Raag Bhairavi is a very popular Raag that has been used as the basis for many Bollywood songs. The equivalent scale in Western music is commonly known as the Phrygian scale.

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The intervals in this scale after the Tonic note are Minor 2nd, Minor 3rd, Perfect 4th, Perfect 5th, Minor 6th and Minor 7th.  The Swars are Sa, re, ga, ma, Pa, dha, ni – all Shuddh except re, ga, dha and ni.

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Songs based on this Raag are often arranged with the ma as the Tonic. For instance, if your Tonic is E, the notes in the scale will be E, F, G, A, B, C, D. Now if you take A as your tonic, the scale becomes A, B, C, D, E, F, G - also known as the Aeolian or Natural Minor Scale. A good example is the song Hamein Tumse Pyar Kitna, based on Raag Bhairavi with E as the Sa or Tonic. However, the music has been arranged with Am as the home chord instead of Em.