Musical Words and Symbols 

Alright, before we dive into playing anything in Hindustani classical music, we have to get comfortable with the notation system. Think of it like learning the alphabet before reading — once you understand these signs, every bandish or composition will make a lot more sense.

In Hindustani music, we mainly use two notation systems:

1. Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande Notation System
   
   

2. Vishnu Digambar Paluskar Notation System

Let’s walk through each one

1) Bhatkhande Notation System (the one you’ll see the most)

This system is super common, so you’ll probably use it the most while learning.

• Natural note (Shuddh swara): just the plain letter, no symbol.
  
  

• Flat note (Komal swara): the note is underlined.
  
  

• Sharp note (Tivra swara): a vertical line above the note.
  
  

• Lower octave (Mandra saptak): one dot below the swara.
  
  

• Middle octave: nothing at all — the note stays plain.
  
  

• Higher octave (Taar saptak): one dot above the swara.

Now, about beats:

• 1 beat = 1 hyphen
  
  

• 2 beats = 2 hyphens
  
  

• ½ beat = a little curved underline that covers two notes
  
  

• 1½ beats = covers one note fully + half of the next
  
  

• And the same idea extends to ⅓, ¼, etc.
  
  

• The Sam (first beat of the cycle) is shown with an X.
  
  

2) Paluskar Notation System

This one is slightly different but still pretty straightforward once you see the symbols.

• Natural note: again, no symbol.
  
  

• Komal (flat) swara: a right-slanting line below the note.
  
  

• Tivra (sharp) swara: a left-slanting line below the note.
  
  

• Lower octave: dot above the note.
  
  

• Middle octave: nothing, plain again.
  
  

• Higher octave: a vertical line above the note.
  
  

And the beats in this system have their own style:

• 1 beat = “_”
  
  

• ½ beat = a tiny circle below the note
  
  

• 1½ beats = a star above the note + a dot after it
  
  

• ¼ beat = same symbol as the ½-beat sign from the other system
  
  

• Sam is marked as q
  
  

PEACE !  🎻  There is no Hindustani Music Emoji btw...