His performances begin with solo alap, jor, and jhala ( introduction and performances with pulse and rapid pulse ) influenced by the slow and serious dhrupad genre, followed by a section with tabla accompaniment featuring compositions associated with the prevalent khyal style.

In most styles of dhrupad singing it can easily last an hour, broadly subdivided into the alap proper ( unmetered ), the jor ( with steady rhythm ) and the jhala ( accelerating strumming ) or nomtom, when syllables are sung at a very rapid pace.

It bears little resemblance to concert dhrupad: there is very little or no alap ; percussion such as bells and finger cymbals, not used in the classical setting, are used here, and the drum used is a smaller, older variant called mrdang, quite similar to the mridangam.

The songs are sometimes preceded by improvised alap to sketch the basic raga structure without drum accompaniment ; alap is given much less room in khyal than in dhrupad.

In dhrupad singing the alap is unmetered, improvised ( within the raga ) and unaccompanied ( except for the tanpura drone ), and started at a slow tempo.

In instrumental music, when a steady pulse is introduced into the alap, it is called jor ; when the tempo has been greatly increased, or when the rhythmic element overtakes the melodic, it is called jhala ( dhrupad: nomtom ).

For example, when alap is sung with lyrics or at least syllables, as in dhrupad, it is called sakshar as opposed to anakshar.

Three plectrums are used to play the dhrupad style of alap, jor, and jhala on surbahar.

The most frequent ones are the yod and the waw while the alap is mostly restricted to some transliterated words.

The text is preceded by a wholly improvised section, the alap.

The alap (; ) is the opening section of a typical North Indian classical performance.

In Indian music, the jor ( Hindi: ज ो र ; also spelled jod and jhor ) is a formal section of composition in the long elaboration ( alap ) of a raga that forms the beginning of a performance.

The alap is followed by a long slow-tempo improvisation in vocal music, or by the jod and jhala in instrumental music.

Dhrupad compositions begin with a relatively long and acyclic alap, where the syllables of the following mantra is recited:

A pulse is sometimes taken as a universal, yet there exist solo vocal and instrumental genres with free and improvisational rhythms no regular pulse ( Johnson 2002 ), one example being the alap section of an Indian classical music performance.

Other songs, played by various castes, normally begin with the alap, which sets the tune and is followed by a recital of a couplet ( dooba ).

It opens with a very short alap played by the tambouras ( 0: 00-0: 04 ), then dilruba ( from 0: 04 ) while a swarmandal is gently stroked to announce the pentatonic portion of the scale.

In the alap section ( lasting 35 seconds ) the melody is previewed, before the tabla, tamboura and percussion commence a Madhya laya ( medium tempo ) Bandish or gat.

In the same way as traditional four-part compositions have a sthai, antara, sanchar and abhog, some treat alap with a four-part scheme using the same names.

* bol alap and sargam using merukhand patterns

The jor and jhala can be seen as separate sections of the performance, or as parts of the alap ; in the same way, jhala can be seen as a part of jor.

Ustad Allauddin Khan was passing on not only playing technique but the musical knowledge and approach of the Maihar gharana ( school ); yet there was a definite trend in his teaching to infuse the sitar and sarod with the been-baj aesthetic of the Rudra veena, surbahar and sursringar – long, elaborate alap ( unaccompanied improvisation ) built on intricate meend work ( bending of the note ).

The Dagar style puts great emphasis on alap and for several generations their singers have performed in pairs ( often pairs of brothers ).

Harrison begins by twice stroking his sitar's resonating strings ( a common technique before the opening alap segment of a raga ).

However the musical background of dhrupad is commonly thought to have a long history, traceable back to the Vedas themselves.

Like all Indian classical music, dhrupad is modal and monophonic, with a single melodic line and no chord progression.

The form of dhrupad prevalent in Darbhanga and Bettiah is known as the Haveli style.

In Pakistan dhrupad is represented by the Talwandi gharana, who sing in the Khandar style.

It appeared more recently than dhrupad, is a more free and flexible form, and it provides greater scope for improvisation.

Jor is the instrumental equivalent of nomtom in the dhrupad vocal style of Indian music.

The rudra veena, an ancient string instrument, is used in instrumental music in dhrupad.

A lighter form of dhrupad, called dhamar, is sung primarily during the festival of Holi.

In Hindustani classical music, the fixed ( dhrupad / bandish ) section is in four parts of which only the first two are performed regularly: Sthayi ( pallavi in Carnatic music )-the first line of the Sthayi serves as a Cadence ( music ), while the section itself serves as a base for the singer returns to the Sthayi time and again after each part ; Antara ( Anupallavi in Carnatic music )-the intermediate part sung in a high register focusing on the tar shadja, with a good deal of text manipulation and repeated forays into sthayi ; the third section Sanchari ( charanam in Carnatic music )-created by the division of the Abhoga and it remains a free-moving section ; the fourth and concluding section Abhoga ( Pallavi in Carnatic music because this section is often replaced by the Sthayi ) includes notes from all three registers, and in present-day performances, may well be sung with the Sanchari, if these two sections are included.

It is associated with the dhrupad style and typically played on the pakhawaj.

A song in dhrupad style set to dhamar tala is also called a dhamar.

The classical form of the Indian music is already quite well known ( for example, Bihar has produced musicians like Bharat Ratna Ustad Bismillah Khan and dhrupad singers like the Malliks ( Darbhanga Gharana ) and the Mishras ( Bettiah Gharana )) and the classical music in Bihar is but a form of the Hindustani classical music.

Zia Mohiuddin Dagar ( 14 March 1929 – 28 September 1990 ), popularly known as Z. M. Dagar, was a North Indian ( Hindustani ) classical musician, one of the 19th generation of Dagar family dhrupad musicians.

It has no fixed form: it may be as simple as a mantra or kirtan or as sophisticated as the dhrupad or kriti with music based on classical ragas and talas.

There are said to be four broad stylistic variants ( vanis or banis ) of classical dhrupad – the Gauri ( Gohar ), Khandar, Nauhar, and Dagar, tentatively linked to five singing styles ( geetis ) known from the 7th Century: Shuddha, Bhinna, Gauri, Vegswara, and Sadharani.

At some point, he was discipled for some time to Swami Haridas, the legendary composer from Vrindavan and part of the stellar Gwalior court of Raja Man Singh Tomar ( 1486-1516 AD ), specializing in the dhrupad style of singing.

A section of dhrupad singers of Delhi Gharana from Mughal emperor Shah Jahan ’ s court migrated to Bettiah under the patronage of the Bettiah Raj, giving rise to the Bettiah Gharana.

Although he was discouraged by his father from experimenting with the structure of the veena, he nevertheless modified the instrument after his father's death to better equip it for solo performance, transforming it into a larger bass instrument ( sometimes called a ' Dagar veena '): With the help of the instrument house Kanailal & Brother, he enlarged the tumbas ( gourds ) and dhandhi ( hollow neck ) to create greater resonance and to allow the notes to sustain longer and so better reproduce the techniques used in dhrupad singing.