In this series, we will intially focus on:

• how to get familiar with all 12 notes of music.
• different vocal/singing techinques to have better control over singing.
• taal (beats) and laya (rhythm).

It is commonly advised to learn classical music to understand light/filmi music. This advice in a sense is correct because classical music learning has a proper format of what should be covered at different stages of a learner's journey. This format has evolved over the centuries and is an established way of learning music in India. But we believe, before going deeper into ragas, if we first foucs on sur/notes then our music learning journey will get a lot easier. We will try to learn and get familiar with these 12 notes through alankars in various notes combinations such as all shuddha swar (natural notes), shuddha swar with komal (flat note), and/or teevra swar (sharp note). We will introduce komal and teevra swar alankars using a raga aaroh/avroh (i.e., notes in ascending/descending orders). But we will not be covering ragas just yet, we will be using its notes to help us understand 12 notes. A raga has many more elements to learn and understand besides its aaroh/avroh. Riyaz of these alankars is very beneficial to develop better singing skills and understanding of notes. We will first focus on shuddha swar (natural notes) alankars. Then we will cover Re, Dha komal swars (flat notes) using raga Bhairav notes. Then we will cover Ga, Ni komal swars using raag Kaafi notes. Then we will cover Ma teevra (sharp) using raag Yaman notes. This covers the introduction to all 12 notes. And we will do alankars using other ragas as well to cover the different combinations of notes. For eg, we will do raag Ahir-bhairav notes alankar, which contains Re, Ni komal. Raag Kirwani contains Ga, Dha komal, we will also do its alankar. Raag Shivranjani notes are similar to raag Bhoop notes (Sa, Re, Ga, Pa, Dha, SA), except that it uses komal Ga instead of shuddha Ga. Likewise, we will do different comibinations of notes using other ragas to understand and get familiar with 12 notes. We will do our swar riyaz (notes practice) with taal (beats). We believe, this way our sense of laya/rhythm also improves. Alankar, as we discussed earlier, improves vocal flexiblity and understanding of notes, hence it is very important for every singing enthusiast who is looking to improve their singing skills. There is no shortcut to learning music, it is a long journey to learn and explore music, hence consistency in riyaz is required. Learning and understanding 12 notes through alankar riyaz will make it easier to learn and sing any genre (such as filmi, ghazal, bhajan, classical, etc) and decode/understand notes of a composition. Hence we must/should do sur riyaz (notes practice) through alankars. Our approach is based on ragas but we are not starting with raga practice intially. Intially we are doing swar/notes practice using notes used in different ragas. Raga practice is a larger and deeper topic, swar practice can be called a foundation for learning any music including raga music (classical).