Music from India is extremely extensive and has a lot of genres including classical, pop, instrumental, rock, and folk. In many ways, it’s as extensive as music of the west, and perhaps more when it comes to purity and tradition. Ragas are an important part of Indian music and it’s important to understand them in order to fully understand Indian music. Furthermore, a raga is basically a note pattern consisting of intervals and rhythms. Ragas are the framework of Indian music, and they are considered vital to this tradition. Tansen, a well-known Indian musician, introduced many ragas in numerous compositions (“The music of India”, n.d.).

Of course, many consider him a legend, but that goes to show how far back ragas went in the Indian culture of music. According to the video, raga comes from the word meaning passion, and it is a combination of numerous characteristics in music. Ragas usually combine music notes and many call them scales. In our country, I guess we call ragas scales, as there are different types of scales consisting of numerous notes, much to like how ragas are consisting of numerous notes. Of course, ragas are different than scales in that they put more importance on numerous notes, sometimes the third or sixth, unlike how we put equal influence on notes in the scale (Shankar, 2002).

The video also tells how much different Indian music is from our music, as they the expert says that the music is more “rounded” than “cornered” meaning each note transitions smoothly into each other unlike how we have a more broken up rhythm to our music. Ragas are also compared to nature and the Gods, and it’s important to understand that these are considered some of the most important ways to tell stories in the Indian culture and pass them down.