You can study many subjects without going to a teacher. You can read books, use guides and get through the examinations even without attending the classrooms. This is also true in case of light /popular /film music. But in Indian Classical Music a Guru is a must; without his guidance and blessings one cannot go far. This is because of the spiritual content in our Classical Music. Our Classical Music is more than 5000 years old and has come from our temples. Our Gods were great musicians. Devi Saraswati played veena, Lord Krishna played flute, Lord Shankar played damaroo. 5000 years back Hinduism was the most established religion; respect to nature is very prominent in our religion. ( eg: panch-mahabhootas, tulsi, cow, coconut, rivers, hills etc.) Indian Classical Music, as a part of Hindu religion, respected nature and followed laws of nature. This led to time theory of Ragas.

Time Cycle of Ragas
In early mornings we are fresh and before starting the days work, we pray God and Gurus. Bhakti-rasa , shant-rasa and gambhir-rasa suit the situation. Uttarangwadi ragas in Bhairav, Poorvi and Marwa thaats ( Rishabh, Dhaiwat notes komal ) with bandishes creating these rasas are most suited for this time. In mid-mornings we are at the peak of our energy and carry out important jobs of the day. Uttarangwadi ragas in Bilawal, Kalyan and Khamaj thaats ( Rishabh, Gandhar, Dhaiwat notes shuddha) create the desired atmosphere. In afternoons we are little tired and hungry. The temperature at this time of the day is the highest. We take lunch and we take a short nap. Poorvangwadi ragas in Kafi, Asawari, Todi & Bhairavi thaats (Gandhar, Nishad notes komal) create the necessary atmosphere. Again in the late evening we have completed our days’ important activities. The day temperature starts coming down. We feel relaxed and fresh. The situation is more or less similar to early mornings. Hence Poorvangwadi ragas in Bhairav, Poorvi and Marwa thaats are most suited for this time. During the initial period of night we are again at the peak of our energy. We are in a romantic mood. Poorvangwadi ragas in Bilawal, Kalyan and Khamaj thaats with suitable bandishes create the desired atmosphere of Shringar-rasa. After midnight again we are tired and need rest/sleep. Uttarangwadi ragas in Kafi, Asawari, Todi & Bhairavi thaats create the necessary atmosphere. Then we have Sandhi-prakash ragas which are sung at the sunrise and sunset. We also have ragas sung in specific periods of the year, called Seasonal Ragas, Ragas sung in monsoon, in Basant-ritu etc.

Melody
Sound, which is useful for music, is melody. Sound of bomb-explosion or a harsh horn of a lorry cannot be a melody; whereas chirping of birds, whisper of breeze, sound of flowing river etc. can be melody. Melody has three characteristics: i) Volume/ Magnitude, which is loudness ii) Timber/quality, which enables us to know who is singing/speaking or which instrument is being played iii) Pitch, which is a result of frequency of vibration per second and it decides The octave.

Twelve Swaras of the Octave
The octave can only be divided into 22 parts where our ear can distinctly hear the parts separately. Any additional part above 22, gets overlapped and our ear cannot distinguish. These are our 22 shrutis. Swara Sa occupies 4 shrutis, Re occupies 3 shrutis, Ga occupies 2 shrutis, Ma occupies 4 shrutis, Pa occupies 4 shrutis, Dha occupies 3 shrutis and Ni occupies 2 shrutis. (Remember this like a telephone no. 4324432) Re, Ga, Dha and Ni have space to move backwards and hence can become komal, whereas Ma cannot move backwards but can only move forwards and hence can become teevra. Sa and Pa swaras are fixed at one place and are like Dhruv nakshyatra.

Thaats
The 7 swaras in different combinations give 10 thaats (groups)

Raga
Thaats give birth to all the ragas. The combinations of swaras for a raga must be aesthetically appealing. They must be artistically pleasing and entertaining. Aroha & Avaroha are must in a raga. They must have minimum of five swaras. Two variations of same swaras are not allowed consecutively in a raga. The raga will have Vadi (King), Samvadi (Queen /Minister) , Anuvadi ( Praja / subjects) & Vivadi (Enemy) swaras. Some ragas will have Vakra swaras. The raga will have a Pakad, which is the smallest combination of swaras depicting the raga.

In a raga the aaroha or avaroha taking all seven swaras is known as sampoorna;

the aaroha or avaroha taking only six swaras is known as shadav;

the aaroha or avaroha taking only five swaras is known as auduv.

Thus we have nine combinations of ragas & a total of possible 484 ragas in one thaat ie. a total of 4,840 ragas in ten thaats as given below.

Total ragas in one thaat : 484 Hence total ragas possible in ten thaats are 4,840

However all these possible ragas are not aesthetically appealing. Hence at a given period of time only about 350-400 ragas are in circulation and of these may be only about 100-150 are popular. With time some ragas go to the back-benches and some emerge to the front. You will now appreciate that it is futile to claim that somebody invented a new rags; at the most you may say that somebody re-invented the raga or somebody brought a raga from back-benches to the front row!

Development of Raga
Development is slow unfolding of a raga. It should be done as if you are having a dialog with the audience (or with God/Guru when you are doing practice/riyaz).

The raga starts with aalaps which is introducing the raga from all angles with progressive swaras. There is no rhythm involved at this juncture. Correctness of swaras and grammar of raga are important in aalaps. The rhythm without a cycle is then introduced in jod-aalaps. At the end of jod-aalaps we have jod-jhala where the rhythm becomes very fast and takes a pseudo-cycle without accompaniment of percussionist.

Then we have pre-set compositions in vilambit and drut tempo with the accompaniment of percussionist. The compositions are set to various time-cycles known as taals. Extempore development is then done within the framework of the compositions.

We then have a fast jhala set to the time-cycle/taal, and finally a climax is achieved.

Decoration / Ornamentation of Raga
The basic raga and the compositions are to be given a beauty-parlour treatment so that the presentation becomes aesthetically pleasing and appealing to the mind. This is very very important exercise and this distinguishes a maestro from a mediocre artiste.

Kan, Meend, Murki, Gamak, Khatka, Behalava, Ghaseet, Krintan, Jamjama and a wide variety of Taans are the commonly used ornaments and cosmetics. These I will better explain by demonstration.

Taal
The time-cycles are known as taals. The taal has a tempo, has Matras ( beats, ie. unit used to measure time), has Sam (Most important beat giving the impact), has Khali (which usually shows the mid-way). The taals have their distinct Bols. I will explain these with demonstration. Our music is rich with several taals ranging from cycle of 6 beats to as high as 28 beats.

The Importance of Correct Riyaz
It is not necessary to practise for 12 hours a day as claimed by artistes of yester-years.For them it was necessary because they did not have modern gadgets like tape-recorder, electronic tabla etc. and they did not think of application of science to their musical effort. Even with a regular four hours a day riyaz many of today’s younger artistes have reached the highest levels of success.

The student of music has to get the correct technique from through proper Guru, then and then only he can make extra-ordinary progress. I will explain these points with demonstration.

Music Is Religion
Shahnai / Nagswaram in temples, Piano in churches, harmonium in gurudwaras prove the importance of music in religions. However Music is beyond the religions. It has a tremendous capacity to bring different religions together. We have Hindu musicians singing compositions of Muslim ustads. We have Muslim musicians singing compositions in praise of Krishna, Rama, Shankar, Ganesh, Saraswati etc.

We can quote the examples of Late Ustad Allauddin Khan Saheb (Guru of Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan , Pandit Nikhil Banerjee etc) and Pandit Lalji Gokhale

(Disciple of Ustad Ahmad Jan Thirakwa) who went beyond their religions and proved that Music itself is a religion. Indian Classical Music gives soothing effect to the body, lowers mental tensions and has been recommended for patients suffering from heart diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes etc.

Ghazals, Qawwalis, Chants Dévotionels et Musique Classique Indienne