>>>Good for your voice : an introduction to Indian singing - DHRUPAD

workshops and courses

The dhrupad voice training provides a set of basic vocal tecniques, exercises, aesthetic insights from a tradition which has a lot to offer to the present research and experimentation in our Western music world.
Amelia Cuni has been studying and elaborating the dhrupad `language´ for the past 25 years. She has carefully developed her teaching skills to suite the needs of her European students who approach the subject of dhrupad with specific motivations and aims and in a non-Indian context. Coming herself from a Western background, she has a direct knowledge of the requirements and difficulties experienced in learning about an alien music culture and her efforts in bridging Indian and European realities are successfull and higly appreciated by professionals and lay-people alike.

Amelia Cuni´s interest in music education and in sharing her cross-cultural experience have shaped her teaching method which can be summarized as follows:

>How to train the voice, aiming at an unhindered delivery which has the speaking-tone as its base. By means of specific exercises the students will learn to develop their voices naturally, according to their individual capacities, avoiding straining and becoming aware of possible habits and blocks which may be an obstacle to the voice production and resonance.Especially conceived exercises will also add precision, flexibility and mellifluence to the singing, qualities which will be worked on in depth in the advanced training.

>How to train musical creativity, experiencing the shades of drone-related intervals and the general aesthetic principles and traditional structures (raga-tala) of modality in Indian music. By practicing with the drone (tanpura) the perception of tuning will be gradually refined, while the raga-tala melodic and rhythmic units allow vast scope for musical creativity. The meaning of improvisation within the frame of traditional music will therefore become clear.

>The body as an instrument. Set of movements and exercises which cultivate a correct and efficent use of the breathing and body-mind relationship while singing. Opening of the lower resonance in the abdomen on which the dhrupad voice production is built by means of breathing exercises.
This teaching method may interest and benefit any kind of singer since it focuses on some very basic aspects of voice production and music making which can be applied to different musical contexts. It is a guide to experience the subtle link between music, mind and soul, at the same time it contains very practical and effective tecniques to develop one´s own musical abilities.
Amelia Cuni proposes classes and workshops which can be taylored to the needs of the stutents, therefore their shape and duration can be accordingly decided together with her.