श्रुतलेखSwara dictation

What it does

Meend listens, and writes down what it hears, swara by swara: a dash for each matra one is held, in your Sa and its saptak. A breath's pause begins a new phrase. It keeps the recording too, each phrase heard again just as it was played, looped or at half speed, its pitch kept. Choose the raag and any swara outside it is marked; tap a swara to put it right, to make it a kan, the next one's grace note, or to mark a meend into the next, an arc over the two: the ornaments are yours to write, as a teacher writes them. Your voice can be heard too, for a teacher who sings a phrase.

Your turn

Then each phrase is yours to play back. Meend plays it from the recording first, and only then listens, so it hears you and not the recording. It follows you through the phrase, swara by swara, and says what went astray: a swara for another, one left out or played besides, a note held short. Three clean tries in a row, and the phrase is learnt.

Taken further

A dictation goes into a riyaz as an item, the recording its reference, every swara marked where it is heard; into the composition writer, to set on its taal; or to the sargam player, and to a friend.