Composing an Alap
Over the past several weeks, students have been practicing singing the raaga we learned from Janani when she first introduced Indian Classical Music to us. Students can now sing the Mohanam Raaga on their own reciting the swaras (notes) by memory. 
This week, students started creating their own improvisations based on the raaga. This is called the Alap. Since students are still new to this musical tradition, they will not perform the alap they way it would traidionally be performed, that is, like most improvisations-spontaneously and on the spot during a performance. However, students did do some exploring of the raaga, using Orff instruments which were prepared and labeled with the swaras. After exploring, students documented some of the improvisations.
We will use a combination of their ideas to bookend a song we are going to learn and perform with Janani for our culminating assembly on March 18.
Check-out the photos of these creative and hard-working musicians!
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