BSEH SS Music Melodic common mistakes
BSEH SS Music Melodic · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
While singing or writing a raga's aroha and avaroha, the candidate recites the scale as a plain seven-note ladder and omits the vakra (zig-zag) or varjit (omitted) movements, e.g. giving Bhoopali as a straight S R G P D S when the ascent and descent are actually performed with characteristic turn patterns.
Candidates memorise the raga as a set of allowed notes rather than as a set of directional phrases; notation practice drills scale-writing, so the habit of listing notes in order carries over into raga description.
What to do instead
For each prescribed raga, write the aroha and avaroha as phrase-level sargam with the vakra turns spelled out (for example M P D P G, or S R G R S), and mark omitted notes explicitly. Sing each aroha-avaroha aloud three times while pointing at the written sargam, then check that every note in your written answer is either used or clearly marked varjit.
The candidate states the vadi, samvadi, anuvadi and vivadi as a fixed list of four notes without naming which note is which, or assigns vadi and samvadi to notes that contradict the raga's pakad and time of performance.
The four categories are memorised as a vocabulary set rather than as a hierarchy tied to the raga's characteristic phrase; candidates also confuse the vadi with the most frequently sung note or with the starting note.
What to do instead
Build a one-page table per raga with columns: vadi, samvadi, anuvadi, vivadi, and the phrase that proves it. Test each entry by singing the pakad and asking which note the phrase resolves onto and which note it avoids. Where a raga has no vivadi, write 'none' rather than inventing one.
When asked the time of performance, the candidate gives a clock time only ('evening') without the prahar or the correct prahar-to-time mapping, or places a raga in the wrong prahar (for example putting Bhairav in the late-night cycle).
Candidates learn times as isolated facts from a list and never internalise the prahar framework (four prahars of the day, four of the night) or the sandhi-prakash concept that explains twilight ragas.
What to do instead
Draw a 24-hour circle divided into eight prahars and place every prescribed raga on it, grouping them by thaat and by sandhi-prakash position. Recite the circle from memory daily, and for each raga state both the prahar and the clock range, plus the reason (morning ragas using komal Re and Dha, for instance).
The candidate recites a tala's theka with correct syllables but wrong tali-khali placement, or counts matras without marking vibhag boundaries, so that khali falls on a clapped matra or the sam is confused with the first vibhag of a different grouping.
Theka is learned as a rhythmic chant, and chanting does not force the candidate to decide which matra is tali (clap), which is khali (wave), and where each vibhag begins; notation of tali-khali is often skipped in practice.
What to do instead
For each prescribed tala, write the full matra grid with vibhag bars and mark 0 for khali, 1/2/3 for tali, and X for sam above the correct matra. Then recite with hand actions only (no syllables) once, then with syllables and actions together. Do this for Teentaal, Jhaptaal, Ektaal, Rupak and the other prescribed talas until the grid can be drawn from memory in under a minute.
The candidate treats laya as a single speed and cannot demonstrate or explain barabar, dugun, tigun and chaugun against a tala, or confuses laya with tempo markings and with the concept of layakari.
Laya is studied as a definition ('speed') rather than as a proportional relationship to the tala cycle, so the arithmetic of fitting two, three or four divisions into one avartan is never practised.
What to do instead
Practise layakari on a single tala: set a slow pulse, then recite the theka in barabar, dugun, tigun and chaugun while keeping the vibhag hand actions steady. Write out the matra arithmetic for each (for example in Teentaal, tigun phrases land on matras 1, 5, 9, 13) and explain in one sentence how laya differs from layakari.
In sargam notation the candidate writes only the note letters and omits the symbols that carry meaning: komal and tivra markings, the octave dots for mandra and taar, the bar lines for vibhag, the sam/tali/khali marks, and the underlines or brackets that show phrase grouping and meend.
Candidates copy notation from memory of the tune rather than applying a notation system's conventions, and they have not practised writing a composition from dictation into a full grid.
What to do instead
Adopt one system (Bhatkhande conventions as taught in your course) and write a checklist before every notation exercise: note name, komal/tivra, octave dot, matra number, vibhag bar, tali/khali/sam mark, phrase grouping. Notate one composition per day from dictation, then compare against your teacher's version and mark every symbol you missed.
The candidate attributes a contribution to the wrong figure: crediting the invention of a notation system, the compilation of a raga-classification scheme, or a gharana's founding to a name that belongs elsewhere, and giving vague dates instead of a period.
History is revised as a list of names without a timeline or a cause-and-effect narrative, so names float free of what they actually did and of the era they worked in.
What to do instead
Build a timeline from Vedic chant through the medieval treatises to the modern period, and attach to each name one concrete contribution and one approximate date range. For each figure write a single sentence of the form 'X did Y, which changed Z'. Test yourself by covering the contribution column and reconstructing it from the name, then the reverse.
The candidate describes every gharana with the same generic adjectives and cannot distinguish khayal, dhrupad, thumri and tarana by structure, language, tempo or ornamentation, or names a gharana's style without linking it to a specific ornamental habit.
Gharana and style are learned as labels attached to famous names, not as audible differences in ornamentation, tempo, repertoire and treatment of the raga; candidates have not compared recordings or notations side by side.
What to do instead
Make a comparison table with rows for khayal, dhrupad, thumri and tarana and columns for text/language, tempo, typical tala, ornamentation (gamak, meend, bol-bant, bol-taan), and improvisation scope. For each gharana, name two or three concrete stylistic markers (for example preference for bol-taan, use of specific ragas, treatment of the antara) and one representative composition you can sing.
The candidate classifies an instrument into the wrong category, for example calling a stick-zither or a bowed instrument a 'string instrument' without specifying the classical fourfold classification (tata, sushira, avanaddha, ghana), or misplacing instruments such as the harmonium, sarangi, pakhavaj and jaltarang within it.
Classification is remembered as a modern Western grouping (strings, wind, percussion) and the traditional fourfold scheme with its sub-details is not revised; candidates also confuse similar-looking instruments.
What to do instead
Learn the four categories with their defining sound-production principle, then place every prescribed instrument under one heading and give one line on its playing technique. Add a 'trap' column for instruments that are easily misplaced (harmonium as sushira despite keys, jaltarang as ghana or sushira depending on the scheme taught) and confirm the convention your syllabus uses.
In the practical and viva, the candidate presents a raga as a run-through of the scale and a fixed composition, without the gradual badhat from vilambit through madhya to drut, without a clear pakad statement, and cannot answer a follow-up question about why a particular phrase is characteristic.
Practice time is spent polishing one composition for performance rather than rehearsing the raga's structure and the verbal explanation of it; candidates also fear silence and fill the presentation with fast runs instead of establishing the raga's identity slowly.
What to do instead
Rehearse a fixed presentation shape: alap-like introduction establishing vadi and pakad, then a vilambit composition, then a madhya-laya composition, then a drut piece with tihai, ending with a short spoken explanation of aroha-avaroha, pakad, vadi-samvadi and time. Record yourself, check that the pakad appears at least three times, and prepare a two-sentence answer for each prescribed raga explaining what makes it recognisable.