EDUCATION PLAN

Academic Year:

An academic year at Sangeetaanjali consists of three quarters, each eleven week long.Classes start on the Last week of January and ends on the third week of October with a Summer break of about a month during July. A winter recess of three months starts after mid-October. Regular Classes are generally not held during the summer break or the winter recess, but special classes may sometimes be offered by some teachers.
Each course in a quarter consists of eleven regular classes, generally one class a week.
Each course in a quarter generally consists of eleven Group classes, one class a week. However, any possible number of Private classes are also offered in any quarter.

Planned Academic Quarters, Year 2010:

Winter: Jan 21 - Apr 07; Spring: Apr 15 – June 30; Fall: Aug 2 - Oct 17
Note: 1. Actual start/end dates of a quarter may sometimes be slightly different from the above dates for some teachers because of unforeseen reasons.
2. Special off-season classes may be offered.

Classes:

Classes are generally scheduled on weekday evenings and on weekends. However, based on the students' availability, some classes are scheduled during the weekdays.
Teaching is generally conducted through lessons to small groups, although one-on-one Private classes are also offered subject to available time of a teacher. Maximum size of a class is limited to four students (the average size having so far been two students).

Class Length:Class lengths at Sangeetaanjali do not go by the clock time. Duration of a class depends on the complexity of the lesson and the class size (number of students). A class ends when the teacher is satisfied that every individual student understood the lesson well enough to practice at home meaningfully. For 3 or 4 adult students, a class is typically approximately an hour long. A larger class of more students may last longer. Again for one single child student, a class may be as short as 40 minutes.

Class Lessons: Classes at Sangeetaanjali teach lessons covering moderate amounts of material to small groups (please read The Golden Rule of Learning Music in the Note below), and each class includes time for individual attention to each student. Teaching sincerely with clarity to inspire the student to love music and do his/her riwaz sincerely, is the motto in Sangeetaanjali. In a group lesson a student learns from others' mistakes.

Class Levels: Students in any particular group generally receive lessons together in the same group indefinitely. However, based on the natural musical aptitude and rate of progress shown by individual students, some students are sometimes moved up or down to a suitable level group of classes.

Preparatory Classes: Whenever situations prompt a teacher to decide that a student needs a number of special preparatory classes (one-on-one, or one-on-two) to come up to a suitable group level, such classes are arranged.

Note:

The Golden Rule of Learning Music: This rule is: ‘learn less, learn right'. How much you understand or memorize is not any consideration in music, how well you perform even a small piece is the important thing. Every little detail of an ‘Alankar' or ‘Chhand' takes many hours and days of practice (‘Riwaz',) to do even tolerably right, maintaining ‘Sur' and ‘Lai'. In some cases, it takes the rest of life to refine it. Many People try to collect more and more material (often from different sources), digest none, and then shout (not sing!) ‘Besuraa' (out of tune) and/or ‘Betaalaa' (out of rhythm) their whole lives. These people never understand what music is all about.

Graduation:

A student may satisfy over the years the rigorous requirements (to be described on the web page in the future) for acquiring a degree, and then receive a degree. Most students, however, enroll in classes just for learning music without regards to any degree.