Glossary · glossary · 1 min read
Kan
कण; a grace note
A kan, or kan swara, is a grace note: a light touch of a neighbouring note just before or after the main note. In Hindustani music, the voice may brush Re or Ma instead of landing directly on Ga.
By John, Music lover from Bangalore · Reviewed by BRR · Last reviewed 29 Sept 2026
Kan
A kan, or kan swara, is a grace note: a light touch of a neighbouring note just before or after the main note. It is felt more than heard. Instead of landing directly on Ga, the voice may brush Re or Ma on the way.
In Raga Bhoop, Ga is often approached with a kan of Re from below. Re is the brief touch; Ga is the main note. A raga shapes how notes move, not just which notes appear. Its choice of grace notes helps distinguish it from ragas with the same scale.
Where Kan appears in Indian music
You will meet kan, a grace note that lightly touches a neighbouring note, in Hindustani music. It can come just before or after the main note. The touch is so light that it may feel like part of the approach rather than a separate note.
That small touch helps distinguish one raga from another. A raga gives a scale rules for movement, emphasis, identifying phrases and ornamentation, or ways of decorating notes. Two ragas can share a scale, yet use different grace notes around the same main note.
Keep going
- Raga vs scale: what Western musicians get wrong · A raga adds rules for movement, emphasis, identifying phrases and ornamentation to a scale or mode, a scale with a home note. Producers lose its identity when they treat it as a note list, ignore its tuning and phrasing, or let changing chords reshape the melody’s meaning.