Indian Classical Music is an ancient form of music that has been passed on from one generation to the next.  This music is highly intellectual, expressive, rhythmic, emotional and soulful.  Vocal and instrumental music are essentially performed solo by the aritist.  Historically there has not been any orchestral Indian Classical Music.  A sitar player for instance is only accompanied by a tabla player mainly, but it is considered a sitar solo.  Tabla is used both as an accompanying instrument and as a solo instrument.

A sitar performance is generally formatted as an Alap, Jor, without the tabla accompaniment followed by a slow Vilambit gat, a durut gat and jhala with tabla accompaniment.

There are various forms of presentation of music called Asnaf.  Khayal, and Dhurpad are the two main forms of Indian Classical Music.  The other Asnaf are derivatives of classical music but are more appropriately bunched under light classical music.

Indian Classical Music has been propagated over so many centuries through schools of music termed Gharana.  Gharana means a family, a household or a school.  Most of the propagation from one generation to the other has been through an oral tradition called guru shishya parampra or ustadi shagirdi.  The relationship between the teacher and the student or the disciple is the key to learning this great ancient form of music.  Students of teachers in the past have been not only the teachers sons or blood relations but musicians not directly related to the guru as well.