Hindustani, the Music of Northern India

Hindustani is the combination of the various influences of Northern India: vedic chants, Musiqi-e assil (the name for the traditional Persian music), folk traditions, etc. It uses a twelve note scale (the same scale as is used in Western music styles) but with the base frequency not fixed on one note, and is heavily focused on the melody and beat. An example of this style of music is "Telephone" by Ar Rahman.



The song has many long cadences for the singers, many lasting for more than a second. It also uses ornamentation after many of the phrases. Despite the Arabic feel to the entire song (progression, breaks, etc.) the ornamentations do not last for very long. The repeating beat in the background forms the pulse for the song, making the song very easy to keep with the beat (further helped by the slow pacing of the song). The song is homophonic, with the melody switching between the two singers. The song is made using a synthesizer, chordophones (most likely sitars), aerophones (most likely flutes), and two singers (whom are a bit too special to list under chordophones). The aerophones and chordophones are used to accent or ornament the vocalist's melody throughout the song, with some ornamentation of the synthesizer towards the beginning. The singers keep the melody, however they never compete for the melody due to not singing at the same time. The female singer, however, has a modified voice (using the synthesizer), causing her to sound higher in pitch.