Saptak means "gamut" or "the series of eight

note Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to: Music and entertainment * Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music * ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian * ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) shortened version ...

s". It denotes the set of

swara Svara or swara (Devanagari: स्वर, generally pronounced as ''swar'') is a Sanskrit word that connotes simultaneously a breath, a vowel, the sound of a musical note corresponding to its name, and the successive steps of the octave or '' ...

s i.e.

Ṣaḍja Shadja is the first svara out of the seven svaras of Hindustani music and Carnatic music. Shadja is the long form of the syllable सा. For simplicity in pronouncing while singing the syllable, Shadja is pronounced as Sa (notation - S). It is ...

(Sa),

Ṛiṣabha Rishabh is the second svara out of the seven svaras of Hindustani music and Carnatic music. Rishabh is the long form of the syllable रे for simplicity while singing the syllable. Rishabh is pronounced as Re and Ri (notation - R). It is also ...

(Re),

Gāndhāra Gandhar is the 3rd svara from the seven svaras of Hindustani music and Carnatic music. Gandhar is the long form of the syllable ग. For simplicity in pronouncing while singing the syllable, Gandhar is pronounced as Ga (notation - G). It is als ...

(Ga), Madhyama (Ma),

Panchama Pancham is the fifth svara from the seven svaras of Hindustani music and Carnatic music. Pancham is the long form of the syllable प. For simplicity in pronouncing while singing the syllable, Pancham is pronounced as Pa (notation - P). It is al ...

(Pa),

Dhaivat Dhaivat is the sixth svara from the seven svaras of Hindustani music and Carnatic music. Dhaivat is the long form of the syllable ध. For simplicity in pronouncing while singing the syllable, Dhaivat is pronounced as Dha (notation - D). It is ...

(Dha),

Niṣāda Nishad is the seventh svara from the seven svaras of Hindustani music and Carnatic music. Nishad is the long form of the syllable नी. For simplicity in pronouncing while singing the syllable, Nishad is pronounced as Ni (notation - N). It is ...

(Ni), Sadja (Sa) which comprise a

musical scale In music theory, a scale is any set of musical notes ordered by fundamental frequency or pitch. A scale ordered by increasing pitch is an ascending scale, and a scale ordered by decreasing pitch is a descending scale. Often, especially in the ...

in Indian classical music. In

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

, saptak literally means "containing seven" and is derived from the Sanskrit word ''Sapta'' which means "seven". The Saptak comprises the

Sapta Svara Svara or swara (Devanagari: स्वर, generally pronounced as ''swar'') is a Sanskrit word that connotes simultaneously a breath, a vowel, the sound of a musical note corresponding to its name, and the successive steps of the octave or ' ...

s, i.e. the seven svaras or the seven notes of classical music. The basic saptak is called the Madhya Saptak (

Devanagari Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental writing system), based on the ...

: मध्य सप्तक). For notes with lower frequencies, the artist may use the Mandra Saptak (

: मंद्र सप्तक)', which is an octave lower than the Madhya Saptak. For notes with higher frequencies, the Taar Saptak (

: तार सप्तक), which is an octave above the Madhya Saptak, is used. The usual scale of Indian music spans from Sa in the Madhya Saptak to Sa in the higher, Taar Saptak. This inclusion of the first note of the higher saptak makes eight notes instead of the seven in each Saptak.Saptak – The Indian Scale
/ref> Generally, a raga involves notes from three saptaks. The notes in the lower saptak are denoted by an apostrophe before the note representation (or a dot below the note representation) and the notes in the upper saptak are denoted by an apostrophe after the note representation (or a dot above the note representation). For example: *Mandra Saptak : Ṣ or Ş or 'S *Madhya Saptak : S *Taar Saptak : Ṡ or Ŝ or S' Talking about frequencies of the svaras, the frequencies change for all svaras i.e. Sa 240 Hz, Re 270 Hz, Komal Ga 288 Hz, Ma 320 Hz, Pa 360 Hz, Dha 405 Hz, and Komal Ni 432 Hz. Consequently, the Sa after the Ni of 432 Hz has a frequency of 480 Hz i.e. double the Lower saptak Sa, as do all 6 other svaras. Considering the Sa of the Madhya Saptak, the frequencies of the other svaras would be, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni Mandra Saptak: 120 Hz, 135 Hz, 144 Hz, 160 Hz, 180 Hz, 202.5 Hz, 216 Hz.} Madhya Saptak: 240 Hz, 270 Hz, 288 Hz, 320 Hz, 360 Hz, 405 Hz, 432 Hz.} Taar Saptak: 480 Hz, 540 Hz, 576 Hz, 640 Hz, 720 Hz, 810 Hz, 864 Hz.}

References

Indian music Musical scales Hindustani music terminology 2. Svara {{india-music-stub