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1. A musical introduction where the main melody is played on harmoniums, with the harmonium players also possibly doing improvised variations of the melody.

2. A section called an alap, where the singers intone different long notes, in the raag of the song to be played.

3. Then the main singer begins the songs verses, unrhythmically and accompanied only by the harmonium. The melodies sung are improvised within the structure of the raag. After the lead singer sings a verse, another singer will repeat the verse with a different improvised melody. A few or many verses will be sung in this way, leading into the main heart of the song.

4. The main song begins, at this point the tabla and dholak players will start to play a rhythm, along with the backup singers clapping their hands in a rhythm. All members join in the singing of the verses of the song. Both the lyrics of the main verses and the melodies that go with them are usually not improvised, and in fact are traditional songs sung by many groups, especially within the same lineage. As the song proceeds, the main and secondary singers may break out into an alap, a long tonal melody that is improvised. The singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan also popularized the interjection of sargam singing at this point. The song usually builds in tempo and passion, with each singer trying to outdo each other in terms of vocal acrobatics. Some singers may do long periods of saregam improvisation, especially alternating improvisations with a student singer. The songs usually end suddenly.

The singing style of Qawaali is different from western singing styles in many ways. In words beginning with an M (like mohomad) for example, western music is apt to only quickly annunciate the m, and then sing the note primarily around the "o" sound. In Qawaali however, the tone is usually made while the mouth is closed for the m, so a muted tone is created. Also in Qawaali, there is no distinction between what is known as the "chest voice" and what is known as the "neck voice", which is the different areas that sound will resonate in depending on the frequency sung. Rather Qawaalis sing very loudly and forcefully, which allows them to extend their chest voice to much higher frequencies then used in Western singing, although this usually causes a more noisy or stained sound then would be acceptable in the west.

Qawwali was supposedly founded by the classical poet and musician Amir Khusro. The singers sing verses from Urdu, Persian, Punjabi, Siraiki, and SindhiSindhi refers to an ethnic group of people originating in the Sindh. Most Sindhis live in Pakistan but many Sindhi Hindus emigrated to India when the subcontinent was partitioned. The language of these people is also known as Sindhi. Culture Sindhi cultur poetry.

Qawwali is performed in Sufi shrines throughout Pakistan and India. The genre gained international fame through the late great Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan of Pakistan. Other famous qawwals are the Sabri Brothers, Aziz Mian , Rizwan-Muazzam , Abida Parveen.