Indian Classical Music - Ragas - Music Therapy - Voice Production

The word 'classical' connotes something of lasting value, something concieved with certain standards in mind. The word classical conveys structural order, a clear sense of form, design, and content. The story of classical  music is old and ongoing one, which encompasses many different styles and developments. In general. classical music has tended to reflect the times. Like all the other art fields, music tends to shape itself according to the then public tastes and demeanor. In classical music, entertainment should be the last thing to think about. Classical music art works as an art first, then discipline, rules and principals, aesthetics moreover extracted from the limitations of rules. As stated before, classical music systems the art form by certain rules and theories. A good answer to the question "what is Classical music" is "a music which does not make money". Origin of western classical art start with dark ages around the mid sixth century. Th...

    In spiritual terms, we are preached that we all are pure, peaceful and nice SOULS free from all the wrong and negative thoughts, worries, sorrows; all in all deeply bestowed with all the positive energy.  We all are the souls, only a bright light which has come from soul world, which is suppose to be our actual home. Now I kept thinking why and when the hell did we allow negativism enter our lives. Or who made these pure souls impure ? When, how and under what circumstances did the negativism originate when we were just pure flame of light ? Until I read a book and got my answer. It's GRAVITY !!    We all are familiar with the theory of earth's gravitational force. All the physical bodies attract each other and have the tendency to fall down.  Scientifically, this is a proved statement but it indeed has a great logic spiritually too. When the souls came down  or lets say fell down to earth from the soul- world, it costumed a...

      I believe that music is an undervalued commodity, one that can become an important feature in the quest for greater understanding among cultures and traditions around the world. In the present days, due to the growing promotion technology or media, people getting closer through all forms of communication explicitly involves dynamic intermingling of cultures. Music can be considered as one form of communication that is devoid of prejudice, caste-creed, simply a language without borders that treats us equally in the most profound way. World music encompasses music of different regions, cults throughout the world with which clearly exhibits the culture, traditions or rituals of that particular country.Also, it refers to any political or economic conditions of the country might have been if this particular music wouldn't have existed there.       World music is, ideally, the music of the whole earth, including music of European art traditio...

    Since my specialization is in music, I always want me to listen to different kinds of musicians or instrumentalists and their music, to enhance my classical knowledge and notes-accuracy, as I've been told from my own teachers that listening adds up to better singing. In fact, listening to classical music is more beneficial in singing than just practicing rigorously. The more we listen, more musical notes are grasped in our brains which leads to better perception while singing.     My teachers always insisted me that I should listen to different classical artists but initially I neglected their advises, as I found the classical singing boring and hackneyed. I pushed myself towards listening and issued the cassettes from the audio library but they were nicely kept in my bag at home for three days when I went back to reissue them. Gradually, I understood the importance of listening by my own introspection and interests, when I started atten...

  W hile focusing on the proper western voice training these days, I came to know that western discipline regarding voice production and sound texture is pretty different from the Indian one. Although, I am still analyzing the concept of how the voice should be exactly produced and my instructor is trying hard to teach me, but what I've analyzed till date is that they try to produce full-throated and firm voice through false tone structure. I might have perceived it wrong, but usage of El-Prado on the sustained notes in almost all the songs (I've learned) looks  like they avoid to exhibit their incapability of singing in smooth consistency like we've been taught in Indian discipline. Whereas in Indian classical, we are taught that the sustenance of notes should be smooth, plain non-shaky or quivering.  However, its a bit unreasonable to be judgmental and especially when El Prado suit the songs in here to enhance the feel and flow of a particular composition. Also, each ...

Music is a  sound or nada generating particular vibrations which moves through the medium of ether present in the atmosphere and effects the human body. Sarangdev mentions in his Sangeet Ratnakar that ahata-nada or music is always produced by striking or aghata by a living being on an instrument of any kind So music is a power or universal energy in the form of raga. We might be familiar with the word music therapy or Sound healing, which is practiced globally these days.  Raag therapy is basically Indian music therapy as the base of Indian classical music rendition is RAG. Healing through the rendition of ragas is Rag therapy. Indian classical music is recited in ragas which is the reason ragas play an important role in treatments too. The therapeutic procedures through ragas comprises of making a patient listen to tunes or a specific tonal structures and notes  in which a particular raga has been created.  In India, legend has it that Thyagaraja, the famous m...

Hanser and her more than 3,200 colleagues of the American Music Therapy Association practice two types of music therapy: active and passive. Familiar and, most importantly, likable, music elicits the best responses. For example, Big Band music motivated social interaction more than making a puzzle in one 1993 study, and another study that same year found playing music of a patient's choosing six days a week reduced his or her agitation. Music therapists work directly with family members, caregivers, and patients to find the best music for a desired goal of dementia therapy, such as to "improve memory," "lower agitation," or "improve cognitive skills." According to Tomaino, music can be used mnemonically to "retune" the brain to remember certain tasks during early stages of Alzheimer and dementia. But in later stages, music is most helpful in maintaining motor skills. In all cases, music is known to reduce anxiety and stress while incr...

 Indian traditional systems of health and healing include various musical treatment approaches. Few healing traditions are also integrated in modern music therapy practice in India.  All these approaches integrated with music not only prayer, but also yoga and meditation and guide the participant in the art of living. There are some rituals and traditional practices which are en-vogue even today reflecting strongly that music and sound are used to alter states of consciousness to reduce perception of pain. It is popular for the Hindu devotees to perform the troublesome acts in order to impress Gods in the festivals. For instance, Fire-walking. Fire-walking by thousands of Hindu devotees is an integral part of religious Hindu festivals. The devotees, fully pierced by silver pins on their body carrying heavy burdens, walk on coal fire. Although, it can be considered as a superstition in today's era, but the devotees performed this act to signify that the pins destroy all t...

Listening to Jazz Pianist Keith Jarrett' interview on npr news. He had been interviewed on the launch of his album of six standards called somewhere which was recorded in 2009 when he performed live in Switzerland along with the bassist Gary Peacock and the drummer Jack Dejohnette. After four long years of the live show they revisited the track and launched as an album. Reason being the terrible hall, ineffective in fact horrible sound arrangement and some other loads of unpleasant experiences, they kept on delaying. The three had a disastrous experience while performing live. They realized  that the hall was too congested that Keith's wife viewed the show standing behind the spotlight, whereas Gary was not happy with the sound. Ultimately they all were vexed with the situation, especially Gary being the most adamant and particular in having perfect circumstances, was in hell. Mostly, Jarrett says the hardest part was convincing Peacock that the recording was good. ...

I recently came to know about a pretty logical interpretation of ‘self-respect’ and ‘ego’ which I would like to share. Self respect and ego are the opposites. Self-respect means ‘my own respect’, whereas ego is ‘not respecting my own self’. Where there is ego, self respect cannot come into existence and vice-versa. We create feeling of ego when we lack self respect. When we are unable to love and respect our own self, we try to find the same in the outer world; and ego takes place when those external expectations or honor-seeking desires are unfulfilled by the external sources (people, situations etc.)…coz the world cannot go according to you. A self respecting person would never feel insulted or less honored when he does not achieve good amount of respect from the world. Anyways there is an ample of respect and love in his heart for himself that he does not need any external being to come and praise for him. His expectations from others are zero. On the contrary, his full fo...

In music, it is pretty essential to sing in a good, pure voice, which not only keep your vocal chords in a comfort zone, but also seem soft and sweet for the listeners. Music of every community or country has its own peculiar style and intonations, but probably, almost all the musical cultures believe in the pure and full-throat voice which leads to aesthetically sound music. I am trying to explain some some proper ways to improve the voice quality while singing, which has incredibly helped me a lot in  rigorous practices and vocal recitals as well. Five to ten minutes of breath exercises especially BHATSIKA (full deep breath), Anulom-vilom, Bhraamri.  During breath exercises, sit in a comfortable cross-legs posture with arms on knees. Start with deep-breathing exercise, i.e, inhale deeply holding breath for 5-7 seconds and exhale. Focus on breath. This is the best exercise for throat and stomach. It also results in the increase in concentration level. After doing this f...

Since a few days we have been discussing the concept of God. What is God...has anyone seen him/her ?  is there really any supernatural power , an almighty, a divine deity,  creator which is controlling the whole world ? The deities we worship...Rama krishna, jesus, are they really Gods ? The answer is perceptional, i.e. based on an individual's perception. But majority of people has the answer 'Yes, God is there...the one who we pray daily.' and the answer ends. I believe the origin of this concept ought to be analysed. God and goodness are synonymous. Like they say, God resides within us. Our inner conscience or soul fulfilled with all positive aspects is God. If we are leading life with goodness, glory, peace, happiness and love then we are God. A feeling of love, affection, compassion, harmony, endowment towards others, then the God factor inside us is alive. A positive  energy or  a thought within us which guides on right and constructive path and ...

       A gra Gharana had been one of the most eminent and affluent Gharanas of tradition system in the world of Hindustani classical music. There are ample of Agra stalwarts in today’s domain, who are extremely successful and working a lot for the up-gradation of Indian music. Some of the radically distinguished and knowledgeable personalities of Agra Gharana, which do not belong to their family in particular, yet patronised a lot  in making the Gharana prestigious and illustrious include: Pt. Bhaskar Buwa Bakhle, Pt. Jagannath Buwa Purohit,  Pt. Dilip Chandra Vedi, Dr. Sumati Mutatkar , Pt. Babanrao Haldankar,  and  many more. Maximum of these great people had been the disciples of Ustaad Vilayat Hussain Khan, one of the leading creator and mentor of Agra Gharana. We generally associate Ustaad Faiyaz Khan when we perceive the Agra vocalism and lineage. After Ustaad Faiyaz Khan, Ustaad Vilayat Hussain Khan is considered as an accomplished promo...