Kharaj Practice - some thoughts

[John Wright]

On another thread some useful comments have been thrown in by various
practitioners on Kharaj practice - the traditional way of practicing the low
octave notes by HCM vocalists. And I have gathered a variety of such tips
over the years from various sources.

Some of it makes sense, some doesn't. There is a lot of chaff among well
intended advice there, I suspect. There is little by way of rigorous
scientific study of which bits are good and which aren't. I have thus taken
the liberty - for my own use and practice - to come up with what Kharaj
practice should be, for me. Here it goes -

- Kharaj practice does a lot of good. Mainly because time is invested in
singing practice - several hundreds of hours. Not so much because it is done
in very low notes. Optimum benefit would result if time was spent on just
the 4-5 notes below Madhya Sa, say down up to mandra ma, nothing further
below. In normal HCM singing, going down up to mandra ma is adequate. There
is no real need to go down further in any practice session; practice just
what is needed to sing well. (Reminds me - I once asked Pt Chaurasia if he
did any special breathing exercises, meditation etc to develop his excellent
blowing. He said, yes - I play the flute.)

- Just as I get up from bed in the morning, all my muscles are stiff, legs
are a bit wobbly, the brain is not very sharp. If I must use that time to
sing, it is hard to practice creative alaap, taans, laykari - needs sharp
brain for all that, needs flexible vocal chord muscles. But Kharaj practice
can be easily done then. So "Kharaj practice must be done before sunrise" is
perhaps an unintended variation of what really should be "if you sing very
early in the morning, do nothing other than just long stable low notes at
low/moderate volume, which cause minimum strain". Kharaj practice is useful
any time of the day; but an hour of kharaj early in the morning and an hour
of say taans at night is a better choice than taans in the morning and
kharaj at night. It is purely a matter of optimising return on investment,
not restricting kharaj to mornings.

- What does Kharaj practice actually do to the vocal chords, in physical
terms? Strengthens the muscles, firstly. When muscles become strong, they
don't become strong just for that pitch being practiced - that possibly
explains why it also opens up taar saptak, for taar saptak singing certainly
needs strength. Secondly, the long stable notes teach the muscles to reduce
wavering, very useful for HCM. Hence, no need to do all mandra notes - just
one or two will do, the intention is not to perfect the shruti of those
notes but to strengthen muscles and reduce wavering . But doing all mandra
notes is not banned - and is recommended if it breaks the monotony of the
practice and stops one from reducing/dropping such practice due to the
monotony.

- No restriction needed on use of any liquid (water/tea/coffee) during
kharaj practice, or any sleep/rest soon afterwards. Anything that helps
minimise strain - physically and mentally - is good.

- The usefulness hence is not limited only to males.

Regards - JW

[sushama]

Thanks for compiling the inputs and pointing to apparently meaningless
beliefs.
Regards,
Sushama

[stbr...@yahoo.ca]

sounds mostly right, a few more remarks though:

1. it pays to practice lower than you will sing. when performing, the
lowest tone or a tone and a half close down and you can't use them. so
going below mandra ma is recommended

2. in some cases it is customary to reach down even to lower sa during
performance. most dhrupad performers try to. so that's another reason
to try and expand your range.

3. the muscles are actually less tense when you wake up, so it goes
both ways - practise low so as not to strain them, but also - practise
low because this is the only time of day you will be able to reach that
ati mandra dha with confidence ;-)

[imppio]

Copied from my reply in thread on Gamak....

hello there,

This may be bit off the topic. I clearly remember this in 1960s when I
started my keen interest in ICM. I used to follow musicians' radio
broadcast as much as possible. That time AIR Pune used to have a
performer give performance at 7:15 morning, 1:00 p.m. or sometimes at
around 6:30 p.m, and then at 10:00 p.m. Most of the programs were live
programs and not the recordeed ones.* I would try to follow the vocal
artist on harmonium and on violin if I can.

Invariably morning concert of a vocalist will be at least 3-4
semi-tones lower than night concert. I am not so sure about afternoon
concert at this time. It is long time back.

I had noticed that for Hirabai, Bhimsen, Manik Varma and many other
artists that used to perform on AIR Pune at that time.

My teacher at that time (Disciple of Vinayakrao) mentioned clearly that
in the mornings naturally (physiologically?) human voice is lower in
tone than latter part of the day. I think this is the reason kharj
riyaz was performed in the morning.

cheers,
imppio

*(There used to be a slightly different announcement if the program was
recorded and not live. It would say " xyz yaannii
gaayalelaa/vaajavalelaa instead of xyz gaat/vaajawat hote". English
translation- xyz had sung/played v/s was singing/playing....)

cheers,
imppio

[John Wright]

"imppio" wrote

> Invariably morning concert of a vocalist will be at least 3-4
> semi-tones lower than night concert.

...

> I had noticed that for Hirabai, Bhimsen, Manik Varma and many other
> artists that used to perform on AIR Pune at that time.
>

Really? 3-4 semitone difference for the same vocalist between morning and
night? Surely they must be performances several years across? Seems very odd
to me.

Regards - JW

[Praful Kelkar]

I think there is another improtant aspect of kharaj
practice............. it is far easier to hear the harmonics in the
lower pitches - and thus the soorilaness in general becomes more pakka
with that practice. It is like the lower Sa string of the taanpura -
rich in harmonics.

-PK

[david raphael israel]

Praful,

might I trouble you to sketch a definition of soorilaness?
Overall, I find this discussion most interesting (being a
beginner with kharaj riyaz).

d.i.

[John Wright]

"david raphael israel" wrote

> Praful,
>
> might I trouble you to sketch a definition of soorilaness?
> Overall, I find this discussion most interesting (being a
> beginner with kharaj riyaz).

My understanding of "surilapan" has two components. First is obvious,
producing the correct fundamental frequency. Second, producing an attractive
proportion of harmonics.

Suppose the madhya Sa that the singer sings in is 100 cycles. Singing Sa
with "surilapan" would firstly involve singing so that the fundamental
frequency produced is exactly 100 - or very close to it. Singing Madhya Pa
would be 150, Mandra Pa would be 75. Each note would need to be at the
predefined frequency for it to be "surila".

When he sings Pa in sur, he is not just producing 150 (the fundamental), he
is also producing 300 (2nd harmonic), 450, 600, etc at the same time. The
relative volume (power) levels of each one of these harmonics with respect
to each other is what distinguishes his voice with someone else's who also
sings at Sa = 100, so surilapan has to do with the proportion of the
harmonics in his voice spectrum. My understanding is, one of the main
objectives of voice culture practice is to alter this harmonics proportion
to get an attractive voice.

But what is that best proportion? I don't know. Studying musical instruments
might give some clue. Instruments like flute have all frequencies, some like
clarinet have all even harmonics missing entirely. Some have high volumes at
higher harmonics. Some vocalists have a good amount of high frequency
components that sounds quite attractive.

Regards - JW

[Vivek Datar]

I had posted this a little earlier. If you visit
http://calaaonline.com/calaatv/Video31.html
you will find tuning discussion between myself and Nachiketa Sharma.

Of couse, the "sureelapan" was not discussed. But harmonium tuning,
including just intonation (gandhar tuning) and tempered tuning is discussed.
I have a just intoned and a normal harmonium to illustrate. There is a
little discussion about tuning theory, but not too complex. No mathematics
involved in the tuning theory discussion, although one can use Fourier
transforms to explain.

Funnily, I have used Sa=100Hz as an example in the discussion.

I play a natya sangeet for few mins, followed by a long tuning discussion,
ending with playing yaman. During the discussions, I even show a reed and
show the instruments used to tune the reed.

Tuning is not the most exiting subject! But anybody who is interested can
share their experience, either on this group, or directly with me at
vivek...@yahoo.com.

Cheers

-Vivek

"John Wright" <notpr...@something.com> wrote in message
news:458dc13f$0$16554$afc3...@news.optusnet.com.au...

[Town Crier]

This is intriguing, because formant frequencies in human voice are not
necessarily harmonically related.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formants

DG

[Praful Kelkar]

Well put.... soorilaness encompassess both ... just as in tuning a
dirty string even if you match the fundamental correctly the odd
numbered harmonics become flatter - so tuning is not correct.
Soorilapan requires attention to both.

As it happens the shrutis of notes in almost (?) all raags are
harmonically related -- e.g. the N and tM in Yaman being lower than
Bihag, and yet in each case tM is the 5th of N ... etc. So singing
soorily in raag requires great attention to harmonic interrelationship
between notes.

Harmonium is not a good instrument to understand all this. Learning
to tune a taanpura is an excellent method.

- PK

[Praful Kelkar]

That is correct.. Formants relate to exaggeration of certain
frequencies which are not directly related to the primary note, but the
harmonics are always there in the voice. See the examples of
harmonic singing, which play on this control. In all our voices too
harmonics are always there. Listen to kharaj in a deep male voice -
lots of clear harmonics are present. In doing kharaj riyaz you are
training your ears to hear it well and achieve correct tuning.. etc.

- PK

[thenpaanan]

Hi John

Thanks for posting your tips on kharaj. I am a Carnatic music pretender
of the vocal sort and over the years I have tried many practice regimes
including kharaj. Could you say more about what you actually practice
in kharaj? I remember reading somewhere (which is what I ended up doing
as well) that kharaj means holding a steady note as long as the breath
will hold. Do you do this or something different?

When practising, I recall running into all kinds of auxiliary physical
problems like hyperventilation, dryness of the throat, sitting
discomfort, etc. The funniest was that once I fell asleep spontaneoulsy
into a deep slumber in the middle of my kharaj practice and woke up an
hour later lying beside my tambura. On the technical side,i found that
it actually hurt my throat to keep pushing lower and lower (never
reached mantra sa). Did you experience such physical or other problems
and how did you overcome them?

As for benefits, my singing in the middle octave (Sa to sa) improved
even though my kharaj was in the nether regions. However it did not
perceptibly affect my singing in the higher octave (taar saptak). I
guess a different set of resonances is called for.

Is there an equivalent of kharaj practice that could be useful to
improve higher octave singing?

Best,
Then Paanan

[John Wright]

"thenpaanan" wrote

> Hi John
>
> Thanks for posting your tips on kharaj. I am a Carnatic music pretender
> of the vocal sort and over the years I have tried many practice regimes
> including kharaj. Could you say more about what you actually practice
> in kharaj?

Not much more to say really - I have said it all in my original post. I
spend more time from mandra Ma upwards, spend very little below it if at
all, though I can go down to mandra Re.

> I remember reading somewhere (which is what I ended up doing
> as well) that kharaj means holding a steady note as long as the breath
> will hold. Do you do this or something different?
>

I do long steady notes followed by slow gamaks and taans - in the same
session.

> When practising, I recall running into all kinds of auxiliary physical
> problems like hyperventilation, dryness of the throat, sitting
> discomfort, etc. The funniest was that once I fell asleep spontaneoulsy
> into a deep slumber in the middle of my kharaj practice and woke up an
> hour later lying beside my tambura. On the technical side,i found that
> it actually hurt my throat to keep pushing lower and lower (never
> reached mantra sa). Did you experience such physical or other problems
> and how did you overcome them?
>

I don't continue if any such things happen. I like to enjoy these sessions.
As I emphasised earlier, I don't go below mandra ma very often, so I don't
feel any strain.

Regards - JW

[mmhappy...@gmail.com]

have been following your posts ,..some really useful tips there!..

just wanted to know if there is a separate riyaaz technique for the higer octaves ?...

as they do it in western music for the higher octaves ,.. lips rolls etc!....

and what is sangharsh riyaaz??... if anybody knows can throw sm light on it please??!........

thanks! :)

[imnotap...@yahoo.com]

On Saturday, February 2, 2013 8:09:10 AM UTC-8, mmhappy...@gmail.com queried

> and what is sangharsh riyaaz??...

Could it be what the elders called "ghasaa khadarNe"?

DG (the original)

[Dilip Sarwate]

Did you mean to type "ghasaa kharadNe"?

[mmhappy...@gmail.com]

i really dont know what it might be called otherwise?..
but it really helps you to do murki and aakaar s...
its like doing aakar repeatedly on the same swara .....

[thefutur...@gmail.com]

You don't need to push unnecessily.. just go down without effort or push.. and slowly slowly after some months you will reach 1 note down.. I can go at mandra sa fron kaali 1 and sometimes even deeper to ati mandra dha.. patience is the key but without any zor, naturally and daily.. and u can also try saraswati mantra or hanuman chalisa on kharaj notes.. it really helps..

[smita....@gmail.com]

Hi,
I dont necessarily agree with your conclusions.
Kharaj is done in the mornings because the speaking voice too is lower in the mornings. Before having a warm beverage in the morning, it is as groggy and raw as it gets.
Kharaj mehnat attempts to use the vocal chords in the lowest regions when the vocal chord (a slit like opening of the muscle/tissue) is shorter and more rounded than in high pitch when it is stretched across/elongated appearing as a long slit.

Kharaj mehnat when done early morning is thus best suited to do riyaz in a least strainful manner. If one feels sleepy, it further proves the point that it is relaxing to the brain.
Singing below mandra M is just to increase the vocal range. who doesn't wish to have a 3 octave range?
Whereas singing high notes in the morning is very strenuous and disturbing to the mind.

Before sunrise is a time when both the Indian Culture and Islamic culture regards as 'divine'. Thus any 'vidyaabhyaasa' done at such a divine hour will beget good results.

If you try to reach below mantra M in the evenings, it is quite tuff. We must remember that the speaking voice too, naturally tends towards higher pitches by the evening.

Yes, Kharaj is a favourable exercise to help with the expansion/contraction of the vocal chords and muscles around it, in a least stressful way, combined with deep breathing (- sustaining of notes as long the breath can hold) thus increasing the sustaining capacity on a note, in addition to the meditative aspect of doing such a riyaz, that too in the 'Divine' hour.
One riyaz and so many benefits!

Personally, i have derived huge benefits from Kharaj Mehnat.

Cheers,
Smita

[holikarang]

I would add that I started as a dhrupad student and then was encouraged to practice kharaj but later I turned to khyal and thumri and was advised not to practice too much kharaj as a female (I also started learning bansuri and was told by my teachers it was not beneficial to do both for a singer). For the question about problems or disconfort while singing kharaj, try to watch your posture while you sing, if at first playing tanpura makes your posture bad try using an external drone instead although it's less precise for tuning. Try sitting on a hard and flat/low pillow or even try sitting on a chiar at first. If you learn breathing with your dyaphragm you won't have breathing problems and try not to stress your throat. It helped me visualizing my notes were all on the same level/height when practicing no matter their pitch,my muscles where more relaxed. ..

[sclis...@gmail.com]

Thanks to everyone for useful tips. I now know a little about Kharaj Riwaj- Mandra Saptak 'Ma' from Madhya Saptak 'Sa' are to be practiced.

I need to clear some more doubts. PLEASE help me.

1. Can you please tell me something about 'Kharaj Paribartan' (Change of Kharaj)? What is the definition? Why do we need it- what are the reasons of it's importance?

2. If one change 'Bhairabi That' into 'Ra' kharaj, then I get what 'That'?

3. Which swar in 'Bilabal That' should be taken as 'Sa' to make it 'Kaphi That'?

4. Which swar in 'Ashabari That' should be taken as 'Sa' to make it 'Bilabal That'?
5. If one change 'Bhairabi That' into 'Ma' kharaj, then I get what 'That'?
6. Which swar in Kaphi That should be taken as 'Sa' to make all swars sudhdha? And what will be it's name?

PLEASE help me.

Regards,

Susmita Chakraborty
Kolkata, West Bengal, 91-9830710918

[saumay...@gmail.com]

hello praful

i am new to singing and need more info about Kharaz practice and video