[HN Gopher] Show HN: SwaraNotebook - a notation editor for India...
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Show HN: SwaraNotebook - a notation editor for Indian classical
music
As an enthusiast of Indian classical music, I needed to write music
notations in the traditional typeset format. When I didn't find any
existing editors, I developed a Swara Notebook, a mobile focused
web app to write North Indian Classical ( _Hindustani_ ) music
notations. The notes (called _Sargam_ , similar to Solfege) can be
written in English, Devnagri and Bangla scripts. The transcribed
song can be played back in 6 different rhythmic cycles ( _Taal_ )
to the accompaniment of the _Tabla_ (a type of drum) or a
metronome. Here's an example of a transcribed song
https://swaranotebook.com/view/vlB9hVgb5OdKcadbhOOYyzKwvpl2/...
Since North Indian classical music is oriented around _Ragas_
(similar to modes in western classical music), the keyboard adapts
to the notes of a _Raga_ , making it contextually easier to key in
notes. A common question I get: can it handle microtones? I chose
to not support microtones and other pitch ornamentation such as
glissando (called _Meend_ ) since a mobile interface is not the
easiest place to add such details. I also find it a useful tool
for ear training, by typing out notations to songs I know, and
playing it back to know if I guessed the notes right. It is an
open source project written in Clojure/script
https://github.com/Studio-kalavati/bandish-editor
Author : shark8me
Score : 78 points
Date : 2023-11-28 02:34 UTC (20 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (swaranotebook.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (swaranotebook.com)
| SuperNinKenDo wrote:
| Sounds awesome. Do you have any tips on getting started with this
| kind of musical tradition?
| shark8me wrote:
| I got hooked by listening to it, here's a piece that I've quite
| like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfMHiTIm-zc
| delphico wrote:
| There are multiple classical musical schools, the most
| prominent are the Hindustani (Indo-Persian) and Carnatic music.
| There is commonality in both with respect to notes and how
| combinations are formed to raag/raagas
|
| Here is an example of Carnatic music for beginners
| (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YNv1qwxJ0o)
| abdullahkhalids wrote:
| Very cool. I play the tabla, and perhaps a tabla variant of this
| would be useful. For this, I imagine, we will need
|
| - Tabla sounds for both bayan and dayan
|
| - Better handling of taal and timing. Initially double or
| quadruple time but later polyrhythmic structure.
|
| Tabla would also benefit from annotations, say for labeling the
| tihai, etc.
| shark8me wrote:
| That's an interesting use-case. There are 37 buttons in the
| keyboard (for 12 svaras, 3 octaves, plus 1). How many might be
| needed for the Tabla? Is there a 'universal' set of Tabla
| _Bols_ ?
| abdullahkhalids wrote:
| I know that there has been a lot of work done in India for
| writing down Tabla. I am Pakistani, and I can't read hindi in
| devanagari script, so I am not familiar with this work. Here
| is my understanding.
|
| In tabla a bol is equal to hitting one or both drums at a
| given moment.
|
| The dayan (the smaller one) roughly has a set of standard
| 'hits'. At least 8. But the same hit can be done with
| different fingers, which has different effects. I am also not
| sure how to classify dhir dhir, which is played by
| striking/rubbing the palm of the hand across the surface back
| and forth.
|
| The bayan is much more complicated. Technically, there are
| only two types of hits on it, either an open handed hit with
| the finger tips or a closed handed hit with the palm. But, in
| practice there are many more, because by pressing with the
| base of the hand/wrist on the surface while striking, one can
| change the note (frequency) being played.
|
| Anyway, I think combining two drums, there are maybe 16
| simple bols you can play. You miss out quite a lot by trying
| to write it down in a simple way because of the
| aforementioned modulation. But perhaps simple compositions or
| tukrai can be written down.
| shark8me wrote:
| That's cool! I'm a big fan of Ustad Tari Khan's tabla
| style.
|
| So what language would you write a composition in? Urdu, or
| English?
|
| I'm somewhat familiar with the bols since I learnt the
| Tabla a long time ago. 16 sounds a manageable number. Of
| course, putting together the audio samples to play a piece
| and making it sound non-robotic would be another challenge.
|
| But another question is: would you find such a tool useful?
| There's a similar trend with Raga music, because recording
| is so easy now, few seem to want to take the trouble to
| write down notes. Would you, as a Tabla practitioner want
| to write down a composition? <and do similar tools exist
| already?>
| abdullahkhalids wrote:
| I would not use a written down version over a memorized
| version because it misses all the nuances of the piece.
| But a playable tool for Tabla would be useful for
| learning, for instance, polyrhythmic practice. As someone
| who started learning Tabla (and music) in my 30s, I don't
| even have the neurons in my brain for that kind of stuff.
| Just listening and playing along will be a huge aid in
| the absence of a live teacher.
| xaqtiman wrote:
| Very nice. As a beginner Hindustani student, this tool is helpful
| in both vocals and playing around with different ragas.
| shark8me wrote:
| And also for playing with Taal, an unintended use-case is: you
| could write a composition in one Taal, and then change the Taal
| to see how sounds in another Taal. Of course since the cycle
| won't end on the Sam in the new Taal, it won't sound as clean.
|
| Question: Do you think it'll be useful to record vocals along
| with it? That way one can vocalize Meends and other ornamental
| features without having to write it.
| svat wrote:
| Very nice, thanks for sharing! Some feedback (I'm not a musician
| and know very little, so take all this completely not seriously):
|
| * The tool would be easier to understand and get started, if you
| pre-populated it with some example songs (like the example
| notebook you linked in the post here, but which AFAICT isn't
| reachable from the tool itself). Even better if selecting a
| Raag/Raga would automatically populate with a representative song
| in that raga :-)
|
| * Is it only meant to be used from mobile? From a laptop, the
| keyboard seems to do nothing (hitting backspace, etc).
|
| * Really love the feature when selecting a raga will set all the
| svaras to those of that raga -- if the keyboard worked, this
| would mean one could mash random keys on the keyboard and get
| something that sounds somewhat nice / appropriate :-) (I can kind
| of do this on mobile already! But on mobile the finger tends to
| move less randomly...)
| shark8me wrote:
| Thanks for the detailed feedback
|
| | example song
|
| I guess having a default page pre-populated with an example
| song is nice for a demo or a first-time user. But for someone
| who wants to write a new song, having to delete the pre-
| populated song could be irksome.
|
| The default keyboard shows only the _shuddha_ or regular swaras
| btw.
|
| I didn't follow what you meant by "the example notebook is not
| reachable for the tool". You could just edit that song (https:/
| /swaranotebook.com/view/vlB9hVgb5OdKcadbhOOYyzKwvpl2/...) and
| save it as a new copy.
|
| | mobile
|
| The Swara keys (example: the "r/R" key) are used in twice in
| each octave, and because there are 3 octaves shown, there are 6
| variations , which is difficult to input on a physical keyboard
| without having additional modifier keys to indicate the octave.
| For some keys (like the backspace), it would be
| straightforward. It sure is possible, just haven't worked out
| what would be ergonomic.
| abdullahkhalids wrote:
| Just add a menu to add some sample pieces.
| subhashp wrote:
| This is awesome!
|
| I was looking for software, where I could input notes of Hindi
| songs. And then replay them in a loop to practice singing the
| song. I will try your application.
| shark8me wrote:
| Neat! You could add the lyrics below each note as well. The
| lyrics section is hidden by default, you could go to the gear (
| ) icon and enable it.
|
| And not just for Hindi songs, but for any song that can be
| imagined in Swaras. Here's Boney M's Rasputin written as a
| notebook
| https://swaranotebook.com/view/vlB9hVgb5OdKcadbhOOYyzKwvpl2/...
| d13 wrote:
| You may want to take a look at this too:
| https://github.com/sargam/digital
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(page generated 2023-11-28 23:00 UTC)