The first full fledged software for playing Carnatic Music by entering
'sa ri ga ma' notation
No need to learn the staff notation to compose and play Carnatic Music!

Now you can enter notation in the Carnatic Style - just copy from any book of Carnatic Music compositions with notation and play it! Choose Veena or Flute from and your own natural Sruthi (a choice of 13 sruthis - from lower octave of 6.5 kattai, usually referred to as 'half kattai', upto 6.5 kattai) and play with thamboora in the background! Special enhancements of the notation enable you to control the smoothness of the transit between the notes and vary the pitch of a note by microtones and enable playing all types of gamakams.

A boon to students. An invaluable aid to teachers and musicians who want to set the krithis to notation and check for aksharams and tune.

Click for Frequently Asked Questions about Gaayaka.

This is how the GAAYAKA screen looks (with a sample of notation entered). Click anywhere on the picture to here the music. (For playing on the web the music is saved as .mp3. With the software the music is directly produced and can be saved in .wav format) Alternatively click here to download the .mp3 file which has been generated from the .wav file saved from the Gaayaka program

In the software you have many choices - you can change the tempo or sruthi, select a block to be played, choose loop mode for repeated play. You can fine adjust the sruthi (to suit instruments like Flute with aadhara sruthi which may not coincide with the standard sruthis). You can not only play the notation but literally 'play with it' !  


Gaayaka Screen


The Highlights of GAAYAKA are:
  • Use 'sa ri ga ma' notation with minor changes to make it easy for entry.
  • Select Melam or choose individual notes to define the scale.
  • Use ';' or ',' for pauses or lengthening notes as is the current practice.
  • Vary note pitches minutely, control the transit duration between notes and thus produce gamakam.
  • Group the notes for continuity or break where required.
  • Set desired tempo - note duration from 1/100 to 1 second which can be prolonged with ',' or ';' and which is further adjusted for the Kaalam in the notation.
  • Quickly check the number of notes in a block (with automatic calculation of half notes, quarter notes etc.)
  • Choice available to highlight the notation being played
  • Single key operation F12 for Play, Esc for Stop, F11 to select current line.
  • Option to start playing from current cursor position or beginning of the file. << New in Version 2
  • Select Auto-thaalam, define thaalam and notes per aksharam and generate thaalam automatically with 2 diferent sounds (one for the beat and other for the count or wave) - useful for practicing lessons.
  • Manual thaalam (generated by putting + symbol where required) as in preveious versions is also available
  • Fine adjust sruthi to practice with instruments like Flute with fixed sruthi.
  • Choose either natural scale (normal) or Equally tempered scale (as in an Electronic Keyboard).
  • Change the melam in the middle of a file - for Raagamalika
  • Change the tempo in the middle of a file - for nadai (gathi) change.
  • Change the instrument in the middle of the file << New in Version 2
  • Convert a block of notation to upper or lower ocatave quickly using the menu from Edit menu.
  • Add words of lyric or other comments for reference.
  • Extensive on line help for using the software.
  • Tips on notation for gamakams - ready made notation for common gamakams of common raagams - copy and paste them.
  • The tips on gamakams also available as .gka files for proper grasp of the concepts. << New in Version 2
  • Tool bars for quick entry of notation or access to gamakam codes.
  • Sample notation files of Varnams and Krithis. Listen to the krithis and you may think it is recorded music!
  • A set of beginners lessons (Sarali, Janta, Dhaattu, Melsthaayi varisais and Geethams) with and without gamakam and a few Varnams with gamakam are provided.
  • Using thambura.gka file convert your PC into an electronic thamboora if necessary with a thalameter added !
  • Save your composition as text (.gka) file - or as a .wav file if you want to use it in other applications or play it in PC's not having Gaayaka.  
  • More notation files put up on this website periodically for downloading and playing. See the Some Gaayaka Files link.
  • Compose a new song or set some song to Gaayaka notation and send it to the author for putting up on this website. See the Users Contributions link.  

 
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About Novice
FAQ
How to Get Rasika-Gaayaka
Other Music sites
Some Gaayaka files
Users' Contributions
Tuning Test Program
About the author