Alaknanda Patel belongs to the Rampur Sahaswan gharana, a school or style of music located in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh in which knowledge is handed from guru (teacher) to shishya (disciple). She received much of her initial training from Ustad Rasheed Ahmed Khan. After two years or so, she embarked upon the next, more rigorous, phase of her musical education under the guidance of his son, Ustad Hafiz Ahmed Khan, who was to become her principal guru.