“ Music is a proud, temperamental mistress. Give her the time and attention she deserves, and she is yours “-
The Name of the Wind
The word Riyaz originated in Urdu and Arabic native languages. It is also spelt as Riyaaz.
In Indian Classical Music, Riyaz means thorough practice of singing to develop your vocal tone.
Now, let me explain you the meaning of Riyaz with a simple example.
Suppose you want to become an international-level athlete. For this, you have to train your body and mind for several years. And then one day will come when you will achieve your desired physique.
In the same way, you need to train and practice every day to become a successful singer. It doesn’t matter how good your voice is.
Similarly, in Indian Classical Music, Riyaz is that training. You have to practice each and every day without missing a single day.
Even if you have a good voice, you cannot become a good singer without doing Riyaz. Riyaz develops your vocal cord and fine-tunes your voice.
My guru used to tell me, that if I miss music practice one-day music will reduce my efficiency by three days. So, Riyaz should be done every day.
Sonu Nigam words on riyaz .
It doesn’t matter how good a singer you are at your current stage, voice training is compulsory. It is important to develop strength and quality of your voice.If you do not go through proper training, you stand at a risk of damaging your voice. For Sonu Nigam, In order to keep upgrading oneself as a singer, he suggests voice exercise or Riyaz is something to never give up.
Benefits of voice exercises / Riyaz
Voice exercises are nothing but Riyaz. Following are the benefits of riyaz :
- It develops strength and flexibility in your vocal cord ( Vocal cord is a muscle tissue in the neck which produces sound ) .
- Voice range or scale will improve along the octaves.
- You can develop full command over the various singing ornaments like Meend, Kan-swar, Andolan, Gamaka, Khatka, Murki etc.
- Vibrato singing skill will drastically improve
- Most importantly , riyaz will enhance your inclination towards music which you always wanted.
Now, i hope that you understood the importance of riyaz .
Preparation before starting Riyaz / practice
- Find a quiet place at home minimum for 1 hr where you get very less or no disturbance .
- Get your instrument ready. Tanpura is considered to be best instrument for classical music Riyaz. You can also use Harmonium , Keyboard or Piano for the same. If you don’t have any instrument as of now then don’t worry, download the Tanpura droid app for android and iTanpura Lite app for iphone.
How to riyaz at home ?
I will divide ” Riyaz ” into multiple steps which you have to follow everytime you sit for practice. Lets begin …
STEP 1 : Warm up your vocal chord
Select your scale in which you are comfortable and start singing OM ( ॐ ) for each note. Practice this for minimum 2 min. This will make your voice ready for practice and give you peaceful connection with music.
STEP 2 : Alankar and its aakaar practice
Now, let’s understand the main pillar of indian classical music i.e Alankars.
Alankars are small exercises of swaras . Every aspiring singer must practice this to develop his/her voice. and way of practicing alankar can be classified in two major parts.
- Notation/swara practice : In this category, you will practice Sa Re Ga Ma notations patterns pronouncing each note.
- Akaar practice : Once you complete the notation practice . You will have to practice the same notations pattern pronouncing ( अ ) for each note.
Now, your task is to practice each alankar and its aakaar for at least 100-500 times .Do the alankar practice by changing speed of your tempo/taal from slow to fast . Do this every day minimum for 30 min.Trust me if you do this for three months continuously as per instructions given below ,you will see great change in your voice in terms of melody and range.
STEP 3 : Raaga practice
We all know that if anyone wants to learn english language then he/she must learn english grammar first to be able to form english sentences.Similarly, alankars are grammar of indian classical music and raag resembles english language .
Raag practice is the implementation of the alankars which will take you to the real music world. The practice of Raga develops various technicalities of music which will finally help you to sing all the genre of music. Raag practice develops various types of emotions in your singing.
How to practice Raaga ?
- Start with Aaroh, Avroh and pakad in slow speed.
- Practice Aalap of the raaga
- After that practice one bandish based on the raaga
The above three steps is for beginners. For advance level, you have to add more items into practice
- Swaras explansion as per raaga rule
- Taan practice
- Chhota Khayal
- Bada Khayal
STEP 4 : Song practice
A lot of songs are available based on raaga. For the raaga which you have practiced , select one song based on that raaga and practice . This will imprint the raaga forever in your memory.
Practice this method of Riyaz daily and let me know your progress after practicing for few days in the comment section below.
Good information about riyaz
Woow very very well explained.. You have taken so much of pain and efforts…
Thanks for your feedback😊. All the best for your riyaz and music career.
Thanks 😊. Happy that it helped you.