Cycles
In Hindustani music a rhythm is a cycle called a tāl. It has a fixed number of beats, split into sections, with a clap (sam and the claps) on some and a wave (khali) on others. Here only the first beat of each section sounds; the strokes are on the Tabla and Madal pages.
From theory: Eastern theory: tāla · Eastern theory: laya
The small marker over each section is its sign: X is sam (the first beat, the strongest), 0 is khali (a wave, the open feel), and the numbers are the later claps.
Six and eight
In notation: a tal has no time signature, because its sections are not bars of a time signature but the divisions of the cycle. Each section of the tal is drawn as a bar, so the sections you see in the grid become the barlines, and each beat is a quarter note or a quarter rest.
Seven and ten
Twelve and fourteen
Sixteen
- Count the cycle aloud and clap on sam, 1.
- Add the sections: clap the first beat of each, say the others.
- Wave on the khali instead of clapping.
- Play it on the Tabla or Madal page with the real bols.
Before you go on
- Count Teentaal 16 beats without losing sam
- Clap and wave Dadra: clap on 1, wave on 4
- Count Rupak 3-2-2 and Jhaptaal 2-3-2-3 until the length feels natural
Play it on your instrument
You have been clapping this. On an instrument it is the same rhythm, with each clap played as a note or stroke while you keep tapping the count.
- Tabla: Keherwa, dadra and teentaal with sam, khali and the bols; more cycles on the classical list. Main taals · More classical taals
- Madal: The same cycles adapted for the madal: dadra, kaharba, rupak and jhaptaal. Tabla taals on the madal
Every lesson on every instrument: Take it to your instrument.