All through her career as a music Guru, Dr Chakrabarti has organized workshops to promote voice culture and in-depth learning of Hindustani Classical Music. The workshops are inspired by the rich, ancient Indian cultural heritage of the Guru-Shishya tradition. Participants have the opportunity to fully immerse themselves in an atmosphere of musical learning with their Guru, Dr Gopa Chakrabarti. Students from all over India and overseas, of all ages, genders, professions such as doctors, engineers, journalists, architects, students, professors, teachers etc and cultural backgrounds come together for musical learning.
The workshops are held for 3-4 days and usually four sessions are held every day where students live, breathe and consume music. Since 2007, workshops have been held in Gujarat, Haridwar, and Maharashtra. Dr Chakrabarti creates detailed study plans to help students understand all aspects of classical music as a performing art. She carries her own musical instruments such as Taanpura, Harmonium, Keyboards, Tabla, Guitar, music system etc and holds sessions on how to use these instruments during performance. Sometimes she also has musicians as accompanists to help students better understand the finer aspects of Gayaki and Layakari.
At one of the workshops held in January 2024, for instance, 30 students from India and abroad participated in Dr Chakrabarti’s workshop called ‘Sur Vihar’. It was held at a resort in Vajreshwari near Mumbai for three days in. During this time students learned:

1. Swar Sadhana at dawn: Deep breathing exercises and Pranayam to gain breath control. Practice of long notes and Mandra (lower octave) Riyaz.

2. Gayaki in the morning: Beginner to advanced level students together learned how to sing in Gayaki Ang. Raag Bhairav and Raag Yaman were alternatively used to understand the mood, movement, theheraav etc necessary for aalaapchari.

3. Laykari in the afternoon: What is taal, how to improvise with it and how to recognize the time signatures of different kinds of taal in popular music.

4. Performance at dusk: Students were taught all aspects of performance art – how to anchor a program, present a performance and also how to perform a song. All participants presented a light music performance from the genres of bhajan, ghazal, film or folk.

Besides this, students were also taught the importance of finding their natural scale and how to develop steadiness in it, how to sing in different scales, the process this involves and also how to switch scales according to the genre of singing.

Brief demonstration on playing harmonium and keyboards and the similarities and differences between the two. Similarly, the taanpura as a drone instrument was introduced to students and each of them was given the opportunity to play it.

Now for some exciting news! After a tremendous response from students, plans are in the works for Dr Chakrabarti to hold workshops in USA in 2025. Visit the website for current and updated info!