On Determination of Tonic Note for Singers of Indian Music

Abstract

This paper addresses the problem of tonic note selection and voice range determination for singers of Indian music. The tonic note of a singer determines the pitches of other notes used in raga/song sung by the singer. The voice range of a singer refers to the span of notes over which the singer's voice is powerful and melodious. In Indian music, the main emphasis is on the vocals, and instruments are played as an accompaniment. We study different perceptual attributes of the singer’s voice and develop criterion that is considered in the selection of tonic note. We analyze voices of famous Indian singers and illustrate the criterion considered for the selection of tonic note. According to the developed criterion different parameters are calculated and analyzed for all the notes of the singer. These parameters are then used to select the tonic note and voice range of the singers.

KEYWORDS:

• Tonic note
• Aroh
• Avroh
• timbre
• Tonic note selection
• Singer's voice analysis
• Voice range

ORCID

Pradip Sircar http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5794-0376

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Chandrakant J. Gaikwad

Chandrakant J. Gaikwad received the BE degree in Electronics Engineering with distinction from Shivaji University in 1997. He completed the MTech and PhD degrees both in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur in 2005 and 2015, respectively. He served as Lecture and Assistant Professor at Konkan Gyanpeeth College of Engineering, University of Mumbai during 1997–2010. He was a Graduate Teaching Assistant at Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur during 2010–2015. Presently, he is a Professor of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering Department at Ramrao Adik Institute of Technology, Nerul, Navi Mumbai. His research interests are in the areas of signal processing applications of higher order cumulants and spectra, time–frequency representations, music and singer's voice analysis. Email: [email protected]

Pradip Sircar

Pradip Sircar received the BSc degree in Physics from Calcutta University in 1974, the BTech degree in Instrumentation and Electronics Engineering from Jadavpur University, Calcutta, in 1978, and the MS and PhD degrees both in Electrical Engineering from Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, in 1983 and 1987, respectively. He was awarded National Science Talent Search scholarship in 1970. He was appointed an Assistant Professor in the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of Syracuse University in 1987. He joined the Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur in 1988, where presently he is a Professor. He was a Visiting Professor at Télécom ParisTech (also known as ENST or École Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications), Paris during 1998–1999, and at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, in 2010. His research interests are in the areas of signal processing, computations and communications. He served Journal of the Franklin Institute as an Associate Editor during 2007–2011. He is the author of the book Mathematical Aspects of Signal Processing published by Cambridge University Press in 2016.