Studio Policies

Mission and Goals:

It is my goal to nurture the artistic spirit in each person and promote a lifelong love of Indian Classical Carnatic music and learning. I will guide each student achieve their highest musical potential through lessons that include theory, singing, voice culture exercises, music notation, ear training and memorization techniques. I will strive to provide an enthusiastic atmosphere for learning and believe that the best progress will come from positive encouragement and good communication between the student, their family and teacher. My goal for every student is not just to be able to sing well but to have sound knowledge and a solid foundation to this wonderful art form.

Student Responsibilities:

Please arrive to each lesson punctually with all necessary materials. Regular practice at home is an essential habit to promote musical growth. Each student will have their own goal of how much they should strive to practice each week and they are expected to do their best to meet that goal each week. Students will be provided an assignment notebook in which they mark their practices. For my online students, we will use a Google spreadsheet to keep track of homework. I understand that some weeks may be unusually busy and the practice time might be minimal. However, lack of practice is NOT an acceptable excuse for missing a lesson. We can still work on many musical concepts during lesson time and these lessons will still be extremely productive. Please understand that the quality of your music will always be directly proportional to the time that you spend practicing your music.

Parent Responsibilities:

Parents are welcome (in fact, encouraged) to watch lessons at any time. Please check your child’s notebook weekly for assignment details. To help your child develop self-discipline and good practice habits, set aside a regular time for practice each day (this can be done all at once or divided into two or more daily practice sessions). Parents will need to remind students that it is time to practice and even sit with them for a while until the student needs only occasional supervision. Parents are encouraged to give their inputs about the student’s practice at home and/or any difficulty the student is facing in any particular area. I will definitely take any feedback/answer any questions that parents may have regarding the child’s progress.

Performances:

I will strive to provide opportunities for students to perform and there will be 2 recitals annually - one in summer and one in winter at my home. In addition to recitals, there might be other opportunities for students to perform locally. Please let me know when you sign students up for other performances because I can help them with those pieces to ensure that the student is ready to perform well. 

Expectations:

I highly encourage students and parents to listen to as much Carnatic music as possible at home. Even if parents/students find it hard to listen to the core Carnatic ragas in the beginning, short compositions, tillanas, padams, javalis, ragamalikas, etc. will be great choices for listening in the beginning. And if there are a few family favorites, please play the same favorites several times, by all means. You don’t have to necessarily listen to new songs all the time. Even the same songs sung by different artists is another great way to start appreciating the nuances of the song, how each artist has handled the raga, etc. I also strongly encourage everyone to attend as many concerts as possible, whether in person or online.