TRAINING IN INDIAN CLASSICAL

MUSIC
“RIYAZ”

Dr. Rajiv C. Sharangpani

MS(General Surgery)
Diplom Sports Medicine (Germany)
WHAT IS TRAINING?
 Repeated skillful movements with full
awareness.
 It is a stimulus which brings about desirable
changes in neuronal circuits and
musculoskeletal apparatus during rest.
 There is no end or limit to training; i.e.
Riyaz
 BUT it has to be done with total
awareness
 AWARENESS

• Awareness is
continuous,
simultaneous,
nonjudgmental and
total perception of
internal and external
environment.
 RIGHT ACTION

• Effortless Effort is the right action.

• Happens out of Awareness.
• Total awareness leads to absolutely
right action.
 HOLISTIC RIYAZ
BODY
BREATHING

MIND MASTER

ATTITUDE
SPIRIT
 THREE STEPS to
HOLISTIC RIYAZ/
BECOMING A MASTER
Health
Fitness
Performance
 HEALTH
 Health is the ability
to enjoy every
moment of life
without any cause.
 FITNESS

Fitness is the enhancement of

all motor functions and mental
capacities.
 PERFORMANCE
 Performance is the
ability of total
integration of mind
and body functions
leading to a
spirited
spontaneity in any
given task.
PRINCIPLES OF RIYAZ
 Individualization
 Economization
 Specificity
 Optimization
 Recovery
 Doing and Happening
 Not doing
 Passive observation
INDIVIDUALIZTION
 Every individual is different. Her
requirements are different.
Adaptability to training loads is
different. Thus choice or technique
of Riyaz has to be chosen
accordingly.
ECONOMIZATION
 ‘More is better’- This is not true in
Riyaz
 Learning skill needs a pattern of
repetitions but this pattern should
be as near to exactitude as
possible.
 The ‘Quality’ of Riyaz is important,
not the duration. Not one minute
extra of Riyaz is necessary.
SPECIFICITY
 This is the most ill understood part of
Riyaz.
 Muscles respond to loads in different
ways because the muscle fibers which
respond to training load are different.
 A marathon runner and a sprinter, both
run but both use different type of muscle
fibers.
 Thus a singer who trains his lower
octaves uses different muscles than
when he trains his upper octaves.
OPTIMIZATION
 Any movement, if it is to be done
more and more skillfully, needs
mental as well as physical
repetitions.
 This balance has to be correctly
reached.
 Excessive mental or physical
repetitions do not help in actual
performance but lead to injury,
fatigue or both.
RECOVERY
 After any activity, there is a time lag in
which the human body recovers its spent
resources as well as restructures its
neuronal circuits & musculoskeletal
apparatus.
 Training should not be instituted in this
phase.
 In fact, the body changes for the better
between two training sessions if properly
placed.
 Riyaz is just a stimulus.
DOING AND HAPPENING
 When one understands the task of
producing a skillful sound mentally ,one
starts doing efforts to produce it at will.
 Suddenly one finds that, by chance, one
is able to produce that skilful action.
 However, it is not possible to physically
reproduce this happening by chance
every time.
 Here mental repetition is important
because, although physical reproduction
is not possible, mental reproduction is
possible for few seconds.
DOING AND HAPPENING 2

 Gradually this happening comes into the

domain of doing. The artist is able to
reproduce these sounds voluntarily.
 The artist is now in search of further
happenings.
 Thus at every stage of his or her career,
an artist comes across these
happenings. If she accumulates them
and brings them into doing she becomes
great. If she fails to do the same, she
remains mediocre.
NOT DOING

 It is important to give complete break to

Riyaz once in a while to give your body
some time to recover. Surprisingly one
starts performing better after the break.
PASSIVE OBSERVATION

 Listening to others and observing their

performance is essential to inculcate new
ideas in one’s own repertoire.
ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS
 Paradoxically Riyaz is all about repeated
analysis.
 This analysis should lead to various forms
of synthesis. Like building a house and
dismantling it. Using the same bricks and
building a new house till one is satisfied
in all its aspects.
 Performance is all about presenting a
spontaneous synthesis.
SPONTANEITY

 Paradoxically spontaneity has to be

trained.
 It is controlled abandon.
 The tools have to be polished and sharp;
their use has to be with controlled
abandon.
WHAT ARE WE TRAINING?
• Body: Strength, Speed, Flexibility, Skill
and endurance
• Breathing
• Mind: Concentration, contemplation,
Koan
• Attitude:
• Spirit: Meditation
Exercises

• Doing
• Physical.
• Breathing
• Mental
• Attitudinal • Happening

• Spiritual
PHYSICAL TRAINING

• Static strength endurance training for

good posture.
• General strength training for good health
especially for females.
• Balanced training for instrument players
to offset disadvantage of excessive use
of one muscle group.
BREATHING

• Abdominal breathing leads to minimum

internal dialogue. This in turn effects in
increased spontaneity.
MENTAL TRAINING

• Concentration to be able to appreciate

the place of the note.
• Contemplation to comprehend the
intangible in Music.
• Koan to just stop the mind.
ETERNAL TRUTHS FOR
CORRECT ATTITUDE

• Everything changes. Change is the only

thing that is permanent.
• Time to make decisions not for regrets
• This moment is the culmination of the life
lived so far.
• It is always ‘Here and Now’.
• Work is its own reward
SPIRITUAL TRAINING
• Who am I?
• What is happening around me?
• The awareness of the answers of these
questions is important.
• It has to be there 24 hours a day.
• Awareness before, during and after the
Riyaz is absolutely necessary.
 COMPONENTS OF RIYAZ
 Time: Rhythms of the Body, time and
duration of performance.
 Space
 Posture
 Breathing
 Duration
 Dreaming
 COMPONENTS OF VOCAL RIYAZ
 All notes
 In natural octaves
 In a, aa, e, ee, u, ae,o and with mouth closed.
 In all volumes
Have to be trained for
 Ability to move and stop at will
 Ability to express permutations and
combinations of all notes.
 Good pronunciation of the words of a
composition
 Training the “a” and “h” component
PHYSIOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS

 All individuals strikes a different “Sa”

 Even the same individual has slightly
different “Sa” every day.
 Lowest note on a day should be taken as
“Pa” and the rest of the notes should be
adjusted accordingly.
 This leads to effortless singing.
 Training a false voice is strenuous.
 Damage to Physical Health

 Hypokinesia
 Bad Posture
 Addictions
 Wrong breathing: Breathing through the
chest as opposed to the stomach.
 Damage to Mental health
S
 Desire T
 Anger
 Conceit R
 Temptation
E
 Avarice
 Jealousy S
Fear S
 DAMAGE TO SPIRITUAL
HEALTH
 Unawareness
 Inability to search for the answers to the
question - “Who am I?”
 PREPARATION BEFORE
PERFORMANCE:
 Starts on the day of the programme
 Managing internal and external
environment.
 Internal: Nature of presentation
 External: Coping up with the
accompanying artists, stage, hall, cultural
background of the place.
 ON THE DAY OF PERFORMANCE
 Correct breathing: Through the Stomach
 Correct eating
 Inspecting the stage, mike, volume etc.
 No discussions with anybody, especially no
laughing.
 Getting into the zone of the performance.
 QUALITIES OF A TEACHER
 Always a student.
 Without ulterior motives
 Minimum attachment
 Knowing the two aspects of training : skill
and general training of Individual
 Able to adjust and adapt his training
according to every individual student’s
needs.
 Egoless.
 QUALITIES OF A STUDENT
 Ability to completely trust and doubt a
teacher at the same time.
 Aware of his own shortcomings and strong
points.
 Egoless
 LEARNING
 Making new neuromuscular connections and
musculoskeletal adjustments.
 Younger the age quick is the learning process as
there are no established patterns of movement.
 Unlearning is extremely difficult as the set
patterns refuse to break.
 Simple to complex but not necessarily.
 One can learn from almost everything around us
 TEACHING
 Nobody can teach.
 Everybody can learn.
 Teacher just produces a conducive
environment for learning.
 UNLEARNING
 Unlearning is the breaking of pre-established
neuromuscular connections.
 It is rather difficult to break these
connections.
 Thus, it needs great awareness to unlearn.
 In a sense, unlearning can be a great training
in Awareness.
 VIOLIN PLAYERS ADJUSTMENTS
 Sit higher than the ground level. Press violin
between chest and stand.
 Lumbar lordosis. Right hand pronated with
pressure on second phalanx of index finger. Left
hand supinated,palmar flexion and ulnar
deviation without holding the violin tight. Left
hand correct position and light pressure, right
hand variable pressure.
 General adjustments of shoulder, knee etc.
 Mistakes of a Teacher
 Pretending to know something when ignorant about it.
 Egoistic.
 Ceases to be a student
 Unaware
 Attached to his art and students
 Rigid in his outlook
 Excessively methodical.
 Suppressing spontaneity of his students
 Excessive and continuous criticism or out of place praise
of himself and his students.
 Mistakes of a student
 Inability to doubt and trust a teacher at
the same time.
 Gullible
 Prone to excessive effort or little effort
 Has ulterior motives
 Gets disheartened quickly
 Compares his or her progress with others
 CAUSES OF MEDIOCRITY
 Wrong person in wrong type of discipline
 Wrong training as far as intensity and
extent is concerned
 Lack or suppression of spontaneity during
training
 False ideas regarding individual talent
 Affected by six enemies and fear
CAUSES OF POOR PERFORMANCE
 Poor or no preparation.
 Poor appreciation of space and time
 Poor choice of presentation
 Technically incorrect presentation
 Technically correct but non-spontaneous
presentation.
 All attention to result and not process.
 Analyzing the performance instead of
synthesizing it.
 STATE OF PERFORMANCE

 Excellent posture, peripheral vision

 Still mind with no “internal dialogue” and
an effortlessly moving body.
 Pleasure in the body of the performance
and joy in the mind leads to a blissful
experience to all concerned.
 Allowing the spirit to perform with no
hindrance from either the mind or the
body.
 PERFORMANCE
 Today's performance is audiovisual. Thus,
the performer must have a pleasant
expression on his face.
 He or she must be well-dressed
 Performer must observe time schedule
assiduously.
 Practice should be done keeping in mind,
that a mike is present during performance
though it is not there during Riyaz.
QUALITIES OF GOOD PERFORMANCE

 Technically and theoretically correct

presentation
 Spontaneous happening
 Correct selection vis-à-vis the audience
 Correct duration of each presentation
 Controlled abandon
 EFFECTS OF WRONG RIYAZ
 Pain in various body parts especially backache, neck
pains and knee pains and specific pains like wrist pains
for tabla players.
 Increased blood pressure found in vocalists who are
doing wrong breathing,
 Menstrual disorders in female singers due to wrong
breathing.
 Sleep disorders.
 Anxiety and mood disorders
 Disinterest, fatigue, irritability
 Loss of spontaneity in performance. Performance is
technically correct but their is no fun or joy. This is the
most serious effect of a wrongly done riyaz.
WRONG POSITION
LEADING TO
BACKACHE AFTER
MANY HOURS OF
PRACTICE
CORRECT POSITION
WRONG POSITION
CORRECT POSITION
WRONG POSITION
FOR SINGING
CORRECT POSITION FOR
SINGING
 All our endeavours are in the known.

We do riyaz to bring something of the unknown in our repertoire but

very few even venture to comprehend the unknowable.

We can perceive the world through our five senses.

There is lot more to this world beyond these five senses and
this is the unknowable.

A master gets in this realm through his riyaz.