Practical Viva Voce: Recognition, Demonstration and Oral Explanation
The viva is oral and practical: recognise, demonstrate, explain. Examiners test whether you can identify a raga, tala or instrument from a short cue and justify the identification with terminology.
Recognition strategy
- Raga: listen for the characteristic pakad and the komal/tivra pattern. Tivra Ma with otherwise shuddha swaras points to Yaman; komal Re and Dha point to Bhairav; komal Ga and Ni point to Kafi. Confirm with aroha, vadi and samay.
- Tala: count the matras, identify the vibhag pattern, then show tali with a clap and khali with a wave. Teentaal: 16 matras, vibhags 4+4+4+4, khali on 9.
- Instrument: classify first (Tata, Sushira, Avanaddha, Ghana), then describe material, playing technique and genre role.
Demonstration
Be ready to sing aroha and avaroha, sing the pakad twice, show the theka by hand, and define terms such as vadi, samvadi, sam, khali and avartan in one sentence each.
Worked example
The examiner sings a phrase with tivra Ma and a strong Ga, then asks for the raga. Reasoning: tivra Ma excludes Bhairav, Bhairavi and Kafi; the strong Ga as vadi and the evening context point to Yaman. Say 'Yaman, Kalyan thaat, sampurna, vadi Ga, samvadi Ni' - the justification earns more than the name alone.
Traps
- Naming a raga from the aroha alone, without the pakad.
- Clapping on khali.
- Confusing thaat with raga.
- Giving a one-word answer with no reasoning.
- Describing an instrument's appearance but not its classification.