Hindi Film Songs
When to read this: after Session 11 (optional), “Refrain and Stanza”, “The Capo and the Singer’s Key” (10 minutes). None of this reading is part of a session’s 50 minutes.
How to Use This Handout
Section titled “How to Use This Handout”This handout holds the one film-song chart of the course, “Roop Tera Mastana”, as a copy of the chart in Session 11. Before it stand the two ideas you need to read that chart: refrain and stanza, and the capo and the singer’s key. At the end it names the film songs the course gives you for listening. Nothing here is new to practise, and nothing is added to the chart.
This handout prints no lyric, no word of a song as a cue, and no sung melody, in notes, TAB or note names. A section of a song is named by its name and its measure numbers.
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Song chart — A chord chart of a song. It gives the chords section by section and may give the order of the sections, the strumming or picking pattern, the tempo, the key and the tuning; it prints no words and no sung melody. (Session 7)
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Song excerpt — A part of a song, printed only as far as two published sources agree, and named by what it prints: for example “verse and chorus chords”. A chart is called complete only when every section of the song is printed. (Session 7)
Refrain and Stanza
Section titled “Refrain and Stanza”In a Hindi film song, the opening refrain that keeps returning, like a chorus, is the refrain (mukhda). A stanza between the returns of the refrain, like a verse, is a stanza (antara).
The chart heads its one printed section “Refrain (mukhda)”. This handout writes refrain and stanza.
Of “Roop Tera Mastana”, only the refrain is printed. The stanza is not printed, because the sources differ: its first two lines are agreed, and the rest stands in one chart whose copies differ. The introduction and the instrumental passages are not printed, because the two charts that give them differ.
- Song map — A written list of the sections of a tune or song in the order they are played, with the number of measures in each. For a song it also gives the tuning, the key and the capo fret. (Session 5)
To find the order of the sections yourself, make the song map of Session 5 from the recording: write “Introduction”, “Refrain”, “Stanza” or “Instrumental passage” for each section as it comes, and count the measures of each.
This handout gives no order of sections and no count of measures for the recording: nobody has counted its sections.
The course form of the chart, the refrain four times and a written ending, is a length set by the course.
- Course form — The form of a song chart that you play at the course tempo: which sections, how many measures in each, and how long it lasts (about four minutes at most). You practise it in sections. (Session 7)
The Capo and the Singer’s Key
Section titled “The Capo and the Singer’s Key”- Capo — A clamp placed across the fretboard to raise the pitch of all strings. With a capo at fret 2 every open string sounds two half steps higher, and frets are counted from the capo. (Session 9)
A capo at fret N raises every open string by N half steps. You finger and name each chord as its shape, counting frets from the capo, and it sounds N half steps higher than its name.
- Chord shape and sounding chord — The shape is the finger pattern, named as it is with no capo; the sounding chord is what is heard. With a capo at fret 2 the D shape sounds as E, and the chart still calls it D. (Session 9)
Why this chart has a capo: a song is recorded in the key that suits its singer, and that key need not be one whose chords are open shapes. The capo lets three open shapes of the beginner course sound in another key. None of the three chords that sound here is an open shape.
With the capo at fret 4 the three shapes of the chart sound as this table gives them.
| Shape | What it sounds as with the capo at fret 4 |
|---|---|
| A | C sharp |
| G | B |
| E5, the two-string shape | G sharp and D sharp: the root and the fifth, with no third |
No source says what pitch the recording is at. Whether its home note is C sharp (capo at fret 4), C (capo at fret 3) or between the two needs a player with a tuner, so the chart is not offered for playing along.
The chart’s Capo line, “Capo: fret 4”, is the course’s choice: with it the chart sounds in C sharp, the scale that two notation pages give for the song, and nobody has checked the recording with a tuner.
To play the same chart in another key, move the capo and keep the shapes: the chord names on the chart do not change.
”Roop Tera Mastana” (refrain chords, simplified, with a capo)
Section titled “”Roop Tera Mastana” (refrain chords, simplified, with a capo)”Credits: Written by S. D. Burman (music) and Anand Bakshi (lyrics). Recorded by Kishore Kumar for the film Aradhana (1969).
Listen first: Find Kishore Kumar’s recording of “Roop Tera Mastana” (Aradhana, 1969) and listen to the opening refrain three times before you pick up the guitar. Listen for: (1) the harmony under the first two sung lines rocking back and forth between two chords one whole step apart (in this chart those two are the A and G shapes); (2) the third chord, which arrives at the end of the third sung line (in this chart the two-string E5 shape) and leads back to the start.
What this is: A simplified chord accompaniment for the refrain (the mukhda) only. What is printed is the order of the refrain’s chords, which you play as A and G shapes and the two-string E5 shape with the capo at fret 4. It is simplified: three open shapes, one chord to a measure, the same down-up strum in measures 1 to 6 of the refrain, and one downstroke on beat 1, left to ring, in each of measures 7 and 8. The order of the chords comes from two charts that agree; both are hobby charts, not a publisher’s edition, and three other charts differ. It is not certain that the two were made separately. How long each chord lasts is this course’s reading: the two charts give the order, not the lengths. The charts do not agree whether the last chord of the refrain is major or minor: two make it major, three make it minor. Nobody has checked it against the recording. So measures 7 and 8 are the E5 shape, which has neither note; if you want the full chord, try the E shape and the Em shape against the recording and keep the one that fits. The stanza, the introduction and the instrumental passages are not printed because the charts that give them differ. With the capo at fret 4 the chart sounds in C sharp, the scale that two notation pages give for the song. The most-copied guitar chart is written in C, and nobody has checked the recording with a tuner, so do not expect to play along with the recording. Without the capo, the eight measures are those of Beginner Session 17 one whole step higher (there G, F and D; here A, G and E5: Beginner Session 17 prints its last chord as a full major chord). The ending is written for the course. Not yet play-tested.
Key: A shapes (sounds in C sharp)
Time: 4/4
The chart’s tempo is in Session 11, under the same heading.
Copy of Session 11: “Roop Tera Mastana” - refrain chords (simplified)
"Roop Tera Mastana" - refrain chords (simplified) Capo: fret 4 Key: A shapes (sounds in C sharp) Time: 4/4 (four beats in a measure) Refrain (mukhda), 8 measures: | A | G | A | G | | A | G | E5 | E5 | Ending (one downstroke, let it ring), 1 measure: | A | Refrain four times, then the ending. The rest of the song is not printed.
A line such as Capo: fret 2 means: put the capo at fret 2 before you play. The chord names in the chart are the names of the shapes you finger; the Key line says what they sound as.
Strumming pattern: the down-up strum in measures 1 to 6 of the refrain; in measures 7 and 8 and in the last measure, one downstroke on beat 1, left to ring.
Count: 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & Strum: D U D U D U D U
Down on the numbers, up on the &s. Your hand keeps swinging down-up even when it does not touch the strings.
Measures 7 and 8 are the two-string E5 shape.
One downstroke across strings 6 and 5 only: strings 4 to 1 stay silent.
Left out of the chart:
| Section | Status | Why it is not printed |
|---|---|---|
| Stanza | the sources differ | its first two lines are agreed; the rest is in one chart, whose copies differ |
| Introduction and instrumental passages | the sources differ | two charts, which differ |
The ending is written for the course.
The beginner course printed this refrain with G, the simplified F and D (Beginner Session 17); this chart is the same order of chords in A and G shapes and the two-string E5 shape with a capo, and has no barre chord.
Songs for Listening
Section titled “Songs for Listening”Where the sources do not agree on a song’s main section, the course names the recording and prints nothing: that is what “for listening only” means.
No song sung by Manna Dey alone is printed: for none of them could two published sources be found that agree on the chords.
The course names three film songs for listening.
| Song | Film and year | Sung by | Music | Lyrics | Named in |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ”Yeh Dosti” | Sholay (1975) | Kishore Kumar and Manna Dey | R. D. Burman | Anand Bakshi | Session 13 |
| ”Neele Neele Ambar Par” | Kalaakaar (1983) | Kishore Kumar | Kalyanji–Anandji | Indeevar | Session 25 |
| ”Zindagi Kaisi Hai Paheli” | Anand (1971) | Manna Dey | Salil Chowdhury | Yogesh | Session 26 |
Each song is named again in its own session, with what to listen for; this table says nothing about how a recording sounds, its speed, its time signature or its rhythm.
The full credits of every song the course prints or names are in Credits And Sources.