Singing is Sadhana. This says it all but it’s easier said than done. For simple understanding I thought of sharing some thoughts going back to basics of singing here in my inaugural blog in my website. If we want to be accomplished singers, we should put emphasis on certain qualities required for a good presentation of music. Over last 25 to 30 years these qualities are being talked about to make singing more endearing performing art. This aspect of singing is being given more emphasis day by day. In older times, I am not sure whether these were followed very strictly. Legendary singers had their own styles and they were known for their originality. They used to mesmerize the audience with their unique charms. In Sangeet Ratnakar, there is list of such qualities which are believed to be essential for a good singer. This book points out the importance of many such qualities. I will only elaborate those which I find is applicable for all and can be followed easily with moderate practice.
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The tonal quality should be able to touch heart. Now, this doesn’t mean that everyone has to sing in similar tone. Every individual has unique tone which comes out from their vocal cord. What make it heart touching is honesty. To me, an honest deliberation touches heart. A singer should not try to imitate another voice or other’s styles. Rather one should try to maintain his/her originality and be true to the deliberation. It should sound like the raga is coming natural to the singer. It is not learnt or acquired knowledge. Now, a singer should have absolute understanding and control over commencing note and ending note. If you are singing a raga, there is a commencing note (Graha) and an ending note (Nyash) defined well in it.


The singer will have to be confident and playing these notes at right time and place. Only exception is that if you are applying a raga on lyrics and creating a new piece, you may deviate from grammatically defined Graha and Nyash Swar for the sake of creativity. That’s called creative license. A singer is expected to have a sound knowledge of rhythm or ‘taal’. A Bandish is structured in a particular ‘taal’. But when a singer ventures into Vistar and ‘taan’ then s/he has to come back to cycle of ‘taal’ with confidence and efficiency. Having sound grip over ‘taal’ is essential for a singer. Singer will surely have to develop a balance between rhythm and pace (‘lay’). S/he will have to understand from Guru, the ‘lay’ or pace of a piece of music. This ‘lay’ is to be maintained in the stipulated Taal. Taal is a structured rhythm which has many matras. For example, Tintaal has 16 matras, Dadra has 6 matras and Kaharba has 8 matras. While presenting any rendition, focus is absolutely necessary. We practice a song or a piece several times before deliberating the rendition to the audience. All the practice will go in vain if we lose focus during performance. A defocused mind will not deliver with perfection. Often we may find there are distractions in the ambiance and the audience is not in tune and tandem with the singer. It’s our training that should keep our focus to our music and not let external factors affect performance. In Sangeet Ratnakar, there are mention of many such dos and don’ts. If you like this short article then I will be encouraged to pen down more such in near future with those guidelines. I find them very useful reminders and try to follow as many as possible. Hope you will find them useful as well.

Musically Yours,
       Jhilam