Raga in improvisation

Types
Improvisation in raga is the soul of Indian classical music - an essential
aspect. "Manodharma sangeetham" or "kalpana sangeetham" ("music of
imagination") as it is known in Carnatic music, embraces several varieties of
improvisation.
Raga Alapana
An alapana, sometimes also called ragam, is the exposition of a raga or tone - a
slow improvisation with no rhythm, where the raga acts as the basis of
embellishment. In performing alapana, performers consider each raga as an
object that has beginnings and endings and consists somehow of sequences of
thought.
The performer will explore the ragam and touch on its various nuances, singing
in the lower octaves first, then gradually moving up to higher octaves, while
giving a hint of the song to be performed.
Niraval
Niraval, usually performed by the more advanced performers, consists of singing
one or two lines of a song repeatedly, but with a series of melodic improvised
elaborations. The lines are then also played at different levels of speed which
can include double speed, triple speed, quadruple speed and
even sextuple speed.
Kalpanaswaram
Kalpanaswaram, also known as swarakalpana, consists of improvising melodic
and rhythmic passages using swaras (solfa syllables). Kalpanaswaras are sung
to end on a particular swara in the raga of the melody and at a specific place
(idam) in the tala cycle. Generally, the swaras are sung to end on
the samam (the first beat of the rhythmical cycle), and can be sung at the same
speed or double the speed of the melody that is being sung, though some artists
sing triple-speed phrases too.
Tanam
Tanam is one of the most important forms of improvisation, and is integral to
Ragam-Tanam-Pallavi. Originally developed for the veena, it consists of
expanding the raga with syllables like tha, nam, thom, aa, nom, na, etc.
Ragam-Tanam-Pallavi
Ragam-Tanam-Pallavi is the principal long form in concerts, and is a composite
form of improvisation. As the name suggests, it consists of raga alapana, tanam,
and a pallavi line. Set to a slow-paced tala, the pallavi line is often composed by
the performer. Through niraval, the performer manipulates the pallavi line in
complex melodic and rhythmic ways. The niraval is followed by kalpanaswarams.

Components of Carnatic raga

A Carnatic raga has several components - primordial sound (nda), tonal system
(swara), intervals (shruti), scale, ornaments (gamaka) and important tones
(vadi and samvadi).

Nda
An aim of composer-performers of the past and present is to realise nda,
however, the sound that is audible to human ears is only a fraction of primordial
sound.

Swara
The Carnatic tonal system consists of seven basic pitches, expressed by the
solfa syllables: Sa (shadja), Ri (rishabha), Ga (gandhara), Ma (madhyama), Pa
(panchama), Da (dhaivata) and Ni (nishadha).

Scale
A Carnatic raga consists of an ascending and descending scale pattern (known
as aarohana and avarohana respectively). Both ascent and descent should have
at least five tones, although rarer ragas contain fewer tones. Scales establish
rules for all performers to adhere to in melodic performance, and provide a tonal
boundary. Typical scale features also act to help listeners identify ragas.

Gamaka
Gamaka, or ornamentation, is essential in Carnatic raga performance. Gamaka
encompasses controlled shaking, articulating, sliding, glottal stops and other
vocal or instrumental manipulation.
The swara and scale defines only the skeletal structure of a raga. The handling
of Gamaka actually defines the raga.