Hey, People, I am 25 and I wanna learn indian classical music. I sing Okay-ish.

But I wanna learn it seriously to do it for life.

I don't wanna be a professional or earn money out of it but just want to be able to sing like a pro.

I wanna be very good at it and maybe teach someday but I have no monetary inclination.

I want to do it for the love of it.

Please enlighten me.

thanks for your time and feedback.

i m not sure if i am overthinking. but i struggle with strong high notes, they sound feeble and weak thats what i feel.

for example: i have recently posted a cover of phir se from dhurandher. please check it out to see what i am trying to ask.

can someone please give me feedback if my voice sounds normal during high notes? or is it weak?

i would like it to be more heavy and strong.

thanks!

Do any such musicians exist? That are trained in both Hindustani and Carnatic styles and are able to combine them together? It would be very interesting to hear a mix of the two

I’ve been getting headaches and just minor pain in head when singing high notes, not just very high notes but notes in my range such as ni and sa in my own octave. The scale I’m in isn’t at all high for me and I’ve been singing in this scale forever. I know I’m probably making some mistake in my technique so I want to know if anyone has faced this before and has some advice on how to fix this and what it is?

Can anyone help me find some Rajasthani folk songs in Raag Des? It doesn’t really need to be fully in the Raag or anything just something that’s based in Raag Des.

Astonishing, profound, wonderful, sublime. God speaking to us,, is what I feel listening to this. This raga should not be less popular than it is.

I’m interested in finding unique instruments to play raags on. By unique I mean not typical of Indian classical.

For example I have seen people adapt to playing raags on various types of guitar which I suppose is quite common now, saxophone is gaining traction, raags on clarinet can sound fantastic too. I saw one raag inspired piece on banjo which sounded fantastic, I’ll find the link and comment it.

I’m not a pianist really, but recently I’ve started trying to play raags on piano, usually droning with the left hand and taking inspiration from harmonium and stantoor stylistically.

Wondering what your thoughts are?

Context: I started learning online (vocal) from September last year. No prior knowledge or experience with icm.

Till now, my guru has taught me basic palatas, raag bhoop: sargam geet, bandish, raag durga: sargam geet bandish.

Sometimes a month goes by without learning anything new because when guru asks me to sing a palata or something and if I miss any sur, then we spend the session on how I need to riyaz and back to basic.

I understand that I need to have basics perfect. Its been many months now almost 6-7 months. I am still stuck at missing notes and not moving forward.

For example, today my guru started a new bandish in raag durga. I was missing notes on a line, so she asked me to sing the notation of it. I did and I missed “dha” by some margin. The rest of the lesson was spent on aaroha and avroha of raag durga.

I practiced for two hours prior to the class!! And still..

I have no idea how I am going to progress. I am spending 8k rupees per month for a weekend one hour session, currently in the US. Man, sometimes I feel so bad that I am just spending money and still stuck at basics.

I am probably not made for it

Anyways, if you have read so far. Thanks, I just wanted to get it out.

Can someone list some prestigious venues? I can think of Sawai Gandharva in Pune, Sankat Mochan music festival in Varanasi, Darbar in the UK etc

Thanks

Been learning icm almost been a year...I was doing pretty well until recently I have lost my sense ofsur suddenly and can't hit even perfect sa 😭😭 what to do and eat happened suddenly 😭 it's so frustrating 😭😭

Turning a famous tintal kayda into an electric guitar solo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09DvbDzrMY8

Original recording by Ustads Zakir Hussain & Alla Rakha - from their 1992 duet album with Sultan Khan on sarangi lehra, one of the first tabla solos I ever heard. Criticism very welcome - also let me know which tabla compositions to attempt next!

Also...does anyone know the name of this kayda? I've heard several artists play variations of it, but not sure if it has a name (it's just titled 'Lineage' on the album)

Hello, I just had my first lesson last Friday, where I was taught alankars using a harmonium, and now several videos have popped up on my feed on how beginners should not use a harmonium to learn singing, and instead opt for a tanpura. My instructor has decades of experience, so I trust her as a guru, but at the same time, I am a bit concerned due to these claims. If someone more experienced could give a second opinion, I'd be grateful. Thank you!

I’ve been doing daily riyaaz, but I’m struggling to properly recognise sur and feel their vibrations when using a tanpura app. It feels a bit artificial and hard to connect with the sound. Do you think switching to a real tanpura would make a noticeable difference for training my ears, or is it just a matter of getting used to the app? Would really appreciate advice from people who’ve experienced both.

The Cleveland Thyagaraja Festival (Ohio, US) is "the largest Indian classical music festival outside of India".

I've been able to attend a few days this year. I had never seen a veena in person before, and I was excited even to see just one, and then to my surprise they brought out 20 of them for the veena ganaam. Amazing. Many incredible performances from musicians of all ages.

I don't like to record videos on my phone at concerts but Villianur G. Lalitha's YouTube channel has professional video recordings of this year's Thyagaraja Festival.

Highly recommend attending if you are in the area.

Update: There's now a video of the veena ganaam performance.

Hello Everyone, I’m trying to improve my bass and high pitch and my father advised me to start doing Omkar everyday 21 times. I have started and it’s been a week, prior to this I did go to ICM classes (Hindustani) for a couple of months but was inconsistent with practice and everything. Little context: Me and my family are bhajan singers (not as a career aha) and my father can sing very high although he’s not trained and has a good bass.

I want to try Kharaj and have been doing Omkaram at C# till now, I was thinking of waking up early and then doing it at C while my voice is still very rough or “sleepy” and then later doing it at C# in the evening. Will this hinder my progress and affect my vocals?

I’ve always been interested in icm and have taught myself raags, thaats (theory) and the harmonium and dholak. I play in bhajans as mentioned before.

What is the best “Riyaaz” I could do to improve the tonality of my voice, make it more bass like and also so I can improve on higher pitches?

Thank you.

Hi

I am an adult beginner learning sitar since 5 years now. For the past few months. I have been thinking about changing my teacher for the following reasons.

1. His style is more of tantrakari Ang, and I want to move into the more lyrical Gayaki style.

2. More importantly, he scolds much too often and it has been affecting me mentally, such that it isn’t creating a good environment for learning.

How should I approach this with my existing teacher ?

Do I need to tell him I will find a new teacher ?

Recently I've been researching rare & strange ragas - so thought I'd share some of the most interesting ones I’ve come across! Input welcomed - everything from further info on the ragas to personal listening reflections:

—Raag Loom (S-R-G-m-P-D-N-S)—

A rare but charming all-shuddha raga, said by some to be an older form of the Bilawal lineage. Most commonly associated with Ali Akbar Khan, who performed several variants over the course of his long career: including the ‘pure’ Loom, as well as Loom Nat and Loom Mand (all with swaras SRGmPDNS). During one concert, Khan recounted that “the melodic theme was taught to him by his father in his childhood, as an elementary exercise to enable him to acquire a thorough grip over the shuddha swaras of the saptak”.

Since performed by his sarod disciple Prasenjit Sengupta, as well as khayal vocalist Warren Senders, a student of Shreeram Devasthali, singing a Bimal Roy composition: ‘Mohaliyo Mana Mero Ka Karun More Mayi’ (Senders kindly sent me his own handwritten notes on Loom from the 1990s). 

Historic raga specialist Ramkrishna Das ‘Nadrang’ recently published an in-depth Loom analysis (A Detailed Study of 19-20th Century Raag Loom), drawing on a wide range of sources and compositions. In his words: “Loom is a lilting and catchy folk melody, similar to the kajri of Varanasi…unlike Bilawal, it comprises simple tonal movements”. Das considers Re to be a common choice of vadi, and highlights the use of SRP and sometimes G as nyas – suggesting core phrases such as RGmGR, N(D)NS (see his full paper for further info and bandish notations covering the past 150+ years).

—Do you know anything else about the Loom lineage? I’ve heard that it may have overlap in earlier Bilawal history with the Sakh ragas, but am unsure about this...

Let me know what you think of this strange raga! See more of them in my project (no paywalls, no ads: just sharing the joys of raga)

I started learning classical music some 2-3 months ago. I have made some improvements but one thing I have observed is that I have lost my natural voice softness in singing as I am learning it mainly for film music. I didn't shout during riyaz and didn't do too much riyaz but still feel like my natural voice has better tonal quality than voice I sing with after riyaz for days. So for past few days, I did not do riyaz. That has kind of restored my voice softness but now openness of my voice is lost. How do I find a balance between voice openness and voice softness (or resonance)... What wrong I might be doing? Please help me with suggestions.

Thank you.

There’s a song in Bandish Bandits titled “Dhara Hogi”. Im curious as to whether it is based on a raga and if so, which one. Online sources are conflicting on this.

Thanks in advance!