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

[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

[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.

[mrniket]

Indeed! I've been building a digital tabla notebook for Bhatkhande notation. I've made it as a plugin for Obsidian currently. You can write any text as bols as it's just plain text.

The plugin is here: https://github.com/mrniket/palta-obsidian-plugin. If you want to see it in use, here is my notebook: https://niket.london

[shark8me]

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 ?

[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…)

[shark8me]

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.

[subhashp]

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]

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/...

[SuperNinKenDo]

Sounds awesome. Do you have any tips on getting started with this kind of musical tradition?

[delphico]

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)

[shark8me]

I got hooked by listening to it, here's a piece that I've quite like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfMHiTIm-zc

[d13]

You may want to take a look at this too: https://github.com/sargam/digital

[xaqtiman]

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

[shark8me]

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.

[soamv]

Nice app! How did you source the sounds? Are there permissively licensed tabla and santoor samples somewhere?

[shark8me]

I used Swarshala (https://www.swarclassical.com/SwarShala/), which is pretty good imo.

I used the VST version, however they have samples available as well.