Improvisation in raga is the soul of Indian classical music – an essential aspect. "Manodharma Sangeetam" or "Kalpana Sangeetam" ("music of imagination") as it is known in Carnatic music, embraces several varieties of improvisation.

 

The main traditional forms of improvisation in Carnatic music consist of the following:

 

• Alapana

• Niraval

• Pallavi

• Ragam

• Swarakalpana

• Tanam

• Tani Avartanam

 

An alapana, sometimes also called ragam, is the exposition of a raga or tone – a slow improvisation with no rhythm, where the raga acts as the basis of embellishment. In performing alapana, performers consider each raga as an object that has beginnings and endings and consists somehow of sequences of thought.[25]

The performer will explore the ragam and touch on its various nuances, singing in the lower octaves first, then gradually moving up to higher octaves, while giving a hint of the song to be performed.

Theoretically, this ought to be the easiest type of improvisation, since the rules are so few, but in fact, it takes much skill to sing a pleasing, comprehensive (in the sense of giving a "feel for the ragam") and, most importantly, original raga alapana.

 

Niraval, usually performed by the more advanced performers, consists of singing one or two lines of text of a song repeatedly, but with a series of melodic improvised elaborations. Although niraval consists of extempore melodic variations, generally, the original patterns of duration are maintained; each word in the lines of text stay set within their original place in the tala cycle. The lines are then also played at different levels of speed which can include double speed, triple speed, quadruple speed and even sextuple speed. The improvised elaborations are made with a view of outlining the raga, the tempo, and the theme of the composition.

 

Kalpanaswaram, also known as swarakalpana, consists of improvising melodic and rhythmic passages using swaras (solfa syllables, SaReGaMaPaDaNiSa). Like niraval, kalpanaswaras are sung to end on a particular swara in the raga of the melody and at a specific place in the tala cycle.

Kalpanaswaras have a somewhat predictable rhythmical structure; the swaras are sung to end on the samam (the first beat of the rhythmical cycle). The swaras can also be sung at the same speed or double the speed of the melody that is being sung, though some artists sing triple-speed phrases too.

Kalpanaswaram is the most elementary type of improvisation, usually taught before any other form of improvisation.

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