I take great pleasure in announcing the launch of Taal Acharya - a unique Tala visualization software that will be extremely beneficial to musicians, dancers, students and professionals. Taal Acharya is a first-of-its-kind time marking (and time keeping) software developed by my husband Prof. Krishnan Suresh (Associate Professor at University of Wisconsin, Madison), with musical inputs provided by none other than Shri. Chitravina N. Ravikiran. A preview of the product will be provided during the debut performance of NAMO (North American Melharmonic Orchestra) at 8:00 AM on 31st March, with the official launch at 12:30 PM on 31st March - both events @ Waetjen Auditorium, Cleveland State University. We cordially invite you to attend the launch of this product.
Here are some of the advantages of using Taal Acharya:
1. Virtual Guru that teaches basic, chapu and 35 talas to beginners through visual display
2. Enhances laya sense among students by enabling them to maintain tempo (kalapramanam)
3. Improves tala sense among students by marking time visually through beats, finger counts etc
4. An excellent option for percussion students to practice tani-avartanams
5. Plays the role of a disciple/assistant for seasoned performers by keeping as well as
marking time and maintaining tempo in concerts
6. Great tool for mastering challenging passages during practice even for professionals
7. A great tool that introduces the Carnatic tala system to musicians from other genres
(Hindustani, Western, etc)
8. Organizations can enhance audience participation and appreciation by screening Taal
Acharya over projectors live in instrumental concerts
9. Taal Acharya can be an excellent visual alternative to Click Track in recording studios
The Windows version of this software will be available for download from http://www.acharyanet.com shortly
after the official product release.
Announcing the launch of Taal Acharya - Virtual Tala Guru
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Vanitha Suresh
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Nick H
- Posts: 9473
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 02:03
Re: Announcing the launch of Taal Acharya - Virtual Tala Gur
It will be nice if it is available for better operating systemsThe Windows version of this software ...
Do please update this thread when that happens, lest it get forgotten. Looking forward to it!... will be available for download from http://www.acharyanet.com shortly
after the official product release.
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Vanitha Suresh
- Posts: 10
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Re: Announcing the launch of Taal Acharya - Virtual Tala Gur
We are working on other operating systems. Will be out soon!!!
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VK RAMAN
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Re: Announcing the launch of Taal Acharya - Virtual Tala Gur
Keep us updated. Thanks Vanitha Suresh.
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Nick H
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Re: Announcing the launch of Taal Acharya - Virtual Tala Gur
That's good to hearWe are working on other operating systems...
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mahavishnu
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Re: Announcing the launch of Taal Acharya - Virtual Tala Gur
Look forward to the demo from Cleveland. I hope this will be webcast as well.
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varsha
- Posts: 1978
- Joined: 24 Aug 2011, 15:06
Re: Announcing the launch of Taal Acharya - Virtual Tala Gur
Hoping for a software for some duds like me . I have to hide my hands in concerts . that leads to shaking of head which is worse .
Kamal was once asked as to what was the most difficult thing for an actor . And he replied : these two hands . they keep interfering . If only I could train them !!!
My pain is similar .
Is there some step for a disabled person like me ?
like say 60 % of songs are in x tala
90 % are in xyz tala
then keep segmenting
x differs from x1 in that .....
atleast to cover 90 % of what we hear - leaving aside the pallavi etc etc
some leads are appreciated . I do learn through others but keep forgetting because my mind is not wired to tala . to notes yes . to the correct landing of the point of landing-yes . but I always see the train while receding from my view . not while approaching
thanks in advance
Kamal was once asked as to what was the most difficult thing for an actor . And he replied : these two hands . they keep interfering . If only I could train them !!!
My pain is similar .
Is there some step for a disabled person like me ?
like say 60 % of songs are in x tala
90 % are in xyz tala
then keep segmenting
x differs from x1 in that .....
atleast to cover 90 % of what we hear - leaving aside the pallavi etc etc
some leads are appreciated . I do learn through others but keep forgetting because my mind is not wired to tala . to notes yes . to the correct landing of the point of landing-yes . but I always see the train while receding from my view . not while approaching
thanks in advance
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vasanthakokilam
- Posts: 10958
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 00:01
Re: Announcing the launch of Taal Acharya - Virtual Tala Gur
( I thought of sharing my experience in a few words in relation to Varsha's point but it grew very long. I hope this does not interfere with the Taal Acharya demo tomorrow and the subsequent discussion about it in this thread. I am very much looking forward to it. If need be, we can move this interesting side discussion to a separate thread ).
Varsha, I share the pain
At one point, I used to intellectualize it too much.( I attribute the intellectualizing tendency to the practice in CM to introduce Thala to the beginner in a theoretical manner which is not a good idea. The elegance and beauty of that are unparalleled of course. OK, that is a different topic ).
But I realized that all it takes is repeated practice to wire the brain for this.
I have over time trained myself to do better.Not that I am satisfied with where I am but I am happy I am a bit better. ( Playing to the thala correctly is a whole different matter ).
What I figured is, the thala keeping problems are not due to the variations in thala, angas, laghu, jAthis etc.. We can safely put away those considerations. The dangers are elsewhere. Before I go there, let us discuss the basics.
The basic task of course is to learn to align the thala keeping beats to the inherent emphasis in the song. Most of us seem to get it naturally. But in CM, that is a double edged sword. We do need to take clues about our thala keeping from the stresses in the song ( by syncing to it ). After all, that is all we have got to go by to start with. But once that is established, it is better not to do that for every beat.
If we sync to every emphasis of the song, that is fraught with danger since many times, a bit of karvai ( elongation ) will smooth over the thala beat and land on the mid point of next thala interval. It is easy to go off the rails at those points if we go with the song. This is a minor form of syncopation. Keeping the thala to your own beat interval when that happens requires that brain training. That seems to come with repeated practice, as I found out.
May be, resync at some major landing points, like you stated. For Adi, that is the 5th beat where there is a major emphasis. ( In CM, such landing points are in the Arudhi, like the 5th beat of Adi. I think in HM, the major landing point is at the first beat, but not sure.)
With pop music and film music, one of the reasons it is easy to keep the beats is, such minor syncopation are relatively rare and emphasis in the song align themselves nicely at equal intervals so we can just sense those and keep beats to it or dance to it relatively easily. There is a prevailing misconception that pop songs are easier from a rhythmic point of view because of the persistent drum which does the job of the constant metronome. It is actually the opposite. The layam of the song itself is straightforward which is what enables such a metronome like drumming technique. Mridangamist plays to the song and so we can not expect such metronome like clues from the CM percussionist.
(Intentional major syncopation is another matter which happens quite frequently in kalpanaswaram and at times in niraval. For that, we need to have great metronome like precision since there may not be any guideposts to periodically sync since the various additive combinations they do, fall off beat quite frequently. And then the nadai variations are in a different league for that degree of difficulty. Those are the times I hide my hands too.)
The divide and conquer strategy for me is as follows. Not sure if it will work for everyone.
Group songs by Eduppu and Composer as the basis for the divide and conquer, no matter what the thala is. ( We will have to treat kanda chapu and misra chapu separately. That is a slightly different ball game )
First grouping is Thyagaraja's desadi thala songs. The eduppu is between the 2nd and 3rd beat of Adi. Once I got the hang of it for a few songs, it then scaled very well to all his songs. He was a master at weaving different layams out of that basic pattern. Getting a hold of that building block pattern is what can be trained by repeated thala keeping.
Second groping are songs that start after the first beat. This is probably more common with other composers. Thyagara also has many songs in this eduppu. Definitely this is the most common thing in film songs. Here symmetry is our friend. In many songs, the eduppu of 1/2 a beat has a counter part between the 5th and 6th beat. ( not always so, to be sure, but enough for us to exploit that property for our benefit). Those songs that have that symmetry can be reduced to basically a 4 beat pattern since the purvanga and uttaranga are very similar, layam wise.
Dikshithar's songs are actually easier to keep thala to. This may be because he did not go too crazy with eduppus or he has more of a tendency to align the song stress points to thala beats. But with his songs also, you have to train the brain to not get derailed when he 'karvai's over a thala beat which happens frequently.
Once I approached it like this and got comfortable, the brain became a bit pliable to accommodate other variations.
So what is the best way to train the brain for this? What worked for me is listening to Nadaswaram concerts and keeping the beats to it. Why? The secret sauce is the jAlra. Those jAlra kids are our best friends for this purpose. No matter how complicated the layam of the song is, no matter how much the stresses in the song is all syncopated like crazy like in a Korvai, the kid keeps going with his jalra. If I go off the rails, he is there to save me.
Varsha, I share the pain
At one point, I used to intellectualize it too much.( I attribute the intellectualizing tendency to the practice in CM to introduce Thala to the beginner in a theoretical manner which is not a good idea. The elegance and beauty of that are unparalleled of course. OK, that is a different topic ). But I realized that all it takes is repeated practice to wire the brain for this.
I have over time trained myself to do better.Not that I am satisfied with where I am but I am happy I am a bit better. ( Playing to the thala correctly is a whole different matter ).
What I figured is, the thala keeping problems are not due to the variations in thala, angas, laghu, jAthis etc.. We can safely put away those considerations. The dangers are elsewhere. Before I go there, let us discuss the basics.
The basic task of course is to learn to align the thala keeping beats to the inherent emphasis in the song. Most of us seem to get it naturally. But in CM, that is a double edged sword. We do need to take clues about our thala keeping from the stresses in the song ( by syncing to it ). After all, that is all we have got to go by to start with. But once that is established, it is better not to do that for every beat.
If we sync to every emphasis of the song, that is fraught with danger since many times, a bit of karvai ( elongation ) will smooth over the thala beat and land on the mid point of next thala interval. It is easy to go off the rails at those points if we go with the song. This is a minor form of syncopation. Keeping the thala to your own beat interval when that happens requires that brain training. That seems to come with repeated practice, as I found out.
May be, resync at some major landing points, like you stated. For Adi, that is the 5th beat where there is a major emphasis. ( In CM, such landing points are in the Arudhi, like the 5th beat of Adi. I think in HM, the major landing point is at the first beat, but not sure.)
With pop music and film music, one of the reasons it is easy to keep the beats is, such minor syncopation are relatively rare and emphasis in the song align themselves nicely at equal intervals so we can just sense those and keep beats to it or dance to it relatively easily. There is a prevailing misconception that pop songs are easier from a rhythmic point of view because of the persistent drum which does the job of the constant metronome. It is actually the opposite. The layam of the song itself is straightforward which is what enables such a metronome like drumming technique. Mridangamist plays to the song and so we can not expect such metronome like clues from the CM percussionist.
(Intentional major syncopation is another matter which happens quite frequently in kalpanaswaram and at times in niraval. For that, we need to have great metronome like precision since there may not be any guideposts to periodically sync since the various additive combinations they do, fall off beat quite frequently. And then the nadai variations are in a different league for that degree of difficulty. Those are the times I hide my hands too.)
The divide and conquer strategy for me is as follows. Not sure if it will work for everyone.
Group songs by Eduppu and Composer as the basis for the divide and conquer, no matter what the thala is. ( We will have to treat kanda chapu and misra chapu separately. That is a slightly different ball game )
First grouping is Thyagaraja's desadi thala songs. The eduppu is between the 2nd and 3rd beat of Adi. Once I got the hang of it for a few songs, it then scaled very well to all his songs. He was a master at weaving different layams out of that basic pattern. Getting a hold of that building block pattern is what can be trained by repeated thala keeping.
Second groping are songs that start after the first beat. This is probably more common with other composers. Thyagara also has many songs in this eduppu. Definitely this is the most common thing in film songs. Here symmetry is our friend. In many songs, the eduppu of 1/2 a beat has a counter part between the 5th and 6th beat. ( not always so, to be sure, but enough for us to exploit that property for our benefit). Those songs that have that symmetry can be reduced to basically a 4 beat pattern since the purvanga and uttaranga are very similar, layam wise.
Dikshithar's songs are actually easier to keep thala to. This may be because he did not go too crazy with eduppus or he has more of a tendency to align the song stress points to thala beats. But with his songs also, you have to train the brain to not get derailed when he 'karvai's over a thala beat which happens frequently.
Once I approached it like this and got comfortable, the brain became a bit pliable to accommodate other variations.
So what is the best way to train the brain for this? What worked for me is listening to Nadaswaram concerts and keeping the beats to it. Why? The secret sauce is the jAlra. Those jAlra kids are our best friends for this purpose. No matter how complicated the layam of the song is, no matter how much the stresses in the song is all syncopated like crazy like in a Korvai, the kid keeps going with his jalra. If I go off the rails, he is there to save me.
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varsha
- Posts: 1978
- Joined: 24 Aug 2011, 15:06
Re: Announcing the launch of Taal Acharya - Virtual Tala Gur
Thanks .
Am still confused .But on a higher plane .
btw you forgot to cross a t . or dot an i somewhere in your post .
in fact you missed a u in landing at the samam .
please edit for the sake of posterity spellcheck wont help 
A lot of what you write makes it simpler for me .Thanks.
Am still confused .But on a higher plane .
btw you forgot to cross a t . or dot an i somewhere in your post .
in fact you missed a u in landing at the samam .
please edit for the sake of posterity
spellcheck wont help A lot of what you write makes it simpler for me .Thanks.
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msakella
- Posts: 2127
- Joined: 30 Sep 2006, 21:16
Re: Announcing the launch of Taal Acharya - Virtual Tala Gur
Dear brother-member, vasanthakokilam, The lack of the required Laya to manage while rendering a composition in music could only be felt but not at all describable by any person just like the colour-blindness of a person. Even though no surgical-operation or medicine is preferred in respect of such colour-blindness there are some special exercises in respect of rhythm to get the lacuna removed easily. But, they all differ from person to person and have to be dealt with differently face to face basing upon the depth of inefficiency of a person like the power of the engine to be decided to get the water out basing upon the depth of it in the floor. Mostly, many can follow the even Chaturashra-gati but not even the least odd Trisra-gati. Umpteen of my experiments revealed that a person who can very easily manage with the even Chaturashra-gati but cannot manage with Trisra-gati can never become a successful singer.
In fact, this is a very sensitive issue in respect of the rhythm which has to be taken more care in the tender age of all our kids but mostly been overlooked by all our great performers (but not teachers) who have been used to resort to teaching also. amsharma
In fact, this is a very sensitive issue in respect of the rhythm which has to be taken more care in the tender age of all our kids but mostly been overlooked by all our great performers (but not teachers) who have been used to resort to teaching also. amsharma
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Vanitha Suresh
- Posts: 10
- Joined: 29 Mar 2013, 17:13
Re: Announcing the launch of Taal Acharya - Virtual Tala Gur
The launch of Taal Acharya in the Cleveland Aradhana was very well received. The first copy of the CD was presented to Shri. Cleveland Sundaram.
In case any of you are interested, the software can be purchased here:
http://www.acharyanet.com/carousel/taal ... -software/
Here is a link to incredibly rewarding testimonials for Taal Acharya by Sangeeta Kalanidhis Shri T N Krishnan, Shri Trichy Sankaran, Shri Trichur Ramachandran as well as dance legend Smt Leela Samson and Shri Neyveli Santanagopalan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OmouFJl ... e=youtu.be
In case any of you are interested, the software can be purchased here:
http://www.acharyanet.com/carousel/taal ... -software/
Here is a link to incredibly rewarding testimonials for Taal Acharya by Sangeeta Kalanidhis Shri T N Krishnan, Shri Trichy Sankaran, Shri Trichur Ramachandran as well as dance legend Smt Leela Samson and Shri Neyveli Santanagopalan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OmouFJl ... e=youtu.be
Last edited by Vanitha Suresh on 02 Apr 2013, 08:36, edited 3 times in total.
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msakella
- Posts: 2127
- Joined: 30 Sep 2006, 21:16
Re: Announcing the launch of Taal Acharya - Virtual Tala Gur
Hope, it would be nice of you if you modify your post “The software is available for download for a price but not free” as it could only be downloaded for a price but not free. amsharma
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Nick H
- Posts: 9473
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 02:03
Re: Announcing the launch of Taal Acharya - Virtual Tala Gur
Well, that is a slight disappointment, but I tell myself that all software can't be free! I don't know if any lower rate is available to those of us who live in Rupees. The "Indian Currency User" button links to a Lesson-Request form. I wonder if that is what is supposed to happen?
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Vanitha Suresh
- Posts: 10
- Joined: 29 Mar 2013, 17:13
Re: Announcing the launch of Taal Acharya - Virtual Tala Gur
msakella wrote:Hope, it would be nice of you if you modify your post “The software is available for download for a price but not free” as it could only be downloaded for a price but not free. amsharma
A considerable amount of resources have been invested in both India and USA over several months in developing the software and the visual aesthetics for it. Yet, we have made the price very nominal, as we want the max number of students, musicians and music lovers to benefit from it across the world. We will continue to work on refining it periodically and make such updates FREE. Further, we will also make Upgraded versions available to all current users at a nominal cost.
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asangeetha
- Posts: 137
- Joined: 19 Oct 2006, 12:21
Re: Announcing the launch of Taal Acharya - Virtual Tala Gur
We do not have a way of handling automatic payments for INR as of yet. We process the requests manually which is why we need the request form for Indian Currency Users. Please check the page again to see the details as you had requested.Nick H wrote:Well, that is a slight disappointment, but I tell myself that all software can't be free! I don't know if any lower rate is available to those of us who live in Rupees. The "Indian Currency User" button links to a Lesson-Request form. I wonder if that is what is supposed to happen?
http://www.acharyanet.com/carousel/taal ... -software/
Sowmya A
Acharyanet
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Nick H
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Vanitha Suresh
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