - wow, it's such a clear and simple explanation! Amazing! Thank you.

[@zMukulSingh]

🙏❣️

[@sharma_vikas]

Very well explained. You're doing great service to our Indian Classical Music and I wish you all the best!

[@TNAOD]

Today was the first day i fully understood ragas, thank you for this amazing, clear explanation.

[@pattarveeranna]

Deeply explained.. Touched the heart..everything is there in music.. Madam, thank you so much.. Congratulations...🙏

[@mksarav75]

Accidently saw this video on youtube when I was looking for something about sruthi. What an amazing series! By God's grace I happened to see this. Excellent and crystal clear explanation.

[@umeshsharma7040]

Ditto. Very well expressed! I echo that as well.

[@birendralal9398]

Thanks for this lucid explanation of shrutis and ragas. Indebted to you..

[@अनंतB]

शत शत नमन, बहुत details mei aap ne explain kiya and beautifully played violin 🎻 for different ragas. 👏 🙏

[@steverox8141]

Great explanation eliciting enthusiasm & fascination for Indian Classical Music amidst all the contemporary Minimalistic compositions. Thank you mam for all your efforts in making these videos.

[@Vikram-wx4hg]

The just tempered major chords sound so sexy! WoW!

[@MxTayano]

This series has been one of the best I have ever watched. Thank you for putting it together

[@arsreedhar]

[Rather Long..] This is an amazing series and I started watching only recently. Thoroughly enjoying amd very happy to see this compilation. Very nicely done. Kudos to Sangeetha and her team of collaborators. I am writing this to add some clarification and not as a contradiction to the spirit of what is being presented here on 22 shruthis. I also hope this is not redundant, in case whatever I am writing here has been already addressed and/or discussed elsewhere in this series or in their comments. True, Pianos are completely out because of their design center being tempered chord music. But this is not the case with Music Keyboards and many new digital instruments, notably on iPad. One can completely escape the equi-tempered world by buying a proper keyboard, or digital instrument on iPad and configuring it properly (pretty easily). Almost any keyboard beyond simple cheap keyboards, (like Korg, Technics, Native Instruments, and even some cheap Yamaha and Casio) do provide/support alternate world scale tunings, including Custom Scales. I have several keyboards going back to 20+ years and I always play them with Indian Tuning (plus custom pitches for selected notes as needed for some ragas). Of course with vigorous use of Pitch bend Wheel and Joysticks. While real Physical Instruments are a league by themselves, these electronic keyboards have many distinct advantages, which accrue without losing much in the way of authenticity of ragas and melodies. Of course I do not play chords at all, and no polyphonic music (except when I know they will be in perfect harmony, eg S-P-S' so on). Guitar strumming for accompaniment, is an interesting case, when the polyphonic notes that are strummed stick to natural scale notes that are in harmony in the raga. This does not mean advanced keyboards fully support Natural Scale Music - as their design centers are still Chord-based Polyphonic music. One runs into many cliffs. For example, drum kits are tuned to C - and do not transpose. Unless a user takes lot of efforts to create different drum kits tuned to align with pitches that may be selected for Sa, plus do fine tuning, melody and accompaniments can easily go out of tune. Painful to see this in many youtube videos, sadly destroying the beautiful lead melodies. Beyond these, while one may play and record with the right scale for a Raga, and right drumkit pitches in sync with actual Sa selected, but replay goes back into distorted scale, as they are not remembered. However, a good point to note is that Pythagorean Tuning, is very close and almost same as the natural scale for Indian Ragas, and often remembered during replay, unlike custom tunings. So it is a very good tuning scale to use, when a keyboard offers it. I would like to highlight a few iPad instruments. AudioKit Synth One (Freeware with Amazing Support for Complex Tuning) and GeoShred Pro ($25 - for world scale, amazing expressiveness for Indian Classical Music. In case of the latter, though I am humbled to be acknowledged as a contributor, it is all good will and no commercial interests are involved. I would love to see these being explored and adopted by masses, as the networking effects alone will unleash new creativity and deepening of our heritage. Would love to hear from the presenters as well as from other passionate music lovers. regards Dr. Sridhar.

[@VidyadharOkeDr]

Thanks for your expert and detail observations. As for Indian Music (Hindustani or Carnatic), 22 'accurate' Shrutis in the selected scale are required, the instrument would not matter much. The 'selected Shrutis' in a Raga are always played or sung, 'connected with Nadas' (notes in-between) to create 'Alankaras' or 'Gamakas'. The Pythagorean scale cannot be 'very close and almost same as a natural scale for Indian Ragas', because the natural scale provides 22 shrutis (22 microtones) as required in various Indian Ragas. Regards, Dr. Oke.

[@arjunsubrahmanian7535]

Wonderful explanation!

[@arsreedhar]

@@arjunsubrahmanian7535 Thanks for reading that long note and taking the time to post an appreciative comment. I am also adding main comment addressed to you -- making it visible everyone. br Sri.

[@ssoupayan]

Exactly. This is another reason, specially for Dagarvani Dhrupad, we are envouraged to use only instrument like Tanpura, Veena and Pakhawaj. Using harmonium sometimes constricts both ear and vocal chord. It's very hard to unlearn that constricted sense and acquire the ability to detect the nuances of the Microtones. If you listen to the Multani, Hamsadhwani by Dagar Brothers, you can hear clearly that the notes are so immaculately placed. Once the swarasthana's are perfect and Bharat's formula of Samvad and ratio are maintained, the patterns start to form instinctive way. That's the reason, we don't have that much emphasis on Vaadi, Samvaadi, Pakad, Chalan in Dhrupad, as these will start emerging once you start establishing the swarasthaans. It's a very instinctive and meditative music.

[@arsreedhar]

@@ssoupayan I agree with you completely and strongly. I do not know why Harmonium is so much used in Hindustani Music. It beats me. It is rarely used if at all in Carnatic side. (Of course Bhajan folks use it - and I lament about that as well). I work with many so-called Indian Music Software products -- and I am aghast that they blatantly use Tempered Scales even for Tanpura and when I question them they say, well so many Indian Musicians have embraced the western scales and are fine with that. (A side note: In a simple analogy, most people cannot make them anymore and also do not know the real taste of Rosogolla, Gulab Jamun, Falooda etc. due to the concoctions Indian Restaurants world wide have been serving for decades now. Happily canned versions still maintain some standard. I hope Housewife cooking videos on KZbin arrest and reverse these distortions). I guess there are some harmoniums that are Custom Tuned to Singer's Natural Pitch and thereon to Non-Tempered Tuning. But I have not touched any of them as yet. Even there "landing or Nyasa" pitches for individual Swaras depending on the raga and there fore is compromised. What bothers me more is Indian children learning Piano -- as their musical ears are seriously destroyed musically to Indian music - in every possible manner. That too at a young age when they can absorb the divine melodies and complexities of Indian Classical Music. I can write a lot about this but will skip that for now. I am happy to see your post along with good examples. regards Sri.

[@dr.subratapal8496]

Simply superb demonstration. Afterall you are the daughter of my great great great Ammaji. Lots are awaited Mam for you and your two daughters.

[@vineetasatam8575]

Excellent explanation in brief ! Thank you !

[@krishnansriram5729]

Excellent explanation ...keep up the good work...

[@aishwaryapotdar1348]

thank you for sharing your wealth of knowledge!

[@smillingdavid86]

Good explanation. God bless you

[@musiclearner3535]

Your explanation or your knowledge is too good love from uttrakhand ❤️

[@oraayurvedaofficial]

🙏🌻🌞❤️ Thanks a lot, I always felt something missing in our music. You are like सरस्वती... Explaining the Creation 🎶🙏

[@arsreedhar]

This is an add-on to my long original comment. @Arjun Subramaniam you can see a few experimental songs I have uploaded in my KZbin channel all made with only Digital instruments. It would be disrespectful to Original posters, for me to post links or even parade some of my pieces. Nevertheless I am adding this note, so readers may have some concrete things to refer to. Hope they admit this comment. I would love to hear from you or any other readers who take some time to listen to my pieces in Shanmughapriya, Charukesi and Panthuvarali. These are what I would term as "Far less Fractal Oriented" compared to Carnatic Vocal Music (or even instrumentals) but should give you a good idea of creative possibilities with Digital Instruments and Technology. best regards Sri.

[@ganeshpawar2737]

Thanks Mam

[@malladinarayanasarma]

👍👍👍

[@sataddrumukherjee9013]

Mam can I play all 22 Shrutis in flute or any airy instrument?

[@user-wq2xu1rn2c]

is everyone messaging here actually able to differentiate between the consonant and disonant?! i cannot and i have been learning music all my life...

[@unplugged_ananya]

Are harmoniums tuned to 22 Shrutis or they are also equitempered?

[@amarkantkumar4233]

EQ

[@vasubhadania1495]

For Ga it says "Divide by 4 to get 3 octaves" ..... I have some confusion cos it must say "Divide by 3 to get 3 octaves"....... Can anyone please help......

[@arjunsubrahmanian7535]

Wonderful video, really helpful! Also, just for fun, take a shot everytime you hear "perfect consonance" lol 😂

[@shantiglam]

Thank you so much my Pranams to yall. May I know which keyboard you used ? Thanks

[@gopinath6970]

How to find one's natural sruthi! Is it possible to find one 's natural sruthi without asking anyone? Can you please help me in this regard?

[@arjunsubrahmanian7535]

For an adult male, usually your comfortable shruthi can occur anywhere between A to E. I would suggest try C first and see if you can sing the 7 notes comfortably and also reach lower Pa and Higher Pa comfortably. That's the test.

[@madhavparanjape1243]

Sorry. Went over head. Could not locate 22 and 24 shruties even on listening to yaman on synthesizer. No disconsonance was noticed in both the cases. Appears to be gugglery of words. Pt.Manohaji Chimote the Samvadini wizard used to explain the concept of Shruti very brilliantly and in a simple language and way without mincing words.

[@jbrupam8749]

"22 Shrutis Simplified" - To me, the "Physics and Mathematics" behind Physical Laws of Vibration of Strings is *OVERSIMPLIFIED.*