Indian Classical Music - Ragas - Music Therapy - Voice Production

Bhairava (भैरव) is one of the most important and fundamental ragas in Indian Classical Music is one of the ten thaats. Thaats are the ten basic ragas and modern raga-classification system, which is considered as the origin and classification of numerous ragas sung/played today. In fact, beginners are not recommended to head towards more advanced ones without mastering Bhairava .  Second and sixth flatted provides dull, serious, but at the same time soothing and refreshing essence to the listeners.  Bhairava is a morning raga, which is ideally sung or played between 4 am to 7 am. It is an ancient vedic raga (created in Vedic period) which has been perceived by different dawn visualizations like orange golden rising sun and a lady welcoming and singing the raga. Many mythological tales has been illustrated which denotes its connection and importance with ancient period and music. For instance, when Goddess Parwati woke up early morning to offer flowers and garland for the wo

Merukhand Gayaki plays a vital role in the frequent practices and even in the performances. Ustad Amir Khan Saheb's Gayaki is always associated with merukhand style, because he often created the raga progressions through this technique, during his recitals, which is why his vocalization was unique and mesmerizing. In merukhand, 3 or 4 notes patterns are selected and all the possible combinations and patterns are rendered while practices. Merukhand technique works well in enhancing creativity of a singer and in improving the vocalization of jumped notes as well. To illustrate the merukhand style, let's select 4-note swar pattern initially: Sa Re Ga Ma Now we will create all the possible pattern, taking only these notes, without repeating any swaras: Sa Re Ga Ma           Re Sa Ga Ma       Ga Re Sa Ma         Ma Ga Re Sa Sa Re Ma Ga           Re Ga Sa Ma       Ga Re Ma Sa         Ma Ga Sa Re Sa Ga Re Ma           Re Sa Ma Ga       Ga Sa Re Ma         Ma

As the name signifies, pentatonic ragas are the ragas having the five-notes syllables in particular. In Hindustani music, there are primary three Jaati : Audav (Ragas having only 5 notes in ascend and descend both) , Shaadav (Ragas having 6 notes), Sampoorna (Ragas having all 7 notes); and nine sub-categories with all possible combinations of these three categories, like Audav-Audav (Having 5-5 notes in ascending and descending series both), Audav-Shadav ( 5 notes in ascending and 6 while descend), Audav-Sampoorna (5 notes while Ascend and all 7 while descend ) etc.. Pentatonic ragas are called Audav Jaati Raga (औडव जाति के राग).  There are many ragas, which are created only by selecting five notes, omitting any two, which are mesmerizing and extraordinary. Creating and vocalizing such scale is challenging, because the phrase-improvisation,  becomes limited as one has to revolve round and round skipping with those five notes. Some of the Audav-Jaati ragas are: Raga

                                                Healing through Music Music is the pleasure the human soul experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting.                        - Gottfried Wilhelm Von Leibniz, Inventor of Calculus “I saw my own body on the ground. I said to myself, ‘Oh shit, I’m dead.’ …Then—slam! I was back.” recalls Dr. Tony Cicoria who remembered the whole incident minutely. Dr. Cicoria, a well-regarded orthopedic surgeon and a former football Player, this robust fellow, actually embraced death and returned back to life, after having been struck by lightning while talking on the phone. He developed several neurological syndromes as explained in Musicophilia by Dr. Oliver sacks. A couple of weeks later, memory problem persisted, but life has returned to normal when suddenly over two or three days, there was this insatiable desire to listen to piano music. This was completely out of keeping with anything in his past. He started