In this work, magnetostatic surface spin waves (MSSW) were propagated along the single crystal YIG (Y3Fe5O12) film grown on GGG substrate. In order to obtain magnonic crystals, unlike the conventional methods, the surface of YIG films were magnetically modulated by magnet array in one and two-dimensions. The surface modulated YIG films formed sharp band gaps at approximately 6.55 GHz and 6.58 GHz at 1600 Oe magnetic field for one and two-dimensional magnonic crystals, respectively. It was found that a very small magnetic field change leads a large change in the peak value of band gap frequency. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.