Keeping tala while improvising

[Im A Skal Man]

For a beginner/intermediate:
How can one practice keeping tala while improvising if one note is not played for each beat? Coming from a guitar background, my natural tendency is to add an eighth beat at the end of triputa tala.

[msakella]

Dear brother-member, I’m A Skal Man, Your question is not clear. If not, at the least, one of our members would have answered it immediately. What do you mean by ‘improvising’? There is no such restriction at all in our music in respect of the number of notes singing or playing for each beat. Even without mentioning the Jaati if you tell Triputa-tala it is implied that must be Trisra-jaati-triputa-tala only in which case no eighth beat should be added. If you want to have eight beats, then it becomes Chaturashra-jaati- triputa-tala which is named after ‘Adi-tala’ in the scheme of 35 Talas. If you try to make it clearer of your doubt I shall try to clear it off. amsharma.

[Im A Skal Man]

Right, of course, adding a beat to Trisra-jaaji-triputa-tala would cause it to become another tala, therein lies my problem...

Sorry about not being clear. My question is a general one. I am a very beginning learner of Carnatic music and do not know all of the terminology, but have experience playing guitar. My question probably exceeds my level of knowledge & practice, but I like to be able to think ahead to the next step and keep the learning interesting.

Growing up listening to music usually set to a 4/4 beat, I'm used to "feeling" music in terms of fours or eights. It is natural for me to be able to improvise – that is, take liberties in the moment with a melody – changing the order, duration, and frequency of notes while adding ornamentation, keeping in mind the rhythm of the piece.

Now, with practice and focus, I can do the alankaras. I can also play some elementary geethams set to cycles of six or seven beats, where one strike of the string corresponds to each beat. But to move beyond this, how can one "play" more freely with the music while keeping a tala that still feels foreign – especially playing an instrument that doesn't allow one to keep a hand free for counting. I'm sure my teacher will take me there when I am ready, but I was wondering if any of the members have advise.

Also, as a listener, I'm curious how different musicians keep track of complicated rhythm structures while focusing on the emotional quality of a musical piece.

Aren

[Nick H]

If you are finding it difficult to work with 7-beat and 5-beat rhythms, then I sympathise: so, after years of listening to this music, do I

As to the focus of the musicians, it is no more difficult for them to play misra-chapu talam than it is for you to play 4 beats. Training and practice! It beats me (no pun intended) how they can do maths and play at the same time, but I know, from the experience of sitting in a mridangam classroom, that they can. Give a mridangist a number --- 11 beats? 13 beats? 23 beats? whatever) they will play, including all the set-pieces. And they have no free hand for counting!

There are excercises that help the laya sense generally. You may have come accross them already

eg to adi talam, four syllables (takadimi) per beat, put talam and say TaKaDiMi TaKaJuNo four times. That fits and fills up the cycle.

Now, say TakaDimiTakaJuno THREE times followed by TakaDimiTaKiTa. That leaves one pulse. You use that pulse as the starting point for next taka dimi.

(much easier to demonstrate than to describe). I'll try to put it another way...

To adi talam, say repeatedly,

TakaDimi TakaJuno TakaDimi TakaJuno TakaDimi TakaJuno TakaDimi Takita

Each time you do, the stress points (TAkadimi TAkajuno) will move one pulse relative to the beat of your tala.

If you follow me, you can surely make up something similar for misra chapu etc.

[msakella]

Dear brother-member, I’m A Skal Man, Indian music itself is complicated and Karnataka-music, being the earliest upon earth, is much more complicated either in Shruti or Laya which correspond to Sound and Rhythm respectively. To get acquaintance with this system of rhythm, at the first instance, take the duration of a second as one unit and try to spell out 1-letter in this 1-unit’s duration, 2-letters in the same duration , 4-letters in the same duration and 8-letters in the same duration which mostly you are used to follow easily. Later, in the second instance, try to spell our 3-letters, 6-letters and 12-letters in the same duration. I hope, you can do these two things very easily if you are having the required Laya-instinct. Then, try to approach a Karnataka-mridangam-artist and render before him an admixture of these above two kinds i.e., 1-letter, 2-letters, 3-letters, 4-letters, 6-letters, 8-letters and 12-letters in the same duration of 1-second. If he certifies that you are doing it successfully you can regularly practice it for some longer time to get control over it and later you please send me a piece of that recording to me. If you are successful I shall tell you another one. With best wishes, amsharma.

[mohan]

Aren - I too used to struggle with the chapu talams of 5 and 7 beats. Keep putting talam while listening to compositions in these talas, especially listen to when kalpana swaram is sung.

Keep practicing the alankaras. Learning compositions like the Bhairavi swarajathi by Shyama Sastri will also help you get a grip of misra chapu.

[Im A Skal Man]

Thanks all for the advise. I'll be working on it.

[srkris]

Aren,

If you have access to songs set to triputa (7 beats), try practising tala with your hand for those. The more and more you practise this, you will get familiar with the rhythm.

Similarly do for the other talas (specially those that dont have an even count). Someone you know who listens to carnatic music can get you the songs in various talas.

Better still catch hold of a mridangam player for fastest learning.

[Nick H]

I find it very hard to determine the edeppu for misra chapu songs.

However, I suppose that even if one gets it wrong, one is still practising the rhythm!

[msakella]

Dear brother-member, nick H, If you are exposed to do still harder things than this, you can do this very easily. Try to do so. With best wishes, amsharma.

[Im A Skal Man]

Mridamgam players are in short supply in San Diego. Does anyone know of any? It would be great to find someone just beyond my level to practice with.

Mohan, Do you know where I can find a copy of "Bhairavi swarajathi by Shyama Sastri" or another good seven beat tune to count along to?

[vasanthakokilam]

Our own Sri Akella Sarma ji's AMS Easy Methods CD has this swarajathi. You can download it from

http://www.sangeethapriya.org/~chandra/ ... 0Learning/

Items 78 thru 86.

The metronome in the background should help out as well.

In general for Misra Chapu songs,

www.musicindiaonline.com and search for misrachapu, there are quite a few.

Sangeethapriya.org has a huge number of Misra chapu songs. search in google with a search strings 'MChapu site:sangeethapriya.org' and 'misra chapu site:sangeethapriya.org'

[msakella]

Dear brother-member, I’m A Skal Man, As mentioned by our brother-member, vasanthakokilam, you can find the Bhairavi-swarajathi in that CD. If you practice regularly with the item Nos. 05, 06, and 25 to 38 also of that CD you will, no doubt, get the required acquaintance with many of the intricacies of Indian rhythm. You can regularly practice them and send the clips of the recordings to my e-mail address msakella2002@yahoo.co.in whenever you need or you can even contact my chat address <msakella2002> either by Yahoo messenger or by Skype and discuss about your progress. With best wishes, amsharma.

[sudha mani]

Hi,

I'm learning Veenai. How can i practice keeping tala while rendering kritis?

[mridhangam]

Member Sudha Mani

It is better to practice the kriti vocally by putting tala with your hand and then try to see whether you are producing the Tala and Laya perfectly to your satisfaction. By practising this method constantly you will be able to improve on your Tala and Laya.

J.Balaji

[sudha mani]

Thank you sir. actually I'm practicing like that only. While singing,tala comes correctly:but practicing the same in veena ,i am unable to play exactly. please help me.

[msakella]

Dear sister-member, sudha mani, Our face is always nice for us and we always relish anything of us. That is always dangerous and it helps us only to end up nowhere. That is why we should never judge our own things and we always need a faithful friend to guide us in such matters. Better find a reliable music teacher, though very difficult nowadays, to guide you properly in this respect. If you don’t find, try to contact my ID ‘msakella2002’ either on Yahoo Messenger or Skype to sing before me online and I shall guide you. amsharma