Help for HTML Gaayaka -Carnatic Notation Player

[You can first try the examples to see the notation format. Click 'Examples' pull down menu and choose 'Sarali Plain' or 'Sarali Gamakam' and then click 'Play']

This new version allows entry of notation in upper and lower cases, upper case representing a double duration note. See para 3 below. It also has provsion for generating Thaalam sounds

Entering and playing notation
• Select Melam (2 Melam option lists are available-one in alphabetical order and the other in numerical order). Default is 29-Dheerasankaraabharanam. A list of Raagams under different Melams is available in this Wikipedia page.(It contains hundreds of ragas which are not in use and with no compositions. Search for the raga name. The Tamil version contains Janyas in alphabetical order).
• Enter note duration-the units are in 1/100 seconds. Ex. 32 means 32/100 seconds per note in lower case. Higher the number slower is the melody.
• Enter notation in 'S R G M..s r g m' format. The program assigns 2 units for notes in upper case and one unit for notes in lower case. If note duration is 32 then 'S' will be played for 64/100 secs. and 's' for 32/100 secs. Notation can be entered by typing the notes using keyboard and where necessary clicking "↓" or "↑" for lower/upper octaves OR by clicking on the tool bar. Click check box "Click for Upper Case Notes" and tool bar will show Upper case notes (In tablets and phones, when you use the tool bar the popup of keyboard is disabled. To use keys, click the 'Use Keypad' button).
• Separate notes into phrases using hyphen '-'. Important. Notes without '-' between will sound together as a phrase. (Veena plucking sound is at the beginning of phrase and sound will quickly die out). In simple krithis the hyphen may be placed at consonant points.
• For Thaarasthaayi add ↑ by clicking the symbol on the tool bar and for Mandrasthaayi use ↓. These symbols should come immediately after the note symbol. Or you can directly click on the required note in the tool bar.
• For prolonging a note use semicolon or comma - also for silences - each semicolon represents 2 note duration and each comma represents one note duration, irrespective of whether the note preceding is in Upper or Lower case. Semicolons and Commas are also used for silences. In such cases the comma or commas should be flanked by hyphen symbol ex. S-,-R means one unit silence after sa before ri is played.
• For halving note duration (higher kaalam) use brackets which replace lines above note used in ordinary notations. Remember to close the bracket when kaalam is to be restored. You can use brackets within brackets as in (R,(G R)). Here R is in 2nd kaalam and G R in 3rd kaalam. Click 'Note Count' button to check that brackets are balanced and also get the total note count taking into account half notes and prolonged notes.
• For Bhaashaanga Raagams (like Bhairavi) use '*' immediately after the anyaswaram note ex. in Bhairavi P-D*-N-S↑. If the note is in Thaarasthaayi or Mandhrasthaayi the '*' should come after the up or down arrow ex. in Kaanada -S-((S N↓* S (D↓) N↓,,))
• For slow transition between notes (jaaru) use one or more '/' or '\'. Each such symbol increases transits by 10 units (1/10 of sec.)
• To slightly reduce or increase the pitch of a note use < to increase and > to decrease after the note. More than one such symbol can be used for additional increase or decrease.
• When "*" and "↑" or "↓" and "<" or ">" symbols are used for a given note they should be used in the order ex. "R↑*<" immediately after the note symbol and without spaces in between. Commas and Jaaru symbols should come after these three symbols.
• To change Melam in the middle of a file (for Raagamalika) use -{Mxx}- where xx is the melam number. This directive should be flanked by hyphens. In such cases, put the Melam directive at the start of the file also for the initial melam and include the Melam directive when a part is selected for playing.(See 'Raagamaalika Thaanam' in the examples').
• Lyric or comments can be written inside square brackets [ ]. Anything inside these will be ignored in playing.
• Select Instrument (Default is Veena).Select Sruthi (Default is 3 kattai or E)
• To play the entire file click 'Play'. To play a part, select the part (using mouse or using Shift button) and click 'Play'. If you stopped playing in the middle of a file, if you want to start from the beginning, click at the beginning of notation.
• Enter notation in separate lines (say)covering one or half aavartham. Each line will be highlighted when played.
• Using notation which counts all notes (upper or lower case) as single notes: If the previous notation had all capital letters for notes, the symbols comma "," has to be changed to semicolon ";" and semicolon ";" in the previous notation has to be changed to 2 semicolons "; ;" and the note duration reduced by half. Alternatively, any text editor which can convert upper case to lower case can be used and the converted notation used as such. If the previous notation had only lower case notes no change will be necessary.

Saving and retrieving
18. Saving and retrieving notation: You can save the notation by clicking 'Save' button, entering name of the file (extension of .hgk is suggested) and navigating to the folder where you want to save it. The Melam number and note duration are also saved. In many systems the file may be automatically saved in the 'Downloads' folder. The behaviour is unpredictable for tablets or phones and it may not be possible to save using this button. In such cases you can select the entire notation and paste into a text editor (if available) and save it.
19. Notation saved from this page can be loaded using the 'Open' button and going to the folder where you have saved the file. Select a file and double click. The melam number and note duration are restored. (Again this works properly only with PC's and Laptops. With phones or tablets it may not be possible to retrieve anything other than pictures, videos or audio files.) In some systems having 'File Browser' it may be possible to navigate and select the file. In others the file may be saved in 'Memo' opened, copied by selecting all and pasting in the notation window. In such cases you have to set the Melam and note duration manually.
20. The File Open and New menu items when clicked give a simple warning to save the notation (if required) with alternatives of cancelling or proceeding further losing the notation in the edit window. Similar warning is given when quitting the program.

Thaalam (For an explanation of the Thaalam system see this page and subsequent pages.)

Important: The Thaalam sound may go out of sync. after a minute or so depending upon other apps running and internet connections accessing the device. Use Thaalam for short selections.

21. To add thaalam to the music click 'Select Thaalam'. Thaalam selection window will open. Thaalam is defined by Jaathi (like Chathusra) and Name (like Thriputa). Choose both Jaathi and Thaalam. For quick selection the two most popular thaalams (Aadhi and Modern Rupakam) can be selected by clicking the buttons in blue. Aadhi is actually Chatusra Thriputa.
22. For correct thaalam sounds the number of notes per aksharam has to be selected. The most common are 4 and 2 but in 2 Kalai thaalams it could be 8. For rare songs set in Thisra Gathi (ex. Gam Ganapathe in Hamsadhwani) notes per aksharam would be 3 or 6. For even rarer songs in Khanda Gathi it will be 5. The number has to be found by getting note count for an Avartham and dividing it by Aksharams for the chosen Thaalam.
23. In addition to the thaalam selection the pitch and volume of the 2 different type of sounds (beat sound and count/wave sound) can be selected to suit your device. The 'Test' buttons next to the 2 groups can be used to test the sound. Try different combinations to suit your device and keep what you like.
24. Selected thaalam is shown briefly (like Khanda Jampa) under 'TalamOn' check box. Thaalam sound will be heard only when the TalamON is checked. You can put on or off thaalam sound using this check box without changing the thaalam.
25. Thaalam selected, notes per aksharam, Sound pitches and volumes are not saved. You have to make a note when you want to play the notation again.

Javascript based Carnatic music notation player. Copyright M.Subramanian - This is a modified HTML version of the notation player which is part of Rasika software (for Windows). Contact manianms at yahoo.com