Maihar gharana
The Maihar gharana is a gharana or school of Hindustani classical music, a style of Indian classical music originating in the northern parts of the Indian subcontinent. The school was formed by Allaudin Khan in the princely state of Maihar, now in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, and hence the name. Allauddin Khan learnt music from Vina player Wazir Khan, an exponent of the Senia gharana. The Maihar gharana is therefore sometimes referred to as the "Maihar-Senia gharana". It is one of the most prominent gharanas of the 20th century; much of the fame of  Hindustani classical music in the west stems from this gharana. Prominent musicians belonging to the Maihar gharana include prominent sitar players Ravi Shankar, Nikhil Banerjee, Allauddin Khan's son sarod player Ali Akbar Khan, daughter Annapurna Devi and grandsons Aashish Khan, Dhyanesh Khan, Pranesh Khan, Rajesh Ali khan, Alam Khan, Manik Khan and Shiraz Ali Khan. Other prominent musicians with links to this gharana include the sarod player Bahadur Khan, Sharan Rani, Vasant Rai, Kamlesh Moitra, Kamal Mallick, Rajesh Chandra Moitra, Rajeev Taranath, Tejendra Narayan Majumdar, Shamim Ahmed, Gourab Deb, Damodar Lal Kabra, Apratim Majumdar, Vikash Maharaj, Jyotin Bhattacharya, Abhisek  Lahiri, Vishal Maharaj, B.N.Choudhury,and Basant Kabra, violinist V. G. Jog, guitarists Brij Bhushan Kabra, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and his nephew Krishna Bhatt, Manju Nandan Mehta, flautists Pannalal Ghosh, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Nityanand Haldipur, Rupak Kulkarni, and Ronu Majumdar, and sitar players Chandrakant Sardeshmukh, Kartick Kumar and his son Niladri Kumar, Jaya Biswas, Abhishek Maharaj, Debanjan Bhattacharjee. Musicians belonging to the gharana adhere to a dhrupad aesthetic in their approach to playing the "alap" and "jor" portions in a raga. Variations in tempo are used to demarcate sections while playing the "jor", with a short rhythmic figure indicating closure of a  section. Therefore, rhythmic figures within the "jor" assume structural importance. "Alap-jor" is followed by a "khayal" style "vilambit gat" with "taan" improvisations, and the performance ends with a "jhala".