Maintaining an accurate performance tradition for thirty-one distinct classical ragas across a scripture of this scale is a substantial undertaking, and the lineage of ragi musicians, those trained specifically in Sikh kirtan performance, has historically carried this knowledge forward through direct oral and practical transmission from teacher to student rather than through musical notation alone.
Some of the ragas specified in the Guru Granth Sahib are rare or have fallen out of common use in the wider North Indian classical tradition outside Sikh devotional contexts, which has made gurdwara musical institutions and specialist training academies an important, and in some cases the primary, remaining site where the correct performance of certain ragas is actively preserved and taught.
In recent decades this concern has prompted organized efforts, including dedicated kirtan training academies and recorded reference performances, aimed specifically at ensuring the scripture's raga assignments continue to be performed accurately as fewer musicians train in the full classical raga system on its own terms. The tradition also accommodates regional and lineage-based variation in exact melodic interpretation within a given raga, so two ragi performing the same hymn in the same designated raga may render it audibly differently while both remaining within the bounds of that raga's defining structure, a flexibility characteristic of North Indian classical music generally rather than unique to its Sikh devotional use.