How to produce SARGAM or notations of a song?

I have been asked by many that “How to produce SARGAM or notations of a song?”

Well, I will be answering this question purely based on my own experience of “trial and errors”. Since I am not a trained musician, I may be technically wrong while letting you know how do I produce SARGAMs, but the way I do it has so far helped me in understanding how one may find out the SARGAM of any song or tune on flute.  I will not call it a technique, but a ‘Trick’.

So, the first thing first. You will have to have a good understanding of Sa Re Ga Ma…, that is, how to produce notes correctly. Proper posture and good blowing technique are most important in this aspect. Then, your ears must be trained to differentiate between notes. So much so that you should be able to tell a komal Dha from a Shudh Dha instantly. (I have reached this stage only after about 3 years of practice on my own).

Now, coming to the point. Let’s learn it by an example of producing notes/sargam for the song “Bheege Honth Tere” from the movie ‘Murder’. I will explain below how I’d do it.

Step 1. We must listen to this song carefully untill we are able to hum or sing it fluently.

Then, the next step of producing Sargam of any song is to find out the very first note of it. In this example I have to find out how to produce “Bhee” on flute. So, singing or humming at a scale that matches the original song I hold on to “Bhee” and then try and match that sound by blowing on my flute. I may have to try out several times by opening or closing the flute holes in different combinations before my ears can finally certify that yes, this sound is the right match for “Bhee“.

I find “Ga” on my flute to be the exact match for “Bhee“. That’s it. Now that I have found the very first note of the song, the rest of the song will not be difficult for me to convert into Sargam on my flute.

Then I have to find the sound on my flute that matches “ge”, then “Ho”, then “nth”, then “Te”, and then “re”

I do it by blowing GG for Bhee-ge | RS for Hon-th | SS for Te-re

This way I have now produced the sargam of the first line of the song.  With similar technique,  oops! trick, I can produce sargam for rest of the song.

Hope this trick will be useful for you to understand how to produce Sargam or notations of a song. Give it a try and enjoy!

Also read this case study, which will give you another insight on how to experiment while producing notations.

How to read SARGAM
  • CAPITAL LETTERS Shuddh Swars (Natural Notes)
  • small letters Komal Swars (Flat Notes)
  • with # [hash] or ^ [exponent] = Tivra Madhyam (M# / M^)
  • Letter/Alphabet ONLY = Medium Pitch/Normal blow on flute
  • Letter/Alphabet PRECEDED BY a ” . ” [full stop] or  a ” , ” [comma] = Low Octave Note/Softer blow on flute
  • Letter/Alphabet FOLLOWED BY a ‘ [single quote] = High Octave Note/harder blow on flute
  • Notes in { } “murki” have to be played very fast without any pause
  • A Note in ( ) “kann swar” has to be just touched before moving on to the next note
  • A “~” between two Notes  = “meend”. That is, you have to glide from one note to another slowly to produce that wavy effect.
  • Few “….” (dots) after a note = Play and hold that note
Find more from
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30 Responses

  1. I am beginner flute player. I love to play tune. When i listen any songs, I think in mind why not try to play this tune on flute. Thank you very much to let us know the tricks. This is really very useful.

  2. Hi Sir,,,
    I just wanted to know that all these sargam are also suitable for Harmonium? Should i practice them with a harmonium…

    1. Yes you can play these notes on harmonium as well. Though, you may have to do a little improvisation on your own.
      Good luck!

  3. sir please send rim jhim ke geet sawan gaye gaye bhighi bhighi raato mai for harmonium and one more tum jo chle gye to hogi badi kharabi for harmonium

  4. sir i want flute notations of har dil jo pyar karega……from tune to whole song can you please do this for me.

  5. Sir , I am also fond of learing Bansuri for the last many years. i have decided to learn succeessfully after reading your experience and efforts. Please bless me for this as my Guru. You will surprise to know that my age is 69 years and starting to learn from 9th March 2020 i.e. Holy festival. Thanks

    1. Sir, I am humbled by your appreciation and wish you good luck in learning this beautiful instrument. For any assistance you need from me, you can contact me by email or phone at any time. I shall be happy to guide.
      Regards,
      Prashant

  6. Hi,
    Sir,
    After reading so many inspirational Experience i feel extremely motivated.
    I just started to learn Keyboard. one confusion what should i follow Western style or Hindi style.
    please help.

    1. Hello Ajay,

      Thanks for your question.

      Keyboard is basically a western instrument. Hence, you must have the knowledge of western scales and notes, i.e., C D E F G A B and Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti . Once you have learnt these, then you will find it easy to convert western notes into Sa Re Ga Ma… and vice-a-versa.

      Keep practicing. Good luck.

  7. Sir, I play violin…well a beginner. I find it hard to find notations for the local songs. All I find is in guitar chords or in something else and I also can’t read notations. Can you please suggest me what can I do? And can I play these songs on violin?

    1. Since my style of writing notations is not conventional, people say, they find these easy to play on instruments likes flute, guitar, harmonica, melodica, harmonium and violin as well.

      If you are able to play Sa Re Ga Ma on your violin, then you might find my notations playable.

  8. Can you provide the sargam of the ghazal Wo jo hum mein tum mein karar tha by Beghum Akhtar?

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