PSEB SS Music Instrumental common mistakes
PSEB SS Music Instrumental · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Writes the avaroha of a vakra raga such as Darbari Kanada or Bageshri as a straight ladder (e.g. 'S n P m g R S'), deleting the crooked turn that identifies the raga.
Aroha-avaroha are memorised as plain scales from a list, and the vakra prayog is never practised as a separate item.
What to do instead
In your notebook write the avaroha with the turn spelled out in full (Darbari: S n P m P g m R S; Bageshri: S n d m P d m g R S), mark the turn with an arrow, and play it slowly twenty times before touching the gat.
Assigns the wrong prahar: puts Bhimpalasi in the morning, Bageshri or Darbari in the afternoon, Bhairav in the evening.
Ragas are learned from recordings and notation books where the time of rendition is a footnote, so it is treated as trivia rather than as part of the raga's identity.
What to do instead
Draw a prahar chart on one page and place each prescribed raga on it: Bhairav first prahar of day, Todi late morning, Bhimpalasi third prahar of day, Malkauns and Bageshri late night, Darbari night. Recite the chart aloud until it is automatic.
Puts the khali of Rupak on matra 6 instead of on sam, and recites Jhaptal's vibhag as 2+2+3+3 with khali on 3.
Cycles are counted by ear from accompaniment rather than from a written theka, so the vibhag division and the tali-khali pattern get blurred.
What to do instead
Write each prescribed cycle as a row of matra numbers with vibhag bars, marking sam as ×, tali by number and khali as 0: Jhaptal 2+3+2+3, tali 1, 3, 8, khali 6; Rupak 3+2+2, khali on sam, tali 4 and 6; Ektal and Chautal with their two khalis. Clap and wave while reciting.
Writes swarlipi with swar letters floating free of the matra, no khali symbol, and tivra Ma or komal swaras written exactly like shuddha ones, so the notation cannot be sung back.
Compositions are learned orally and only transcribed the night before the exam, when the conventions have been forgotten.
What to do instead
Use one consistent system: matra numbers above the line, | for vibhag, × for sam, 0 for khali, a small horizontal stroke above for tivra Ma, underline for komal, an arc for meend and a small kan swar in brackets. Align every swar directly under its matra and check the notation by singing it back.
Tunes the tanpura's second string, or the sitar's fourth string, to Pa even when playing a raga that has no Pa, such as Malkauns.
A fixed 'Pa-Sa-Sa-Sa' tuning habit is drilled once and never varied.
What to do instead
Learn the alternative: Ma-Sa-Sa-Sa for Pa-less ragas, and on sitar tune the fourth string to shuddha Ma for Malkauns. Say this choice aloud in the viva and be ready to explain why.
Cannot explain how sitar frets are adjusted for komal and ati-komal swaras, what jawari means, or why the mizrab sits on the right index finger.
Lesson time goes entirely to repertoire; the construction, tuning and maintenance portion of the syllabus is left unread.
What to do instead
Prepare five hardware items with a sentence each: pardaa tied with thread and slid to fix komal/ati-komal, ghodi and jawari shaping tone, mizrab on the right index finger, string gauge and replacement, rosin on the sarangi bow. Be able to point to each on your own instrument.
Attributes the Sangeet Ratnakar to Ahobala, the Sangeet Parijat to Sharangdeva, or places Bharata's Natyashastra in the tenth century.
Titles and authors are memorised as a flat list with no timeline, so they get shuffled under exam pressure.
What to do instead
Build a one-page timeline in order: Bharata's Natyashastra (early centuries CE), Sharangdeva's Sangeet Ratnakar (13th century), Ahobala's Sangeet Parijat (17th century), then Bhatkhande's thaat system and notation and Paluskar's notation work in the modern period. Test yourself by covering the dates.
Writes a two-line life sketch of a musician - birth and death years plus 'great maestro' - without naming the gharana, guru, instrument, baaj, innovations or students.
Biography is treated as dates to be memorised instead of contributions to be argued.
What to do instead
Use a fixed six-point template for every name: gharana and guru, instrument, baaj or style, technical innovations, major compositions or recordings, and notable students. Fill it for Allauddin Khan, Ravi Shankar, Vilayat Khan, Nikhil Banerjee and one musicologist, then practise each as a ninety-second spoken answer.
Places Vilayat Khan in the Maihar gharana, or describes the Imdadkhani baaj as a vocal gharana rather than a sitar lineage.
Gharana names are learned as a list of famous surnames with no map connecting lineage, instrument and baaj.
What to do instead
Make a grid of gharana to instrument to baaj to key artists: Imdadkhani (Etawah) for sitar and surbahar with Vilayat Khan's gayaki ang, Maihar for Allauddin Khan, Ravi Shankar and Nikhil Banerjee, Seni, and Bangash for sarod. Recite the grid until each name has a home.
In the practical, sits down and begins the gat directly on sam - no tuning check, no announcement of raga, taala and prahar, no aroha-avaroha, and when the examiner asks for the pakad plays the gat line instead.
Only the composition is rehearsed; the performance protocol and viva answers are never practised as a sequence.
What to do instead
Rehearse a four-step routine until it is automatic: tune and check Sa, announce raga, taala and prahar, present aroha-avaroha and the pakad in isolation, then the gat with vistar and a tihai. Practise the whole routine aloud in front of another person.