Hindustani Vocal Class, One Session, Gaya

Details

One hour at the Gaya academy, four students, on Hindustani classical voice. Swaras, sur, breath, and the discipline of holding a scale steady before anything ornamental is attempted, with a tanpura and harmonium actually in the room. Live accompaniment is the difference nobody quotes, and it is audible the first time you sit in a class that uses a recorded drone instead. A tanpura app cannot be tuned to a voice in the moment, and a singer trained against a fixed track learns to be approximately in tune. The other thing avoided here is the snobbery: film and light singing are welcome, and are taught better once the classical base is there, so nobody is told their taste in music is wrong. Your voice is recorded once a month, which is how you judge your own progress rather than taking a teacher's word for it.

• 60 minutes, group of 4, with live tanpura and harmonium, never a recorded track
• Sargam, breath and sur, alankars, taal awareness, one raag at a time, bhajan and light song
• Your voice recorded once a month and shared with you
• Four sessions Rs 1,700 against Rs 1,800 paid singly
• Above four sessions a month the music membership is cheaper at Rs 1,600 for eight, and we will point you at it
• No examination pushed unless you ask for one
• Nobody is turned away for being tone deaf. Pitch improves with training in almost every case
• A first raag usually takes 4 to 6 months, and 20 to 30 minutes of riyaz daily matters more than the class does