Daily Riyaz Routines for Hindustani Vocal Students
A timed plan for each stage of the ABGMVM ladder. Keep the tanpura on throughout, and treat the minutes as a guide: a clean five minutes beats a careless twenty.
First steps: 20 minutes
Beginners and Prarambhik students, in their first year of singing. Prepares for: Level 1.
- 1 3 min
Settle on Sa
Start the tanpura at a Sa that sits comfortably in your speaking range. Listen for a full minute before you sing. Then hold सा on "आ" for as long as one easy breath lasts, five or six times, matching the drone exactly.
- 2 4 min
Sa, Pa, taar Sa
Sing सा, प, सां slowly and hold each one. These are the notes the examiner asks you to tune first. If a note wavers, come back to सा and start again.
- 3 6 min
Alankars in thaah
Two or three of the six Prarambhik alankars, one note per beat, with sargam names aloud. Ascent and descent at the same care. Only move to dugun when thaah is clean.
- 4 4 min
Clap the taal
Put Tabla Online on Teentaal at a slow tempo and recite the theka with claps and waves. Then do Dadra and Keherwa. Say the matra numbers aloud until the sam lands without thinking.
- 5 3 min
One raga, aaroha to pakad
Pick one raga from your syllabus. Sing its aaroha, avaroha and pakad over the tanpura. Rotate the raga each day so all seven come round in a week.
Tip: Same time every day matters more than length. Twenty minutes daily beats two hours on Sunday.
20 minutes
Building the voice: 40 minutes
Praveshika students, learning bandishes with alaap and taan. Prepares for: Level 2, Level 3.
- 1 5 min
Kharaj and long notes
Long notes from mandra प up to सा, each held on "आ" with steady breath. This builds the lower range that alaap needs.
- 2 8 min
Alankars in three speeds
The Praveshika alankars in thaah, dugun and chaugun against a slow Teentaal. Keep the tempo fixed; only the number of notes per beat changes.
- 3 10 min
Raga of the week: alaap
Take one raga each week. Short alaap phrases that start and end on सा, using only its notes and its chalan. Record yourself and listen back for forbidden notes.
- 4 10 min
Bandish with the taal
Sing the bandish of that raga with Tabla Online in its taal. Check that the mukhda meets sam every time. Then add two or three simple taans that return to the mukhda.
- 5 7 min
Taals of the year
Recite Ektaal, Jhaptaal, Chautaal or Roopak with claps, in thaah and then dugun. One taal per day.
Tip: Record one minute of every session. Listening back once a week shows you more than any amount of singing.
40 minutes
Full riyaz: 60 minutes
Madhyama students and beyond, preparing vilambit khayal. Prepares for: Level 4, Level 5.
- 1 10 min
Swar sadhana
Slow, sustained notes through all three saptaks, with soft meend between neighbouring notes. Nothing fast until the voice is warm.
- 2 10 min
Alankars and taan patterns
Alankars applied inside the raga you are working on, then saral and koot taan patterns in dugun and chaugun.
- 3 25 min
Vilambit khayal
The bada khayal of the week in vilambit Ektaal. Badhat note by note, always back to the mukhda on sam. Then the chhota khayal in the same raga.
- 4 10 min
Layakari
Your dhrupad or dhamar in thaah, dugun, tigun and chaugun against Chautaal or Dhamar. Land on sam every time.
- 5 5 min
Raga identification
Sing short phrases from different syllabus ragas and name each one. Swap with a classmate if you can.
Tip: Split it across the day if you need to: swar sadhana in the morning, khayal in the evening.
60 minutes
Learning this with a teacher
These pages will take you a long way on theory. The singing needs a guru — live online classes, one level at a time, with exam preparation built in.