As I mentioned earlier that a Raag must use minimum of ‘five’ to maximum of ‘seven’ notes, and we know, there are only seven notes, so we can divide Raags in three main categories (Jatis):
1. Sumpoorn (heptatonic or seven notes)
2. Chhadav (Hexatonic or six notes)
3. Audav (pentatonic or five notes)
When we play more than one note, we are either going up or down the scale. So every Raag has its own ‘ascending notes’ and ‘descending notes’. This way we can divide Raags into 9 sub categories (Jatis):
| Ascending-Descending | Note Count |
| 1. Sumpooran-Sumpooran | 7-7 or (hepta-hepta) |
| 2. Sumpooran-Chhadav | 7-6 or (hepta -hexa) |
| 3. Sumpooran-Audav | 7-5 or (hepta -penta) |
| 4. Chhadav-Sumpooran | 6-7 or (hexa- hepta) |
| 5. Chhadav-Chhadav | 6-6 or (hexa-hexa) |
| 6. Chhadav-Audav | 6-5 or (hexa- penta) |
| 7. Audav-Sumpooran | 5-7 or (penta- hepta) |
| 8. Audav-Chhadav | 5-6 or (penta -hexa) |
| 9. Audav-Audav | 5-5 or (penta-penta) |
Now it is just matter of putting them together and you will get 484 Raags. Every Raag must have a keynote, in Indian music, ‘Sa’ is always the keynote, no matter where you establish it. Now we will go through all 9 Jatis and see how the Raggs in each Jati add up.