Alap
Alap is the first movement of the raga. It is a slow, serene movement acting as an invocation and it gradually develops the raga.

Taal
The taal is the rhythmic cycle of the raga ranging from 3 to 108 beats. Taal plays an equally important role as the raga in expressing the mood.

Thumri
Thumri employs a special set of ragas. The lyrics of thumri usually deal with romance. Origin of thumri is ascribed to Nawab Wajid Ali Shah of Lucknow.

Thaath
Thaat or Mela is known as the Parental scale. There are ten Thaats under which most of the Hindustani ragas can be categorized. These Thaats have the names of ragas and they are Bilawal, Khamaj, Poorvi, Kafi, Bhairavi, Kalyan, Bhairav, Marwa, Asavari and Todi.

Khayal
Literally khayal means 'imagination or fantasy'. Khayal is a form of rendering a raga. The essential component of a khayal is a composition (Bandish) and the expansion of the text of the composition within the framework of the raga. There are two forms of Khayal. Bada-Khayal in slow tempo and Chhota-Khayal in medium to fast tempo. The seeds of Khayal were sown by famous poet-musician and court poet to eleven Mughal emperors, Amir Khusro of the 13th century. Khayal came into full bloom in the hands of master Sada Rang (pen-name of the well known Khayal composer Niamat Khan) of the 18th century.

Bandish
Words of a composition.

INSTRUMENTS:

Sitar
Sitar is the most popular stringed instrument of India and has been in use for about 700 years. It is fashioned from a seasoned gourd and teakwood and has twenty mental frets with six or seven playing strings and nineteen sympathetic strings below.

Sarod
Sarod is another popular stringed instrument. There are four main strings, six rhythm and drone strings and fifteen sympathetic strings, all made of metal.

Sarangi
The name derives from Sau Rangi meaning 100 colors. Sarangi is played with a bow and has four main strings and as many as forty resonant strings.

Taanpura
Tanpura or Tambura is a drone instrument, usually consisting of four or six strings tuned to Pa or Ma or Ni, Sa, Sa, Sa (Sol or Fa or Ti, Doh, Doh, Doh). The two strings in the centre are Sa of middle octave. The Pa or Ma or Ni and the last Sa are of the lower octave. The droning of the Tanpura helps singers to get set on the scale and it resonates to create a musical atmosphere.

Santoor
Santoor is a Persian Word, and it means a hundred strains. It is the oldest known instrument in India. In Sanskrit it is called the "Shata Tantri Veena" or a "hundred instrings" the word "veena" was used to describe all instring instruments where the sound was made by manoeuvring the taut string of a bow or pinaki. A pair of QALAM (light wooden gliders) are used to play the santoor. The Santoor is a very delicate instrument and is very sensitive to glides. The strokes are played always on the strings either closer to the bridge away from bridge.

Although, the santoor was part of classical music repertoire in Persia and in India it was only heard in the hills and valleys of Kashmir. It was a hundred instringed instrument played in the style of music known as the Sufiana Mausiqi, the sufi mystics used to accompaniment to their hymns. Presumably, the itinerant musicians and gypsies carried this instrument to lands across the continents of Asia and Europe, giving rise to a variety of instruments similar in nature. In the music encyclopedias the santoor is found under the category of hammered dulcimer. Popular by a similar name in Iran Santour; in Iraq and Turkey it is known as Qanoon; Kentele in Finland and Zymbalon of Hungary and Romania are similar instruments. For an instrument to be accepted as classical it has to be able to meet certain standards. This requires the effect of meend (glissando), the ability to progress unbroken from one note to another, as opposed to staccato. Two notes could be used to create the above effects on any string instrument. One style of playing is by pulling the string as in the Sitar, and the other is gliding the fingers as in the Sarangi or Sarod. A Santoor player has to maintain the continuity of the notes by gliding the strikers along the strings very delicately, creating very little vibration. This gliding allows him to play Alap, the slow improvised invocation of a raga. It was the perseverance of Great Maestros like Pandit Bhajan Sapori from Sufiana Gharana and Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma to bring the instrument into Indian Classical World.