Raga Yaman
Yaman is often the first raga a student of Hindustani music learns, and one that great musicians keep coming back to. Its notes are close to a Western major scale with a raised fourth (the Lydian mode), so it sits easily on the ear and on most instruments, yet it takes a lifetime to play it with real depth.
- Thaat
- Kalyan
- Notes
- All seven notes, every one shuddha (natural) except Ma, which is tivra (sharp).
- Vadi
- Ga
- Samvadi
- Ni
- Time
- The first part of the night, after sunset.
- Mood
- Calm, serene and devotional, with a sweetness that suits a romantic song as well as a prayer.
Aroha (going up)
Written: Ni, Re Ga Ma# Dha Ni Sa'
Avaroha (coming down)
Written: Sa' Ni Dha Pa Ma# Ga Re Sa
Pakad (the phrase that names it)
Written: Ni, Re Ga Re Pa Re Ni, Re Sa
A dot under a note is the lower octave, a dot over it the upper, and a tick over Ma makes it tivra. How to read the notes.
How it moves
Yaman usually climbs from the lower Ni rather than from Sa, so Ni, Re Ga is one of its most familiar openings. Going up, Pa and Sa are often passed over lightly or skipped (Ma# Dha Ni Sa'); coming down, every note is used.
Ga is the note it rests on most (the vadi) and Ni answers it (the samvadi). Tivra Ma is its signature: it gives Yaman its bright, yearning colour. Shuddha Ma never appears; a raga that adds it is Yaman Kalyan, a close relative.
Phrases glide between notes with meend, Ni to Dha and Ga to Re especially, and Re and Pa are often approached from the notes around them rather than struck straight on.
Listening
Listen to as many recordings of Yaman as you can find: an alap on bansuri, sitar or sarod shows how its notes are approached one at a time, and a slow vocal khayal shows its phrases sung. Hearing a raga often is how its shape becomes familiar, long before it can be explained.
