In the beginning days of Riyaz, we launched the features of “2 min warmup” and “30 minutes practice” (or it could be 10/20 minute practice if you choose lesser durations) for Riyazers to quickly practice material from their ongoing courses.
In the previous versions, the lessons you saw for these two sections were automatically put together by an algorithm depending on what you practiced and how you scored on them in the past.
But we realised that there are two necessary improvements for these.
- They need a touch of Guru to bring nuance to the practice plans. This is especially important for the students to gain larger benefit of enhancing their recall of different fundamental concepts, strengthening their voice core and draw benefits of practicing before a Guru. All this, besides the usual progress with the course.
- They are two different islands. Ideally, in a day’s practice, the student should be given relevant warmup lessons + relevant revision material along with new lessons to practice.
So, we made sure that we addressed both these issues. The day wise practice plans for each course are nothing but next generation evolution of those two features, further building on the Gurus’ inputs on how to offer these benefits to students of Riyaz, and bringing in the relevance to warmup lessons and revision material on each day’s practice. What more? On top of this, the algorithm still makes sure it customises the plans for you based on your scoring history.
Make the best use of the newly launched day wise plans. Don’t worry that the old practice tools are gone as they were, you’re in much better hands with the day wise practice plans.
Jai hind
Good thinking
Umesh carpemter u p se
Dear sir/mam,
I’m stuck In janta1 sp3lesson. Even though i sing better it used to say that my mark is below 50.. i couldn’t go to the next level.. it’s frustrating.. i got better scores in previous version.. but on this version everything has gone and i couldn’t move.
Taking note of this. We will debug with the exact lesson and see if there is any issue with scoring over that lesson and get back to you. Further, we are also adding a skip option for a few lessons that are super tough to score on. Thanks for bringing this to our notice.
Yes I agree with that l prefer the previous version alot
Sir would you please make lessons of raga malkauns it’s a humble request thanks in advance.
Sent this request to our content team. They added it to their recording agenda. Thanks for writing to us.
Second generation tool looks completely new, and has become hard to adapt.. the practice lesson and the line is is almost same colour, hard to differentiate the timing and hence difficult to catch up. I agree, change is always not easy, but I would say, it should have been gradual than sudden. Nevertheless, my love for singing and Riyaz will always be there. Thank you Riyaz team for coming up with such a beautiful app.
100% agree on the gradual change remark. We will take care of this in our development cycles going forward. We will also address the colour difficulty in the practice screen. Thank you so much for writing to us, and the unconditional love 🙂
I want to commend on your teams response with frequent updates in fixing the bugs that were there in your new version. One of my frustrations was the shruthi was getting reset in each lesson but that has been fixed now. Keep up the good work. Your app is a big help for those that cannot attend a regular class with a guru.
Thank you so much, Raj! 🙂
Hi there,
I hope I find you well in those difficult times!
Please allow me to give you a bit of feedback on the new version as I use the app 2-3 hours a day, for 293 days in a raw now.
The new version seems to work better when actually practicing, the app captures better the sound and it doesn’t have glitches when displaying my voice on the screen in comparison with the actual notes that I’m suppose to sing, but it created a big mess out of my daily routine, which is:
– the standard 30 minutes lessons provided by the app, one vowel per day
– 1 lesson, each day, repeated twice for every vowel in Romanian language (7 of them) (another some 30-60 minutes depending on lesson length)
– one of the modules rehearsed in vibrato.
– one of the modules with that day’s vowel.
The 30 minutes are gone, OK, I can live with that, I can replace easy. But the most negative aspect of the new update is the impossibility to hit next lesson in a module after finishing one lesson. Is this for real please or I just don’t understand yet how to do it? Basically I need to go out of a menu and select another lesson all the time. This is very annoying practice if is true. Also, it seems that there are no more % on the modules and on the lessons, feature that I really used for some kind of statistic and progress tracking.
Not complaining about the white background and white buttons (are they for real white or my phone is displaying them wrongly? Samsung A5). I’m not here for esthetics but for singing better. However I preferred the old darker theme.
The Next lesson button is really important. If you can add it back I would appreciate. If not, can you please help me switch to the old version of the app?
Also, as a top user I am more than happy to provide feedback and test the app before you launch any new versions, if this would be possible in any way.
Thanks,
Alex
Hi Alex
Your schedule is quite rigorous, kudos for that 👍🏼 But double pats on the back for keeping at it for such a long time 👏🏼👏🏼
Let me answer your questions one at a time.
1. The 30 minutes are not gone. As explained in this article, the day wise plans are an extension and upgrade to that 30 minute plan. So if you practice today’s package, you are covering much more than you were previously. Not by quantity, but by improved sourcing of lessons to maximize outcomes.
2. If you are a pro user, which you obviously are, you will choose to do certain lessons or routines a-la-carte. In this case, you are absolutely right that the next button becomes critical for navigating without coming back to course screen each time. We will add this back.
3. There should not be any white buttons on white screen, please do share a screenshot to our team at feedback@musicmuni.com so that we can resolve it.
4. We would loooove to have you on our beta channel for future upgrades. Our tech lead will get in touch with you for the same 🙂
Thank you so much and we’ll make sure your every concern is addressed the soonest.
Hi Gopala,
Thanks for the reply, really appreciate it! Couple of comments please:
1. I don’t see any day wise option in my app. I’m practicing only Western. I’ll provide screen shots with my main panel.
2. Thanks a lot! It very helpful indeed!
3. I’ll provide the images.
4. Glad to help!
Thanks,
Alex
Sir , in the new updated version , when I swtich to day wise practice plan the app automatically changes my shruti to C3 from G#2 .
And the lesson starts abruptly without givint me a chance to change the shruti back to G#2 .
In the first place why I need to chnage or adjust the shruti ..it used to be fixed in the previous version .
Today I updated the version and switched the Thaat Bilawal and it is not working at all . The lessons are not starting at all . Cant even take Sa
I hv to go to Harmonium mode to make Sa .
Why is Thaat Bilawal not woring when it did in the morning when I did my riyaz.
Earlier I use to start with kharaz and then all basic swaras and then I use to switch to Cranatic mode for Sa’ and Sa Pa Sa .
also some lessons of western music was taken by me and then I came back to hindustani mode and end with alankars . Same I use to do in the evng with some sargams .
Today morning was good with the old version evng got spoiled with the new version..niether Thaat Bilawal is starting nor the Carnatic or Western mode..
Did some random practice and now writing to you.
Pls fix it and restore me to old version or fix the shruti issue why it is taking C3 by default .
This is not the end on shruti G#2 in some lessons or in most of the lessons the sound of guru got heavy / thick ..one cant listen properly what is being spelt its so heavy which was not tbe issue with the earlier version.
My name is Raj
Subscription no..9608230831
G mail..Kunalkishore812@gmail.com.
Hi Kunal,
1. The shruti settings now prefer the same gender teacher. You might have been getting the female teacher’s reference audio in the previous version at G#3 since your shruti is G#2. In the current version, as the same gender teacher is preferred, it is picking up C3.
Even in the previous version (as in the current version), each lesson is made available in 8 shrutis and the app picks up the nearest (with octaves folded).
If same gender is not preferred, please do let us know. We’ll make necessary provision for this.
2. Lessons not opening might be because you caught us during a content operation. Please try now, and the lessons should open fine. If not, please do try logging out and logging in.
Thank you for providing thorough feedback 🙏🏼
Dear Riyaz, kindly allow us to learn Hindustani Musical Ragas in Hindi alphabets. I am more familiar with Hindi notations than English.
Thank you Santosh for your request, duly noted.
Hi Gopala,
Western Vocal 101 lessons are not opening for me (none of the 23).
+ No more ability to mix between metronome and actual note? That was very useful with some of the vowels or when doing power singing. I used that feature.
Thanks,
Alex
I already sent a video showing the bug on feedback@musicmuni.com .
Hi Alex,
There was an issue with the shruti E3 and our content team fixed it. You might have caught us in the middle of this operation, please do try now. If the issue persists, please logout and login, and it should definitely work.
Also took note of the mixing ability. We noticed that many users accidentally tampered those volumes earlier and complained about missing audio tracks. So in the current version, we mixed them at right volume levels and let the user control overall volume with their device buttons. But I do accept this is limiting for power users. Let me get a fix out, while addressing accidental tampering.
Sorry for the inconvenience, thanks for thorough feedback 🙏🏼
👌👌👌👌🙏 sabhi gurujano ko pranaam 🙇
I would check my saaa… In 2 min warm up.then on that saa… I would practice on a Casio. But now I am unable to check my saaa….There should be an option of doing same practice again.in days practice sessions continue option should not be compulsory.new ui is good .But you should not vanish old good things.
Hi Shivaji
The earlier 2 min warmup was more or less fixed. Warmup is now part of each day’s plan and the lessons for same are dynamically chosen based on your level/progress thus far.
We are bringing in a ‘revise’ section which lets you redo the lessons which you already have done.
Hope that helps. Thanks for the feedback 🙏🏼
Sir , in the earlier version there use to be 2 variants of Raag Durga . One has Alankars in it , present version has only 1 variant of Raag Durga without Alankar . This ia the case of most of the Raags , all raags which had alankars now doesn not conaists of Alankars.
Why you removed Alankars from Raags is beyond common understanding .
Earlier version does have a volume control function while doing riyaaz through which we could adjust the voice of lesson , tanpura and rythm . Which was very vital because by this we have an option to riyaaz only with Tanpura and rythm without lessons voice which helps in growing . You have removed that volume control button .
Why ???????
Feed back gone ; xps earned and the crisp sound of achivment which we listen after earning xps just after completing lesson , instantly , gone ,
Why ?????
I have already mentioned the shruti issues ..the app is taking C3 by default even in lower octave the app took C5 by default ..means 5 octave which is not used in Hindustani classical music is geeting selected by default in practincing lower octave .
Why ????
The gurs sound gets thick/heavy at many lessons making unable to catch the sur and rythm correctly..
New subacribers who knws nothing abt shruti..they will try with C3 and C5 shrutis ultimately damaging therir vocal chords withing 3 days.
This all will lead to downfall of riyaz from where it is present .
What exactly you ppl are trying to achive by doing this . Its certain that this new update was niether tested nor ready to be lauched but in hurry to match many you tube channesl who are giving daily lessons you ppl act in haste but as says haste makes wastes . It actually happened .
Sry , for my harsh language but you cant even imagine what ppls are facing during riyazz .
This app has developed my voice and nurished it like mother ..its painfull to see it getting destroyed and doomed .
Pls dont insist on some thing which is hafly prepared . Pls restore to the old version or add back the old features with dark theme and by resolving the shrutis issues or rememebres Indians are very adjustaable and have short memories . They will stop using the app and forget it within a week . Ppl participation is on the downfall which can be constanlty seen vial the leadeboard by the xps earned these days compared to earlier.
Look into the matter by an urgency.
Hi Raj,
1. Our Head of Content and well-known Tabla maestro, Trilochan Kampli – has taken stock of the content repertoire and has decided to re-record a few courses due to a few issues with the previously recorded ones. Once the new recordings are made available completely, we are removing the older ones.
We have recorded alankars of all the ten thaats and made them available. Each raaga course’s day wise plans will come with the respective alankars for warming up and swara practice. They are not listed when you navigate to that course’s lessons, but are factored in, in the day wise plans. Whenever relevant, the content team is also recording alankars specific to a raga.
Summing up, the raags with alankars are not removed. It is the courses with issues that are removed and replaced with new ones. The alankar availability for all raagas is now way better than the previous release. And in fact, we only replaced two so far – Durga and Bibhas.
2. Took note of the mixing capability with individual volume controls. We noticed that many users accidentally tampered those volumes earlier and complained about missing audio tracks. So in the current version, we mixed them at right volume levels and let the user control overall volume with their device buttons. But I do accept this is limiting for power users. Let me get a fix out, while addressing accidental tampering.
3. XPs are still counted. They are just not shown in the new design as of yet, but that’s only temporary. Soon an update will be out featuring these again.
4. Answered your shruti issues in your comment above.
5. For new users, we asses their shruti through a simpler mechanism which ensures that their vocal cords are not strained. For existing users, we have a couple of hidden features (that will show up once a shruti mismatch occues) that intervene and prevent such possibilities.
I wholeheartedly thank you for thorough and critical feedback. This helps us see where we need to step up and improve the Riyaz experience. Please be assured that each and everyone of your concerns will be addressed.
Thank you 🙏🏼
Hello sir ,
Some noteworthy points from my side..
1…
Riyazz is just not an app for me its like my mate , mother and soul . It has completely changed my voice and singing ability . People today paraises my voice and singing this has happened all due to riyazz . Riyazz will stay with me till I last !!
2….Sir , thanks for addressing all the concerns but shruti issue still prisists . I loged out and loged in as suggested by you but it wont worked.
In day wise plane still its taking C3 by default and without giving a min to fix it manually via settings the lesson starts .
3…The Alankar no 16 and 17 on G#2 shruti is still sounding heavy , I have checked it just now .
4….Yes , sir xps are counted but its not visible instantly actually it was a motivating factor physicologically . In Kharaz riyaz whever I got 95 and 60 xps I took a repeat to earn 65xps..
Even I incresase marks by 1 ie 96 it was satisfying..😁.
Its all about physicology .
6… In the previous version we could see what our fellow frnds have riyazed and even what riyaz has beem done by ous and how much time has elapsed since then . In the present version nothing is showing. Actually its all about ppl to ppl ties which binds the ppl and makes the place / app a live experince . If riyaz is not ready to give ous inbox to talk our followers and follow , which they should give as this will make thr experince more alive , at least let ous see each others riyaz like earlier .
I am saying this cz I have started riyaz of Carnatic and Western style ( some lessons) only after seeing it on some our fellow frnds .
Summing up sir , again I would like to draw your attention towards 2 vital issues in riyaz ..
( i ) ..Shruti issue its taking C3 nad A5 by default, without giving a chance to fix it manually lesson is starting.
( ii ) .Gurus voice sounding heavy in some lessons
( iii ) Navigation the next button which is already mentioned .
Pls look in the issue , sir.
Hi Raj,
Thank you so much for your love towards Riyaz ❤️ We’re definitely with you in your journey and are committed to go out of our way to make your dream a reality.
We’ll use your shruti setting and try debugging different lessons and how the shruti is picked. I’ll get back to you soon after we release a fix. Guru’s voice sounding heavy is a result of the shruti issue itself. Next button navigation is on the way.
Thanks so much again.
Dear Gopala
1) As you all know that riyaz in Hindustani Classical Music starts with Sa. Everyday we practise it number of times then other things. Please provide a ‘Quick Link’ option where we can practise short Sa long Sa and shuddha Pa everyday as a start.
2) Please allow us to repeat and go back to our previous lessons any number of time just by clicking it. I have time. I would like to practise the same lesson for hours
Gopala also Thank You for the light themes they create less strain in eyes in this time when we are over-exposed to screens. Thank You!
Dear Abhishek,
Both the issues you raised are being addressed by our dev team as I write this. A couple of updates are scheduled in this week which will alleviate these unforeseen inconveniences.
Thank you so much for writing to us.
I am stuck at the opening page only. The app is hung on my iPad. Pls help me with the solution. Thanking you
Hello sir ,
I updated the app then re installated it , but the issues that I brought to your knowladge , are still not resolved . In day wise practice plan A3 shruti is taken by the app , automatically and lesson startrs abruptly without giving ous a chance to change it our shruti , manually .
The heaviness in the voice of Guru’s still there which makes it almost impossible to understand the throw and the lay whic are reauired to be producded resulting in wrong riyazz and learning .
Pls sir do something . Here we are 3 frnds and lots of frnds are in my contact who are facing the same issues of Shruti and heavy voices .
Hi Raj,
Can you please confirm if you’re on version 50.0.10? This update has fix for the issues you are facing. If you’re on this version, and still see the issue, please leave a note here and we’ll personally contact you to resolve this.
Thank you.
Hello sir ,
With the 2nd update the issues has been fixed and I am loving my days again with the Riyaz 💞 😀.
Thank you soo much for making, Riyaz , it has given wings to my dreams .
Just a small request pls add some more Rags like Darbari and others beside adding the Raag Durga with Alankars back to the lists of Rags . Raag Durga Alankar was tough but was very helpfull and effective in making vocals flexible . Even if we could hardly do just 25% of it .
💞 Riyaz ❤😊.
Hello Gopala,
First of all let me thank you and the whole Riyaz Team a thousand times for building such a wonderful app. It appeared to me as a blessing when I found and purchased it in early June this year. However, at the end of the month, the new UI came up and after installing a series of updates I’m disappointed that my dream app gone! I’m a beginner and I’m facing the following problems.
1. Breath Monitor used to have a Tanpura accompaniment which is gone now. Was it really necessary because it was helping me a lot.
2. When practicing a lesson, I sometimes like to switch off the guidance voice and sing with the Tanpura accompaniment only. This was easy to do in the previous version. Now I can see the option “Enable Guidance” but it’s inactive and always off! Strangely enough the guidance voice is always on despite of the setting is off. Moreover I can set it on/off because it’s inactive.
3. When I advance to the next lesson in a particular module, the previous lessons become completely inaccessible. Isn’t that just unfair? Shouldn’t I always have an option to go back and practice any of the previous lessons if I like?
I don’t know if these are glitches or I’m having difficulties finding the proper way to do these. Please help me out. Thanks a lot again.
Last line of the 2nd point will be, “Moreover I can’t set… “. Sorry for the typo.
Hi Subha Ranjan,
Thank you for your loving words, means a lot to all of us at Riyaz ❤️
We will be extensively using breath monitor and smart tanpura in the coming days within the day wise plans. The reason we had to trim breath monitor to what it is right now, is to minimize potential hazardous impact on novice users. Holding specific note for as long as one can, and controlling your breath to sing as long as you can are two different tasks for a beginner. For novice users, mixing both might overwhelm them and lead to unpleasant consequences. Smart tanpura already enables a user to hold a specific note as long as they can (no mental pressure caused by a ticking clock!), and current breath monitor only allows learners to monitor their lung capacity, not with a parallel worry about their singing accuracy. Hope this helps 😊
Your concerns in point 2 is already addressed by our dev team, and the changes are being tested. It should be released as an update within this week.
Regarding point 3, those lessons are not gone. You can access them in two ways right now – 1. Go to “See All” of day wise plan and you’ll see the finished days there and the lessons there in. 2. You can browse to the same course with “See All” in Courses section and find the lessons there.
Having said that, we are making changes to find these in a lot easier manner than they are. Your asking this question itself is a clear indicator that we have room to improve in the discoverability. Thanks a ton.
Hi Gopala! Thanks a ton for your reply and nice explanation.
Regarding point 3, I can see the previous lessons by clicking on “See All”. However my concern is I cannot redo these lessons. I tried clicking on these old lessons but nothing happened.
Actually it’s not about the lessons from previous ‘Day Plan’s only, same thing happens with current ‘Day Plan’ also. Once I score a 3 Star on a lesson, the ‘Repeat’ option is gone. I just don’t know how to practice this lesson again if I’m not satisfied with myself.
I hope you got my point. Thanks again.
Same here. We want to Redo any lesson by just clicking on it and any number of times.
Got you, Subha and Abhishek! We made the required changes so that you’ll be able to repeat the lesson no matter what, and are pushing an update this week. We’re also enabling revision for those day’s lessons where you’ve earned all three stars in See All as well.
Thank you for further elaborating the problem 👍🏼
Thanks a lot. You’re an angel 😊❤
Can you please arrange a session on the notations used. It’s quite confusing. How do one interpret without know the notations?
Point noted 🙂 We’re making some educational videos to this extent.
Thank you.
Here are the two things that can make a beginners life easier if you can help
1) interpreting musical symbols is a challenge. Do you have any refer to what is used in riyaz app
2)if you can specify the line to the note on the left hand corner of each line woukd be really helpful.
When we move up and down it really does not give any clarity since we are doing that at some Pace.
Hey Gopala,
I would like to put forward a suggestion based on a problem I faced today during my practice session. I couldn’t clear a lesson because the pace of the Alankar was very fast and the pattern of the swaras was very complicated for me.
I tried hard for a long time but couldn’t really understand the pattern because of the speed. I cannot skip the lesson and advance which I think is reasonable enough.
Here I felt the necessity of a speed controller. How about incorporating a mode named “Practice”? This mode will allow the user to adjust the tempo of the lesson but no evaluation will be done in this mode.
I think many users will be hugely benefited by this feature.
Hi Subha,
We did an update with a fix to allow skipping a lesson if one can’t score it immediately, we sequence that lesson for future days. But that update is stuck on Google’s team as they are now shorthanded with Covid situation.
Appreciate your suggestion on speed adjustment for a lesson. It is already in our pipeline and will make it to the app soon.
Thank you.
Hi Gopala
First of all congratulations on developing such a fine music learning app .It’s nice to have daily practise with the renowned guru at your home …Thanks
Here are my suggestions
Option of volume control of lesson /Tanpura /rythem was quite useful in last version ,kindly reintroduce it ,it gives chance to practise without lesson and with Tanpura only
Best of luck
Regards
Devendra
Hello Mr. Devendra,
We did an update with a fix to allow mixing different tracks of a lesson, but that update is stuck on Google’s team as they are now shorthanded with Covid situation.
Thank you for writing to us.
Sir , shruti G and G#2 has disappeared from the last night from the Alankars and Raage section .
The app is taking C3 as closet shruti..and when we tried to fix it manually from the shruti’s list G and G#2 was not there in the list. Its hampering our riyaz.
Pls rectify this issue at the earliest.
Hi Raj,
In the app, go to settings and for the setting of “Lesson Key/Shruti”, set it to “Prefer lessons closest to my key/shruti”. That should solve the shruti issues.
We also release another update with fixes to issues without the need for this, but that update is stuck on Google’s team as they are now shorthanded with Covid situation.
Thank you.
I have some specific feedback. Take Nottuswara in carnatic section for example. In the earlier version, the teacher was doing it phrase by phrase in practice mode and one could absorb/internalise the swara and sahitya as one repeated it. One could also particularly see the pitch closely and also the feedback. In the present version though, since it is not done phrase to phrase, one has to be be reading the swara/sahitya from the top of the screen and hence could not monitor the voice trace to see if there is any problem with the pitch of the specific note or even the feedback that comes for each phrase. Secondly, there does not seem to be a way of playing back your effort at the end of the exercise – there are only two options : repeat or go to the next lesson.
Furthermore, I find the new layout with light colours is making it difficult for me to see the colour contrast clearly and see the voice trace of what I have sung clearly. Earlier layout was better in that regard. (I am in my 50s so may be my eye sight is not what it used to be!).
Dear Mr. Ram
Thank you for writing to us. Carnatic section has two courses on Nottusvarams. The first one, “Know your nottusvarams” has sing after lessons which you’re referring to. They are still available. The other course called “Nottusvarams” has only sing along lessons. Request you to switch to “Know your nottusvarams”. We will add a fix to enable listening to your recording after practice.
We are also adding a dark version of the app soon which should address your second concern.
Mr.Koduri
Thanks very much indeed for your prompt reply.
Regards
Ram
The old version was really good. especially 30 minutes of practice and quiz. I am really disappointed with new version. the worst part is once done with a lesson it is forever not active. what is practice, it is repeatedly doing over and over again. but this is the worst. now quiz also not there. Looking forward to that feature again. upgrade meaning is not downgrading the awesome features. When so many people complain then you should consider there is something wrong with the current upgrade. and look wise also before it was really good. now it is plain and blank.
Can you please confirm if the updates are automatic.
Excellent program, I have set a daily practice session for 15 minutes, how do I change that to 30 minutes. I deleted and reinstall, still, I don’t have an option to daily change practice time.