Which chords fit a raga?

One rule does all the work

A chord fits a raga when every note in the chord is a note of the raga. Not most of its notes, and not the root alone: every one of them.

Write the raga as swaras above Sa, then test each chord type on each of those swaras. C major is S G3 P over a C Sa, so it fits any raga that has all three. C minor needs G2 instead. A dominant seventh adds N2. Do that for every swara and every chord type and you have the complete list. There is no taste involved at this stage; taste comes in when you choose from the list.

Run it on Sankarabharanam (mela 29, the major scale) with Sa on C and you get 48 chords. Among them are the seven triads every piano student knows: C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am and Bdim. Run it on a five-note raga and the list is about a third as long, for reasons worth understanding before you reach for a chord chart.

The ascent and the descent are different scales

Many ragas climb on fewer notes than they fall on, and a chord list has to pick one. Saveri goes up on S R1 M1 P D1 and comes down through G3 and N3 as well. Its ascent builds 9 chords; its descent builds 29. Same raga, more than three times the harmony, depending on which direction the melody is moving.

Yaman makes the same point from the other side. Its usual ascent skips Pa — N R G M D N Ṡ — and without Pa there is no triad on Sa at all. The ascent builds 24 chords and none of them has Sa as its root. Bring the descent in, with its Pa, and the C chords return.

Why five-note ragas give short lists

A triad needs a third and a fifth above its root. Remove two notes from a seven-note scale and you remove the thirds or fifths that half its triads depended on. What survives is honest: suspended chords, which replace the third with a second or a fourth, and power chords, which are root and fifth alone.

That is why Mohanam has no F and no G major chord — it has neither M1 nor N3 — but has Gsus2 and Gsus4. It is also why Hindolam, with no Pa above Sa, has no chord rooted on Sa at all, while still offering Fm and G♯ major, which both contain Sa. A short list is not a weakness of the method. It is the raga telling you which harmony it can hold.

• ·Looking for a home chord? Filter to chords that contain Sa rather than chords built on it. For Hindolam the list includes Fm and G♯, which sit around Sa without contradicting the raga.
• ·Want more colour? Sixths and added ninths often survive where sevenths do not. Mohanam keeps C6 and Cadd9 even though it has no seventh above C.

Borrowing from the parent melakarta

Film and fusion arrangers rarely stop at the raga’s own notes. A janya’s melakarta parent supplies the notes it leaves out, and those notes make the chords that a five-note raga cannot. Mohanam alone builds 17 chords; with its parent, 28 Harikambhoji, it builds 48. Each of the 31 extra chords uses M1 or N2 (F or A♯ over C), the two notes Mohanam leaves out: F, Fmaj7, Dm7, Gm7, C7, A♯maj7.

Use them knowingly. A borrowed chord held under the melody puts a note in the air that the raga avoids, and the ear starts to hear the parent instead of the raga. Brief, passing use colours a phrase; a long held F major chord under Mohanam is no longer really Mohanam.

Playing them without moving your hand

Played in root position, the chords of a scale climb the keyboard: C, then Dm a step higher, then Em, and so on. A pianist accompanying a song does the opposite and keeps the hand in one place, turning chords upside down — inversions — so they all fit under the same fingers.

The smallest space that holds every chord of a scale is the octave minus the scale’s widest gap. Start just above that gap and everything fits. For the major scale the widest gap is a whole step, so every chord fits between D3 and C4 — seven white keys:

Same notes, same chords

Two ragas with an identical note set produce an identical chord list. Mohanam and the Hindustani Bhoopali share S R2 G3 P D2; Hindolam and Malkauns share S G2 M1 D1 N2. Harmony cannot tell them apart.

What does tell them apart

The phrases, the note a raga keeps returning to, and the gamaka on particular swaras. Chords set the ground a raga stands on; they do not name it. If a chord progression is supposed to suggest one raga rather than its twin, the melody over it has to do that work.

Tools for this

Common questions

Can you play chords with Carnatic music?

Carnatic classical music is melodic and is not harmonised with chords in concert. Film, fusion and teaching use chords freely, and the safe ones are those whose every note belongs to the raga, so the harmony never contradicts the melody.

What chords go with Mohanam?

With Sa on C, Mohanam’s own notes build 17 chords, including C, C6, Cadd9, Am and Am7, plus suspended and power chords on D, G and A. Borrowing from its parent, 28 Harikambhoji, adds F, Fmaj7, Dm7, Gm7, C7 and others: 48 in all.

Why does my raga have no chord on Sa?

A triad on Sa needs Ga and Pa, or at least Pa. Ragas without Pa, such as Hindolam, Malkauns, or Yaman’s ascent, have no triad rooted on Sa. Use chords that contain Sa instead — Fm and G♯ major around a C Sa for Hindolam.

Do the ascent and descent of a raga give different chords?

Often, yes. Saveri ascends on S R1 M1 P D1 and descends through G3 and N3 as well, so with Sa on C its ascent builds 9 chords and its descent 29. Harmonise rising phrases from the ascent and falling phrases from the descent.

What is a chord inversion?

The same chord with a different note at the bottom. C/E is C major with E in the bass. Inversions let a pianist play every chord of a scale without moving the hand: all of C major fits between D3 and C4.