For Learners of Indian Classical Music Sadhana
For Learners of Indian Classical Music Sadhana
For Learners of Indian Classical Music Sadhana
Singing in Aakar
Right from the outset in Hindustani classical music,
one must learn to sing in aakaar - which means to
sing using only the vowel sound . Most people are
used to singing songs with lyrics, which contain both
consonants and vowels. Constants play the role of
stabilizing the voice and helping it transition from
one note to another, so it is much easier to sing
tunefully when you use consonants. Take the
consonants out, and suddenly you are left without a
crutch, the notes seem to merge into each other and
become blurry. The challenge is to train your voice
to sing each note with precision and clarity without
the consonants. Serious students must eventually
practice singing in all of the pure vowel sounds - a
(the schwa sound), , i, u, e and o, as well as the
nasal consonants n and m, because the voice
behaves differently with different vowels. Some
notes are harder to hit with certain vowels.
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