Glossarybase – SwarGanga Music Foundation

ID	NAME	DEFINITION
1	Vilambit	Slow in tempo
2	Drut	Fast in tempo
3	Lay	Speed of a composition
4	Madhya	Medium in tempo
5	Khayal	The thoughtful process of exposing a raag.
6	Bandish	A composition in Raga music. This term is broadly used for any type of composition in Hindustani Art Music - even rhythmic compositions are refereed as 'Bandish'.
7	Taal	A rhythm cycle.
8	Khaali	Opposite of a taali (Clap) shown by a gesture of clapping with one hand turned upside down.
9	Sur	A note. Usually one of the 12 notes outlined in North Indian Classical Music.
10	Sargam Geet	A composition (bandish) with just notes in it. This type of composition doesnt use any words just the notes of a specific raag to which it is set.
11	Shruti	A micro variation that a note allowed to take.
12	Komal	A lower frequency note.
13	Teevra	A note that is been sharpened. In Indian music, only forth note, i.e. madhyam is Teevra.
14	Tarana	A composition consisting of just syllables instead of words.
15	Trivat or Tirvat	A composition consisting of any three of the following Pakhavaj/Tabla Bol-s, Sargam, Bandish, Tarana.
16	Chaturang	A composition consisting of Tarana, Bandish, Sargam, Pakhavaj/Tabla bols.
17	Avartan	A complete cycle, typically of a Taal, also refers to a cycle of rhythmic progression in a song.
18	Bol	Words or syllables implied in Taal. This term also means syllables of instruments - it may be percussion, string or wind instruments or the syllables in a song.
19	Aaroha	The systematic ascent of raag notes. One of the four 'Varna' i.e. movements of notes, literary meaning 'going up'.
20	Avaroha	The systematic decent of Raag notes. It is one of the four movements of notes, meaning 'coming down'.
21	Pakad	A special feature (note combination) that distinguishes the raag.
22	Prahar	Time of the day (usually a three hour period in which a raag is performed)
23	Thaat	Synonym of Mela. One of the categories a Raag can be classified based on the presence of specific notes.
24	Lakshan Geet	A bandish (composition) that explains the structure of a raag.
25	Baamayna Bandish	A bandish in which the syllables of a bandish are same as the notation of the bandish. For eg. Suraso Rang, the notation is S R S R G.
26	Alaap	A slow, methodical progression of notes in the raag.
27	Bol Alaap	Alaap done with a playful use of the words in a Bandish, with weaving them in rhythmic cross patterning.
28	Bol Taan	An taan done with the help of the words of a bandish.
29	Saadra	A composition set to slow to medium Jhaptaal.
30	Kampan	Shaking of a note.
31	Andolan	Swinging of a note.
32	Aaghaat	Striking of a note/bol.
33	Kan	A micro note.
34	Alankaar	Specific melodic presentation in succession in which a pattern is followed.
35	Gamak	Its a way of ornamenting notes. There are fifteen types of Gamaks.
36	Murki	Short taan of three to four notes sung very fast.
37	Khatkaa	Two or more notes sung with a jerk.
38	Meend	Stretching or lenthening the sound from one note to another.
39	Raagmaala	A bandish or a composition set to many different raags one after the other.
40	Raagsagar	A raagmala in which the raag used are disclosed within the words of the bandish.
41	Naad	A musical sound
42	Swar	A note. Usually one of the 12 notes outlined in North Indian Classical Music. This term also refers to the lingual vowel.
43	Theka	Theka is the expressive way of playing Taal on percussion instruments. It has a significance of being first Bandish or composition of a Taal. Theka gives the basic time unit to the rendition of a song.
44	Kism	Variations of theka without changing the taal structure
45	Kaida or Kayda	A well defined, structured and expandable composition replete with syllables and phrases of Tabla.
46	Mukhda	Literally meaning face, means the first line of a bandish or a taal composition
47	Tihaai	A structured set of notes or bols which repeats three times at usually the same interval and ends on the sum
48	Amsha	This means the key-note.
49	Graha	The core meaning of the word Graha is to take or grapple or join with.
50	Graha in Taal	Graha means commencing of a song or rhythmic design on a particular beat.
ID	NAME	DEFINITION