CVA Method of Learning
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The CVA Method of Learning
The CVA Method of Learning encompasses 2 factors:
The Practice Method
The Performance Aspect
The Practice Method
The Practice Materials can be found once you login as a member to CVA. The CVA Practice method is as follows :
- Listen & Watch
- Copy & Repeat
- Finesse & Embellish
- Memorise
- Perform!
We recommend using our invaluable resources to hear, watch and learn each song in detail. To enhance your senses, by learning through sight and sound is proven to be more effective than other ways of learning. The swaras are notated using the respective Raagam's swarasthanas throughout the lesson notations.
Listening & Watching helps you understand how the music sounds and flows. Looking at the Taalam and how it is executed in accordance with the music is essential. It is vital to ensure that you are in harmony with the Shruthi as well. Each lesson has a curated video & notation including the swaras and sahityam where necessary. The notation allows you to clarify the notes you are singing and for you to be able to understand the direction, feeling and technicalities of the song in detail.
Repetition is a learning technique that has been used for centuries. Rote learning has been the form of copying that has been used in Carnatic Music since centuries. However, a well seasoned Carnatic musician will tell you, to truly understand the music, you must observe, note and process what the singer is singing, not merely copying.
The Carnatic way of embellishment and ornamentation is known as Gamaka which encompasses controlled shaking, articulating, sliding, glottal stops and vocal manipulation. The swara and scale defines only the skeletal structure of a raga. The handling of Gamaka actually defines the raga.
Finally, memorisation is vital to an oral tradition like Carnatic vocal, and is of highest importance when communicating with your audience when you Perform!
The Performance Aspect
We have multiple resources for you to use during performances. Various Shruthi scales to match any voice type and mridangam tracks to ensure your rhythm is right on track. These tracks will help your progression in Carnatic music by providing experience of singing with an accompanying instrument, a skill very valuable when you start performing on Stage with a Carnatic Ensemble.
P.S : We recommend you start with a Shruthi Box or Tanpura Shruthi, while you learn and perfect your singing and slowly start using the mridangam tracks as you become more familiar with the lesson material.