Beginner chords lesson

Now its good time for us to expand our horizons and learn something about Indian Classical Music (ICM).

There is plethora of information floating on net and its very hard to find a consolidated and systematic way to learn. I am starting this thread with the purpose to learn and understand ICM step by step. I would like to emphasis on word "understand" because without it you will not appreciate ICM.

All of you who want to come along with me on this exciting voyage are most welcome!

So lets start answering with the most basic question:
"How will I map Sa Re Ga Ma ..." on Guitar?

The only thing require for remembering this mapping is that western's note "C" maps to Indian's note "Sa".

Here is complete mapping:
C - Sa
D - Re
E - Ga
F - m
G - Pa
A - Dha
B - Ni

Why I have used 'm' instead of 'Ma' will require more knowledge to understand which will get cleared in subsequent posts. For the time being just denote Ma with 'm'.

Here is fretboard with Indian Notes:



e|-F/m---|-------|-G/Pa--|-------|-A/Dha-|-------|-B/Ni--|-C/Sa--|-------|-D/Re--|-------|
B|-C/Sa--|-------|-D/Re--|-------|-E/Ga--|--F/m--|-------|-G/Pa--|-------|-A/Dha-|-------|
G|-------|-A/Dha-|-------|-B/Ni--|-C/Sa--|-------|-D/Re--|-------|-E/Ga--|-F/m---|-------|
D|-------|-E/Ga--|-F/m---|-------|-G/Pa--|-------|-A/Dha-|-------|-B/Ni--|-C/Sa--|-------|
A|-------|-B/Ni--|-C/Sa--|-------|-D/Re--|-------|-E/Ga--|-F/m---|-G/Pa--|-------|-------|
E|-F/m---|-------|-G/Pa--|-------|-A/Dha-|-------|-B/Ni--|-C/Sa--|-------|-D/Re--|-------|

I have highlighted 3 "Sa"-s. These are in comfortable zone of hand. Later we will find that most of the raags require movement on 3 octaves and hence frets 5 to 8 I find more convenient to play them.

Just practice Sa Re Ga m... in ascending and descending order till we meet again with more exciting stuff.