The Carnatic music of South India has 72 scales (melakartas) comprised of seven different notes in either an ascending (arohana) or descending (avarohana) fashion. These scales are used in a kind of India music called rāga and are extremely beautiful. In addition these scales are grouped into different chakras, based on certain similarities.
Today’s melakarta is the Mararanjani scale (roughly translating to “killing”), the first scale from the fifth chakra.
Below is a representation of the scale as if it was put into Western notation:
Both the first (SA) and fifth (PA) scale degrees are in a placement normal to most scales found in Western music. In addition, it contains the major tetrachord in the beginning. With that, there is the lowered seventh degree (NI).
Try playing around with the scale, possible harmonies, and progressions!
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Daily Music Writing Tips - Blog by Bryan M. Waring 