Raga

Raga (singular rag or raga, plural raga or ragas) is a complex structure of musical melody used in India and should not be confused with scales.

A raga is basically a set of rules of how to build a melody. It specifies a scale, as well as rules for movements up and down the scale, which notes should figure more and which notes should be used more sparingly, which notes take which ornamentation, which notes must be bent, which notes may be bent, phrases to be used, phrases to be avoided, and so on. The result is a framework that can be used to compose or improvise melodies in, so that melodies in a certain raga will always be recognisable yet allowing endless variation.

The underlying scale is a five, six or seven tone-scale. In the seven tone-scale the second, third, fourth, sixth, and seventh notes can be sharp or flat, making up the twelve notes in the Western scale. However, ragas can specify microtonal changes to this scale: a flatter second, a sharper seventh, and so forth. Furthermore, such variations can occur between styles, performers or simply follow the mood of the performer. There is no absolute pitch; instead, each performance simply picks a ground note, and the other scale degrees follow relative to the ground note.

Every time of the day, morning, afternoon, evening and night, has its specific ragas.

Also See Kirtan, Sikh Kirtan, Taal

The following are the ragas that are mentioned in the SGGS:

**Table of Ragas**
No.	Name of Raga	Order in SGGS
1	Asa	4
2	Bairari	13
3	Basant	25
4	Bhairon	24
5	Bihagara	7
6	Bilaval	16
7	Devagandhari	6
8	Dhansari	10
9	Gauri	3
10	Gond	17
11	Gujari	5
12	Jaijavanti	31
13	Jaitsri	11
14	Kalian	29
15	Kanara	28
16	Kedara	23
17	Majh	2
18	Mallar	27
19	Mali Gaura	20
20	Maru	21
21	Nat Narain	19
22	Prabhati	30
23	Ramkali	18
24	Sarang	26
25	Sri	1
26	Sorathi	9
27	Suhi	15
28	Tilang	14
29	Todi	12
30	Tukhari	22
31	Vadahans	8