Posted: 05 September 2004 at 2:45pm | IP Logged

Lets presume one can concentrate on practice for say 1 and 1/2 to 2hrs per day 4-5 days a week.

What practice should an absolute beginer in classical music do to enhance his tonal quality and tonal range along with his sence of laya. one, at what frequency of repetation, two, for how long a duration at a stretch?

How should one graduate to "Riyaz" from practice? or should one try to do "riyaz" and not just practice without total meditation and involvement in the practice from the very onset of the learning process?

Please comment

Posted: 08 October 2004 at 4:59pm | IP Logged

I have found it useful to do the following exercises, all ranging from about 5 to 10 mins each, totalling to at least an hour to 2 hours every day as you have mentioned it is possible for you.

1. In swar and Aakar - sa pa sa starting with yr base sa and going up and down the octave, staying with each note as long as possible. In this exercise, I was told by my guru to try to reach at least 45 seconds for each note without any wavering in the voice in terms of volume or tone. I have also found the uchharan of Om at my base note useful in this exercise.

2. In swar and Aakar - doing the following exercises

sa, sa re sa, sa re ga re sa, sa re ga ma ga re sa and so on and the avroha for the same

sa sa re re ga ga ma ma and so on and avroha for the same

sa sa sa re re re ga ga ga and so on and avroha for the same

sa re sa re ga, re ga re ga ma, and so on and avroha for the same

I can actually go on with many such exercises - you will typically find them in the first few chapters of any elemantary book on classical music. The key is regular practice of these in both swar and aakar, concentrating on ensure even modulation, to prolong how many notes one can cover in a single breath. In terms of repetition, to prevent boredom, you may choose to repeat each exercise just 2-3 times in each swar and aakar and at 3 different speeds, thus doing a total of 18 times for each variation.

not sure I understand yr question abt difference between riyaaz and practice, but yes, concentration helps, because the quality of music is completely different when in meditation. but being regular is more important than all these finer aspects - if you are regular, automatically the voice quality starts changing, the entire experience of "practice" starts changing into meditation, when you no longer exist, only the music is. Probably sounds a lot like yogic description of meditation - it is a similar experience. The most, most important thing is being regular - cannot stress it more.

Hope this helps - best of luck.

Rgds,

Vinaya