“Riyaaz or sadhana which often starts early in the morning, is taken seriously by students for it requires intensity, discipline and commitment for years and forms an important component in the Guru - Shishya parampara (teacher-student tradition).” - excerpt from Sitar Practice and Performance
Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan in a lesson with his shagirds - SPK students
However, many individuals learning music have differing objectives. Some may wish to become professional performers while others are learning simply as a hobby. The intensity, rigor and depth with which music practice/riyaaz is undertaken would therefore differ according to the desired goals.
To help SPK Academy students reach their desired goals, week-long riyaaz sessions with Ustadji was developed. This past March, we held our first mini riyaaz session, instructed by our senior sitar instructor, Seema Gulati.
Some of you may have already seen a few videos from the session on Facebook but the students learnt much more! Here are more glimpses of the sitar practice session and testimonials from the attendees.
“This was my first time attending a group class/ riyaaz session and I really enjoyed it.
I had a lot to take away in terms of how much practice I need and the level I need to put in but the best part was connecting to all the other wonderful students. ”
“Attending this workshop was an amazing experience for me. I was in a group with more experienced people and that made me work hard to keep pace. The sessions were intense, challenging and helped building my endurance and accuracy. ”
“...Additionally having mini performances was amazing, since it allowed us to practice that performing side of sitar...”
“...I appreciated learning new exercise to practice - double speed sargam, jhala, ulta jhala: this was the first time I was introduced to these and will now incorporate them into my practice..”
“I always enjoy Riyaaz sessions and the most recent one wasn’t an exception. We should have riyaaz sessions more often. It helps us to improve a lot of the various aspects of training [learning sitar].
When will we have the next one?”