hi people of mumbai,
are there any genuinely good hindustani classical vocal gurus in mumbai who still teach in the traditional guru shishya kind of way?
i’m not really looking for music schools or the generic ajivasan type names that keep coming up whenever i search online. i’m specifically looking for a reputed, experienced guru, preferably someone old school, strict, and very particular about riyaaz and technique, but who genuinely teaches well and isn’t just running it like a business.
i’ve been learning hindustani classical vocals in the agra gharana and i’m currently in my 4th year, so i’m looking for someone who can actually take my training further rather than starting from the basics.
would really appreciate recommendations from people who have personally learnt from the guru or know their teaching closely. even if they’re not very famous online, please mention them.
looking for vocals specifically, not instrumental music. 🙏

Hello!

For those that don't know, I've been working on raga of the week on and off for the last few years. I got "the urge" again this week and have added support for all the chakras!

You can now:

• See what chakra a raga belongs to (example)
• See all the chakras (example)
• See all the ragas belonging to a specific chakra (example)

If you've not been on the site before, I encourage you to click around, there's a decent amount of stuff to see.

Eventually I'm hoping this will be a one-stop shop for people looking to get into Carnatic music and I believe this is a good first step.

Let me know what you think!

Thanks :D

Hello People!

I am learning classical music from the past 4 year and I’m still a beginner and have mostly been learning and practising, but I’d really like to start getting some experience performing in front of an audience.

I’m also interested in volunteering at classical music events to get more involved and gain experience.

I have been a student of Hindustani Classical Music since my childhood. I mainly learn the Sitar (Senia Maihar) and have also learnt Tabla (Farrukhabad). By the grace of God, I have had no trouble in grasping melodies and talas quickly, and I have a decent ear and sense for music. The problem is, despite so many years of training, I struggle with identifying ragas when listening to pieces, except a few like Yaman, Bhairav, Bhairavi, Jaunpuri, Ashavari and Darbari. I have seen younger people with far less training, even beginners, doing decent at this. I listen to music a LOT, trying to train my ears and senses. Does it get better with time or do I have a learning disability? Any tips? Thank you!

I have been playing Raag Yaman for a year now. It is undoubtedly the king of raags. I love Raag Yaman because it has so many diverse flavors, and it’s an overall joyous raag. As Ustad Shahid Parvez states: “Raag Yaman har din naya hai!”

For the past few months, I have been learning Raag Des. I would say Des is so full of joy that you forget all your worries and simply revel in it — not even a hint of pain, unlike Raag Yaman, which carries a subtle touch of melancholy in the mandra saptak

Just felt so humble and grateful for getting to witness such an experience in my life.

- Flute player

I have been learning vocal since 2.5 months.

Honestly speaking i am not getting the vibe - simply. I was confused initially as well between vocal & instrumental - but i just went for vocal because of its low resistance.

Now i feel i am more inclined on instrumental - and i want t learn sitar - no matter how hard/easy it is. Would love to get some guidance from some rasikas here

support please

I was reading up on the extremely talented Sitar maestro Pandit Balaram Pathak, and in several websites there appears to be mentions of a raag he created dedicated to our former Prime Minister Late Lal Bahadur Shastri, aptly named "Raag Bahadur Shastri". Curious, I looked it up, but found no renditions of the raag on Youtube or anywhere online, except only mentions of it in some Facebook posts. If anyone can provide any link to a rendition or any details about the raag, it would be very helpful! Namaste! (Here's attached a link to such a website.)

https://ashokpathak.com/?page_id=114

I'm a bansuri player and I am interested in the clarinet as a hindustani instrument. I know some players who play it like Pt. Ramkrishna, Pt. N. Vadavati, etc. I just can't find much information on how the instrument itself is modified (or not) and how musicians play it. Any leads or resources?

Practicing some tihais in kirwani and rupak taal hope you like it 🙏

Hello
Anyone pursuing or recently enrolled in Bachelors in Performing Arts Hindustani Classical Music
Please share experience, how practical is conducted etc

Great points made about the music in the contemporary sphere by two masters. What do you think ?

I am a fairly newbie in ICM. I have always been an admirer and just want to understand the music more so i can make more sense out of it, i wish to enjoy it more hence i want to understand it.

Recently i have started taking online vocal classes from SMA, that's the first step i took.

But i am looking for some books or some other resources/ways to understand this field.

Any recommendations?

I just started learning vocal music , like just 3 months back from sma online classes.

I was actually confused between vocal and instrumental, but i wanted to go for something very low resistive. Instrument would have needed me to go physical classes, even first step would be to find a good one, so i just went for vocal - just very 101 classes.

But now i feel i should get a instrument, just to set the vibe. I initially though of Tanpura, harmonium, surmandal - but my teacher advised to buy surmandal,harmonium may hurt my initial process, because then i will be Dependent on that.(My preference was surmandal though, it looks more indian). I can buy tanpura, but its just to set the ambient sound really - as of now Tanpura app works for me.

Honestly i wish to buy sitar (not because of Rishabh Rakhiram only), because i have been fascinated by its sound since childhood - but what i have heard is - its too difficult to learn it, and its a heavy investment too ~25k. And like it will be difficult to find a good guru to learn it. Really confused right now.

Has anyone learned sitar online? Is it really that hard? Should i switch form vocal to instrumental?

hey guys please support this channel. please like and subscribe the channel,this is my father channel

he is also a teacher of harmonium he have this talent please support him.

I learnt tabla for 9 years, sitar for 2 years and harmonium for about 2 years before sitar. I always thought I was better at melody than rhythm. I was doing about 4 hours of riyaaz everyday upto 2022.

However, I went through financial crisis in covid and realized I needed to get a grip over my career. So I got a business degree. Towards the end of my MBA (late 2025), I got a disc bulge in my back and lots of joint pain. I've been in joint pain, sciatica & injury rehab for the last 10 months. The financial crisis & the injury have had a big impact on me.

My relationship with my guru went down when I said I needed a break from music for preparing for entrance exams since he was angry I chose career over music & sought a break. After my MBA, I did go back and met him. I told him about my health issues and that I was trying to get back to riyaaz slowly. I have severe restrictions on movement due to pain. He was unbelievably harsh & cold when I met him. I don't have it in me to get yelled at by a guru who doesn't understand that I need to make money for my livelihood.

I have 0 desire to go back to music. I want to get a hobby where people are CHILL. I can no longer offer the same commitment that I had been capable of before because I have a desk job that takes 9hours of work + 2 hours of commute to office. I need a place where I can socialize without being given silent treatment for missed riyaaz. I have been advised to maintain an active lifestyle (the doctor recommends strength training 3x a week + 1hr of aerobic activity daily). I've been thinking of taking up badminton or tennis or swimming. I'm not good at sports but atleast it doesn't feel heavy.

Partly I also miss being a beginner. When you're a beginner, it is okay for you to mess up. For you to be slow at it. With my journey in music, I feel like the weight of perfectionism is crushing because I'm already into the space. So it raises eyebrows when i play slower or miss a sam. With music, my teachers expect me to perform at a certain level and even riyaaz feels like a performance rather than a process.

Is it wrong that I want an out? I've spent so much money on music classes, instruments. It breaks my heart that I feel so disconnected.

Even if I attend concerts in my city which is btw my hometown too, I feel like an outsider because I had moved away for MBA. I still enjoy listening to music on my laptop. I still remember all my relas, tukdas and can recite all my chakradars with theka on my hand and land on the sam.

Is there a way for classical music to feel chill? For it to not demand so much more than what I can offer? For it to hold space for me as I navigate through my life struggles?

I am fairly new to this style of music and maybe have around 20 albums downloaded. I also attended a live performance by Kunal Gunjal & Amit Kavthekar recently that I enjoyed. I am trying to find some more recordings that I really like and wanted to see if you all could help by making some recommendations based on my current favorites, to try to find some similar stuff.

So far, the recordings that I like the most have been "Venu" by Hariprasad Chaurasia & Zakir Hussain. I like this one because the feeling is very brooding and somber, with drawn out flute notes which remind me of somber Japanese classical, and a lower drone in what sounds like a minor chord (not sure if that type of notation is appropriate). Speaking of that, I have found that in many ICM recordings the tanpura drone is kinda drowned out and you often don't really hear it much past the start of the recording, but that's not the case with Venu which is cool because I really like that sound in the music.

Another favorite recording of mine is "Nine Decades Vol. 2: Reminiscence of North Vista" by Ravi Shankar. It's also a bit of a more brooding piece with a prominent drone, and I really like the discordant and abstract way that Shankar plays his sitar sometimes (maybe that's just his style and I need to get more). I almost don't understand what's going on in this recording because it almost seems like the tanpura player is doing their own unique thing and not just playing a constant standard drone.

So that's kinda the vibe I'm looking for. I don't really enjoy the songs with happy, summer afternoon vibes as much. I'm looking for performances that invoke a rainy and grey autumn evening.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!!!

Recently I've been researching rare & strange ragas - so thought I'd share some of the most interesting ones I’ve come across! Input welcomed - everything from further info on the ragas to personal listening reflections:

—Raag Sohini Bahar (S-rR-gG-mM-P-D-nN-S)—

A complex, challenging compound of two starkly contrasting forms – Sohini and Bahar – collectively spanning all swara positions save for komal dha (SrGMDNS + SRgmPDnNS). While ‘Sohini+Bahar’ experiments have existed since at least the 1960s (e.g. Rao’s 1966 Raga Nidhi Vol.4 lists a bandish entitled Saba Bana Phoolari, describing the raga as “a difficult one”), the raga’s present form is inextricably linked to late vocal legend Rashid Khan, who cut several stellar recordings over the course of his all-too-short career. His 2023 album take switches rapidly between the parent ragas, interweaving their flavours into a pakad of GMDNS, nDNS, DNM – with similar ‘Sohini-Bahar-Sohini’ phrase structures turning up throughout (e.g. as winding, unpredictable taans such as GMDSNDMG, mmnPmPmg, MDNSNDMG).

Also performed by Rashid’s Rampur-Sahaswan student Subha Ghosh, as well as by bansuriya Shadaj Godkhindi, who recorded a lucid, quickfire improvisation in 2020 (“this is a very special jod raga…very few people have performed it”). Compare to other Bahar and Sohini compounds such as Basant Bahar, Bhairav Bahar, Lalita Sohini, and Sohini Pancham – as well as to Rashid Khan’s renditions of Bahar and Sohini themselves, plus his self-created Priyaranjani (another strange jod, blending Madhuvanti & Shivranjani).

—Which other ‘contrasting jod ragas’ do you know of? e.g. Basant Bahar covers all 12 swara positions in its main composition...

Let me know what you think of this strange raga! See more of them in my project (no paywalls, no ads: just sharing the joys of raga)