Build a short visual guide that helps a Carnatic student read Western staff notation by mapping swaras, rāgas, and octaves onto clefs, accidentals, and fixed pitches.
Geetanjali School of Music teaches Carnatic music to students who often go on to take AP Music Theory in school. Every year we watch the same thing happen: a student who already understands Sa, Ri, Ga, Ma, Pa, Da, Ni, octaves, and rāgas walks into an AP class and is told Western staff notation is a whole new language. It isn't. We want a resource that treats it as a translation problem, not a fresh start.
Your job is to build that resource. Pick a few Carnatic rāgas. Fix Sa to a specific Western pitch and work out how the swaras land on a treble and bass staff. Show what happens with accidentals, whole steps, half steps, and enharmonic spellings. Give particular attention to one idea students trip on: Sa is movable, but a Western pitch name is fixed. A student who understands that difference is halfway home.
Deliverables:
- A 5–8 page visual guide explaining Western staff notation for a Carnatic student
- Western staff notation of one selected rāga
- A Carnatic-to-Western pitch reference chart
- At least three short musical examples
- A 2–3 minute video or audio walkthrough of one example
- A one-page reflection on what translated cleanly and what didn't
The guide should be readable by a Carnatic student who has never opened an AP Music Theory book. Keep the tone practical. Assume the reader already knows the sound of a rāga; you're teaching them how it looks on a page.
You'll get: our internal notes on how we teach swaras and octaves, a list of rāgas we suggest starting with, the AP Music Theory course framework link (apcentral.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-music-theory), and a review pass from one of our senior instructors before you ship.