Lessons for Indian Classical Vocal Music

Every single person listens music according to their mood and liking. But very few of them recieve a gift from god to sing. But most of those people waste that because of lack of guidance. This is step that I am taking to guide those student who want to learn singing. Here we will be learning Indian Classical Vocal Music. First the basics or say building blocks of Indian classical Vocal music. I am also a student and would try my best to teach you to make you all a better singer. Before Starting I would clearly like to mention that every vocal has different qualities like some have more base etc. But the schedule and exercises that I will tell you are general and will help your vocals in every aspect. I would like to mention that as well that please follow this method accurately or it will damage your voice and I will not be responsible for it.

INTRODUCTION-
Let's talk about the basic terms of the indian classical vocal music-

1) RIYAAZ- It is the basic practice of different vocal(for singers) exercises that help the singer to develop his/her vocals to sing classical music or any other kind of hindustaani music. It is the most important part for learning the music.

2) SWAR- There are 7 swaras in hindustaani music that is-

            SA - RE - GA - MA - PA - DHA - NI .

3) AAROH- In this, the swaras are sung from first SA to the next SA that is ascending order is followed that is -

SA - RE - GA - MA - PA - DHA - NI - SA.

4) AVROH- It is the singing of upper SA to lower SA that is descending order that is -

SA - NI - DHA - PA - MA - GA - RE - SA .
 

THE POINTS FOR VOCAL RIYAAZ ---

1) Regularity-
The methods that I am going to tell you, you all should do it on daily basis and try your best to do it
in the morning before eating. The best time to do vocal riyaaz(music practice) is said to be 4 AM to 7AM. So Try to do your morning vocal riyaaz during this time. I know that it is difficult to wake up so early in the morning but remember one thing - when your dreams are more bigger than your comforts, you will surely do everything to complete that dream. At least try your best to do the riyaaz with empty stomach. Never skip the riyaaz any single day.

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2) Vocal Exercise-
 1) LIP BUBBLE- when you wake up. After brushing your teeth, the first thing you will do is bubble up your lips. Make sound like "prrrrrrrrrrr" from your lips. It will sound like the sound of old scooter or an auto, I hope you are getting it. You just have to vibrate the lips and it will produce this type of sound. Do it for 5 minutes. After doing this wait for 2-3 Minutes.

Advantage of LIP BUBBLE -
a) It will improve the throw of your voice. It means your voice will come out more clearly with less effort. We will understand about throw in detail after sometime.

b) When we do our basic riyaaz, friction hinders the path when we sing different alankaars,friction occurs between our lips and it hinders the speed of our alankaar singing. LIP BUBBLE reduces that friction.

2) BREATHING- Breathing is also very important part of singing. We many times have to sing for long duration in one breathe. So to improve your breathing power what you have to do is, sit with your back straight and  trap as much air you can trap from your nose and hold it as long as you can. When you take in the air just turn on the stopwatch and see how much second you can stop. After exhaling wait for 1-2 minutes and again do same process. Do this for 5 times. Remember you have to inhale the air only from your nose and not from mouth.

Advantages of Breathing exercise-
a) It will improve your breathing power by increasing the capacity of your lungs to capture the air.

b) It will help in doing alankaar and raags when we will do that.


3) OM- You have to take a standard scale that is your scale on your harmonium or keyboard. If you are not having one just download an app from the play store or any app store according to your mobile operating system. Take your scale. Your scale will be one that will not hurt your vocals when you go from sa to sa(to taar saptak that is high note sa). I will make a separate blog for the scale selection as well so do not worry about that. Now plug your earphones in your one ear (prefer right one to plug in) and pronounce OM at that scale and try to match your voice with the harmonium or the app that you are using. Do this for 5 Minutes. We will increase the time once your vocals get habitual. Take 5 minutes break after doing this.

Advantages of OM -

a) It is the basic of indian classical vocal music. It opens the vocals and allow us to do further riyaaz with ease. It is very important part of the riyaaz. It enhances the shape of vocals which is very important part of singing.

4) BASIC ALANKAAR - After OM, you have to sing the basic alankaar side by side playing it on the harmonium or keyboard or app. I am writing the alankaar below-

AAROH--(SA-RE-GA-MA-PA-DHA-NI-SA). you have to sing the part in bracket.

AVROH--(SA-NI-DHA-PA-MA-GA-RE-SA) .

You have to do this for 5 to 10 times. Remember that you have to sing each note for long time that is "sa" sing it long then go to "re" sing it long then go to "ga" and so on. Similarly follow same process in AVROH.

NEXT ALANKAAR-

AAROH- (SA SA- RE RE - GA GA - MA MA - PA PA - DHA DHA - NI NI - SA SA).

AVROH- (SA SA - NI NI - DHA DHA - PA PA - MA MA - GA GA - RE RE - SA SA).

All the instructions are same as earlier for this alankaar as well. I will tell you about the benefits of alankaars in the next blog. For now just understand this that you go to gym for the building strength of your physical body, Alankaar brings strength in the vocals and it gives nice shape to the vocals.

SO I Hope that you like my effort and I just want to people to follow the riyaaz that I am telling you as it will help you in your singing and believe in yourself. You are the best and you have to beat yourself by improving day by day. Your only competitor is you.

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