As I mentioned in my recent post about improvisation pianist Anna Ferraro, I spent years feeling stuck to the page in my piano playing. My early forays into improvisation felt very uncomfortable and unmusical. And frankly, I’m still not that great at it. It’s so easy to get stuck in a rut and not know how to climb back out. As I played through the book, “Indian Ragas for Piano Made Easy” by John Pitts, I realized this could be a very useful tool for myself and anyone else in the same boat as me.
One of my biggest challenges is wanting what I play to sound “right.” Well, to my very Westernized ears, none of these Indian Ragas sound “right.” I’m not that familiar with Indian music in general, and I’ve only heard the Indian sitar played several times. Nevertheless, it was fascinating to try to step out of the musical box I’m used to operating inside of and learn to appreciate some very unfamiliar sounds as they emerged from my fingertips.
The book begins with an overview of the scales upon which each raag is based. Each raag’s structure includes a rhythmically free improvisatory-type section (Alaap) followed by a composed melody in 4/4 time that can be read from the page (Gat) and ending with a short repetitive phrase that concludes the piece. Even the first section gives specific printed notes while encouraging a free pulse, relaxed playing, and the encouragement to mix up the bars at will. A perfect approach for someone who just can’t fully break away from the printed music yet!
Thankfully, there are also YouTube videos of the Easy Ragas (one is embedded above) that you can watch to get an idea of the style and structure of the music. Composer John Pitts makes this classic Indian music extremely accessible for any pianist who is either already interested in these Eastern tunes or brave enough to explore something new!
Nancy says
Wow, thank you for posting this! I have an Indian student who I think might really like it.