You may have read somewhere on this site that Indian Natural Scale is identical to Western Natural Scale.
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Now, as we discuss the advance theory of music, we have to find the true ‘Natural Scale’. There is no standard Western Natural Scale, so the comparison makes no practical sense. Although, if one does not wish to look into the soul of music, the comparison and the term itself (natural scale) need no further explanation.
Physics of music is a weird phenomenon. For centuries, musician tuned their instruments to each other. What they perceived natural, was natural. Without knowing the frequncies of various notes, everything was naturally in-tune. Now, when we are trying to tie the music to a fixed octave, the natural scale is mere a term. There is nothing natural about any scale played on an electronic keyboard or piano.
Music is an audible art, based on what we hear. To our ears, perfect harmonics sound pleasing. Thus the ancient musical scales were based on perfect harmonics. There are many ways to construct a harmonic scale. Although by doing so, based on the composition, sometimes a few temporary or permanent interval adjustments are required. That is what music is all about. A professional composer or performer knows how to make his composition sound ‘just right’.
Generally speaking, a scale based on ‘just intonation’ is a natural scale. The notes in this scale are established by multiplying the base note’s value with the following harmonic intervals:
Unison= 1 (starting note)
Major 2nd=9/8
Major 3rd=5/4
Perfect 4th=4/3
Perfect 5th=3/2
Major 6th=5/3
Major 7th=15/8
Octave=2
If a piano is tuned according to the above ratios starting from the middle ‘C’, and one wishes to play D major, the intervals will not work. Having said that however, you can change the ‘keynotes’ in C major to get seven different scales, and they all are perfectly natural (more on this later).
We will slowly explore the physics of music. The point is not to remember the frequencies of notes, the point is to understand the natural musical intervals. Indian musicologists explored these phenomenon long before the rest of world. Around 2000BC, The Indian scales based on harmonics had already established and explained in depth.
Nowadays, the natural scale is not derived from harmonics. It is derived from ‘the twelfth root of two’, which has a value of 1.059463 (approx). When this number is multiplied 12 times, the answer is “2”, that is the value of our octave notes (See the list above, the last ratio is 2:1). This system ignores all other harmonics to get a perfect octave. 12 notes of an octave are placed on equal intervals. Although, the values you get through this system are around the desired values, but these are not perfect. This system of dividing a scale into 12 equal intervals is called an “Equal Temperament Scale.”
A violin player cannot play this scale. Only a tuner can achieve these tunings. Humans (trained) naturally play a ‘just intonation’ scale. Yet many musicians think that ‘just intonation’ scales are outdated. Have a look at how one “music wizard” explains the ‘just intonation’ scale in ‘Google Answers’:
“The archaic natural scale uses whole number ratios multiplied by the base note of the octave to achieve the frequency of the other notes. This is an imperfect or dissonant method of composing scales and usually does not sound right.” Perhaps he is a DJ.
If you are interested in reading more about physics of music, the following website has a lot of correct information: Physics of music
pretty awesome violin playing, Norbert Wentzel – Two Sketches for viola and piano
mind blowing sir ji. you digged the mines of indian music. knowing music is ok, every second person in india is a musician or a singer((keeping perfection a side), but exploring music with what ever we have is great job only ‘deewana e sangeet’ can do this.
sir can u tell me minor pentatonic & blue scale in indian raag which one of those use it