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Show HN: SwaraNotebook – a notation editor for Indian classical music

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Show HN: SwaraNotebook – a notation editor for Indian classical music

#1

Post by shark8me »

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

Show HN: SwaraNotebook – a notation editor for Indian classical music
swaranotebook.com

Re: Show HN: SwaraNotebook – a notation editor for Indian classical music

#4

Post by abdullahkhalids »

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.

Re: Show HN: SwaraNotebook – a notation editor for Indian classical music

#6

Post by shark8me »

xaqtiman wrote: post #5

Very nice. As a beginner Hindustani student, this tool is helpful in both vocals and playing around with different ragas.

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.

Re: Show HN: SwaraNotebook – a notation editor for Indian classical music

#7

Post by shark8me »

abdullahkhalids wrote: post #4

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.

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 ?

Re: Show HN: SwaraNotebook – a notation editor for Indian classical music

#8

Post by svat »

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/Rāga would automatically populate with a representative song in that rāga :-)

• 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 rāga will set all the svaras to those of that rāga — 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…)

Re: Show HN: SwaraNotebook – a notation editor for Indian classical music

#9

Post by abdullahkhalids »

shark8me wrote: post #7
abdullahkhalids wrote: post #4

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.

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 ?

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.

Re: Show HN: SwaraNotebook – a notation editor for Indian classical music

#10

Post by shark8me »

svat wrote: post #8

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/Rāga would automatically populate with…

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.

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