Tihai: Endings are Beginnings

I find myself home early from a gig, and energized, so I want to talk tihais. There's a video below if you just want music.

A tihai is a rhythmic pattern that repeats three times, often, but not always, landing on the sam (downbeat) of a tala (rhythmic) cycle. Unique to Indian classical music, both north and south (where it is called a mora), a tihai has 2 main features: the phrase that repeats three times, and the gap between the phrases.

This isn't going to be a scholarly article, just my observations, impressions and philosophy of tihais and all things cyclical. There will be minimal math.

A rhythmic pattern that repeats three times...that could mean, at its shortest: Dha Dha Dha
or, theoretically, a pattern that takes 3 years to complete.

Simple tihai:
Teteketagedighene Dha -
Teteketagedighene Dha -
Teteketagedighene Dha

Tihais can have tihais within them:

Teteketagedighene Dha - Teteketagedighene Dha - Teteketagedighene Dha - - -  - - - -
Teteketagedighene Dha - Teteketagedighene Dha - Teteketagedighene Dha - - -  - - - -
Teteketagedighene Dha - Teteketagedighene Dha - Teteketagedighene Dha

They can be stacked...here's a tihai with 9 tihais within it:

Teteketagedighene Dha Dha Dha - ne Dha Dha Dha - ne Dha Dha Dha - - -  - - - -
Teteketagedighene Dha Dha Dha - ne Dha Dha Dha - ne Dha Dha Dha - - -  - - - -
Teteketagedighene Dha Dha Dha - ne Dha Dha Dha - ne Dha Dha Dha

Or, to use an example from the previous post, 27 tihais in one, with a bit of shorthand:

{DhaTunNaKetete Dha - ne Dha - ne Dha -
DhaTunNaKetete Dha - ne Dha - ne Dha -
DhaTunNaKetete Dha - ne Dha - ne Dha - - -
DhaTunNaKetete Dha - ne Dha - ne Dha -
DhaTunNaKetete Dha - ne Dha - ne Dha -
DhaTunNaKetete Dha - ne Dha - ne Dha - - -
DhaTunNaKetete Dha - ne Dha - ne Dha -
DhaTunNaKetete Dha - ne Dha - ne Dha -
DhaTunNaKetete Dha - ne Dha - ne Dha - - -  - - - -  - - - - } *3

So, that's a huuuuge tihai, made up of three smaller tihais, and each of those smaller tihais is itself made up of three even smaller tihais, and each one of THOSE tihais contains an even smaller tihai! Wild. Indian music was drilling down into particle physics before we even had a microscope on this planet.

Here's a graphic illustration of that:

This monster tintal tihai runs 16-16, 16.5-16.5 and 1-1

So. Math.

If you're in tintal, a 16 beat cycle, and you want to play a tihai that takes 2 tala cycles to complete (starting and ending on the 1st beat of the cycle), you have 33 beats to work with (16x2,+1...the downbeat of the next cycle). You can play an 11 beat phrase (11x3=33) and it will work. Tihais do not have to start from the first beat of a cycle though. They can start from anywhere. Nine. Three. Fourteen-and-a-half. 7-and-two-thirds. Doesn't matter, as long as your math is sound. There are people who can better explain the mathematics of tihais. It's not my speciality.

What I am interested in, though, is the concept. Of tihais, and of cycles.

Endings are Beginnings, Beginnings are Endings

Tihais are both beginnings and endings. Sure, you can play a tihai to finish a kaida, but it also marks the beginning of the next rhythmic cycle, the next chapter. Within a kaida, or an improv, tihais can mark chapters...the end of one section and simultaneously the beginning of the next section.

You've probably heard the expression 'When one door closes, another opens'. The full quote, by Alexander Graham Bell, is:

When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.
-Alexander Graham Bell

Which might be profound, depending on your mood. I certainly find it useful when big, painful changes happen.

Cycles

Rhythmic time in Indian music is based on cycles. A cycle begins, and at the exact moment it finishes, the next cycle starts. One complete rotation of the earth makes one day. The earth orbits the sun, a process that takes 1 year. Our solar system is itself orbiting the centre of our galaxy, which takes about 230 million years. Google tells me that apparently our Milky Way Galaxy is not really orbiting anything, just drifting around aimlessly, but I bet you 230 lakh rupees it's drifting around in a certain raga that we haven't heard yet, in a great a cosmic alapana ;)

Plus I bet the entire universe is spinning. Everything is cycles. Light is cycles. Sound is cycles. Matter is made up of particles that are vibrating...more cycles. Maybe time itself is a cycle. This is heavy:



So. Tihais are cycles within cycles. You could theoretically play a tihai that took 3 years to complete. Call a year a cycle. It'd be a 12 beat cycle, with each beat taking a month. Let's choose January 1st as the downbeat, sam (even though March 21st, the 1st day of spring, is a better downbeat IMHO). Let's also pretend each month has 28 days.

Here's our tihai:
Teteketagedighene Dha - Dha - Dha - - -
Teteketagedighene Dha - Dha - Dha - - -
Teteketagedighene Dha - Dha - Dha -  - -  - -
Teteketagedighene Dha - Dha - Dha - - -
Teteketagedighene Dha - Dha - Dha - - -
Teteketagedighene Dha - Dha - Dha -  - -  - -
Teteketagedighene Dha - Dha - Dha - - -
Teteketagedighene Dha - Dha - Dha - - -
Teteketagedighene Dha - Dha - Dha

January 1: Te
January 7: te
January 14: ke
January 21: ta
February 1: ge
February 7: di
February 14: ghe
February 21: ne
March 1: Dha
March 14: Dha
April 1: Dha (1 month vacation! you deserve it)
etc.

Totally absurd (but someone should totally do it! 52 Kaidas challenge!) BUT! my point is that it's all perception. We measure our lives in the tala of the year. Your childhood a peshkar, teenage years the kaidas. University, maybe relas. Starting a family, gats. The older years, the poetry of parans and chakradars. And we all have a giant final chakradar tihai coming. Which will begin the next cycle.

When you're playing tabla, or any music, you could think of it in this way. Stages of life. I'm FINALLY getting to the video, if you haven't thought 'dude has finally lost his MIND!' and closed the browser window already.



This is a peshkar/kaida/rela that I learned from Pandit Suresh Talwalkar, and i want to do a cycle-by-cycle breakdown. I've wanted to do one of these forever! Maybe open the video in a separate window, and resize things so you can see both the video and the blog at the same time if that's useful. Or just listen.

So:
Cycle 1: Theka, an intro phrase from khali (9th beat) then a tihai from 13¼
DhaDhinna (Dhatunna) DhaDhinna (Dhatunna) DhaDhinna Dha

Cycle 2: Peshkar theme 1, with a variation introduced on the 4th repeat, from 13

Cycle 3: Theme 1 again, with a variation from 5-9, then a tihai from 11⅞
Dha - kreDhaDhinna Dha ( - - terekite)
Dha - kreDhaDhinna Dha ( - - terekite)
Dha - kreDhaDhinna Dha  ... introducing terekite, foreshadowing theme 2...

Cycle 4: Peshkar theme 2, with a variation again introduced on the 4th repeat, from the 13th beat

Cycle 5: Theme 2 again, with the variation from the previous cycle from the 5th beat, and a tihai from 114/8 
Dha - kreDhaDhinna Dha - (DhagenaTerekite) [underlines denotes double]
Dha - kreDhaDhinna Dha - (DhagenaTerekite)
Dha - kreDhaDhinna Dha

Cycle 6: Peshkar theme 2 again, variation from 5, and a tihai from khali (9th beat)
KreDha - KreDha - Dhin na KreDha - KreDha - Thun na Dha -
KreDha - KreDha - Dhin na KreDha - KreDha - Thun na Dha -
KreDha - KreDha - Dhin na KreDha - KreDha - Thun na Dha

Cycle 7: Peshkar theme 2 w variations from 5 and 13 (i call this an idling cycle... prepping for tihai)

Cycle 8: Peshkar tihai:
{Dha - terekite Thin Na - - Dha - kreDha Thin na - -
                                               Dha - kreDha Thin na - -
                                               Dha - kreDha Thin na Dha - - - } *3

Cycle 9: Kaida! Theme, introduced without baya, with a variation & baya introduction from 13

Cycle 10: Kaida theme, full, with a variation from 13

Cycle 11: Minor variation (Ghe na instead of Dha - ) with a Dha Dha variation from 13

Cycle 12: Ghe na variation from 1, Dha Dha variation from 5, filled version from khali and a tihai from 13 (sort of..there's an intro phrase)
ge Dhatidhagena Dha terekite DhatiDhagena Dha - (kena)
                                                 DhatiDhagena Dha - (kena)
                                                 DhatiDhagena Dha

Cycle 13: Now the kaida becomes home base, and rela phrases (of 7 & 9) are introduced, from beat 7, and then again from beat 15
The rela phrase is
Dha terekite TakeDhinneNaNaghene (7)
Dha terekite Dha kitetake DhinneNaNaghene (9)
(I'll use only the numbers from here on in)

Cycle 14: Kaida, rela from 3, kaida, rela from 7, kaida, rela from 11 through to sam
or, A 7-9 A 7-9; a 7-9, 7-9, 7-9
(lower case 'a' means khali)

Cycle 15: A 7-9, 7-9, 7-9; a 7-9, 7    {7 Dha - 7 Dha - 7 Dha}

Cycle 16: A 7-9, 7-9, 7-9; 7-9 7-4-4   {9 Dha - - 9 Dha - - 9 Dha}

Cycle 17: 7-9, 7-9, 7-9, 7-9; 7-9, 7-6    {9 Dha -kat- 9 Dha -kat- 9 Dha} 

Cycle 18: final tihai: 7-9, 7-4-6   7 Dha -ne 7 Dha -ne 7 Dha - (ge- din - ne)
                                                     7 Dha -ne 7 Dha -ne 7 Dha - (ge- din - ne)
                                                     7 Dha -ne 7 Dha -ne 7 Dha

Sooooo. The 1st 18 years of the life of a tabla composition. Lots of drama from 14-18, just like everyone. Note that there are 10 tihais in this progression, one used to start the whole thing going, then others to transition between sections, as punctuation within sections, and to end the piece (and start the next cycle).

That's Rattan Bhamrah on esraj, and this was a concert at Musideum in Toronto, July 8, 2014, as part of my Music:India series. 

Najia Alavi

On a sad note, the main camera was operated by a lovely woman by the name of Najia Alavi. She responded to my call for a volunteer to run a camera in exchange for a pair of tickets. We'd never met. She did an awesome job, as you can see, and we kept in touch periodically. Najia passed away, suddenly, tragically, in May 2015. RIP Najia.

Jhaptal solo, live, part 3, plus Bonus Video!!

Ok, back to serious business. No explosions or rotoscoped tabla footage. Just one single Kaida. The same Kaida as in the previous tabla-delic post though, for contrast.



I learned this from Pt Suresh Talwalkar in Pune during the Jhaptal Breakdown period. As soon as I heard it, I was in love. The strokes are simple:

Dha-treke Dhinnagena
DhageTete DhageTreke Dhinnagena
DhagenaDha TrekeDhene
DhageTete DhageTreke Thinnakena

Everythink on Kinar, 2 finger Tete.

There are a whole bunch of interesting interactions going on here.

Hey buddy. Treke has TWO flams.
Not. Just. ONE. Got it?

Treke and Tete are really close sonically, but have very different characters, but ONLY if you can get the 't-re' and 'k-re' flams happening. Treke is kind of a squashed Terekite, and can sometimes be a shortform of Terekite…play a Terekite kaida, and replace Terekite w Treke, or vice-versa.
Treke is sort of ••  •• rather than •  •  •  • in the same space. The 2nd flam in Treke is easier (it's essentially a Kre), but that first one…well, it is there one minute, then you speed up and whoosh! it's gone.

The real driving energy for me comes from the Dhinnagena DHA / Dhene DHA groupings. It just has a certain momentum….Dha is the end of a sentence, not the beginning, if that makes sense. The 'Tun' sounds drive into and hilight the Dha.

The Kaida is broken down right along the fault lines of the Tala: 2, 3, 2, 3 and the variations tell such a lovely story, with really small, gradual, incremental changes going on.

Treke Dhinnagena becomes DhageTreke Dhene, and then GhenaDhage Treke

There is a really pretty (albeit concentration testing) transmogrification where we go from

both parts the same:
Dhinagena Dhene…. Dhinagena Dhene

to 2nd pat different:
Dhinnagena Dhene …. Dhene Dhinnagena

to first part joins 2nd part:
Dhene Dhinagena …. Dhene Dhinagena

over the course of a few variations.

The Tihai is something else though: its called a Nauhakka (or Nohakka) tihai. The exact same phrase (including gaps) happens nine times (with a total, in this case, of 27 Dhas). It rolls and rolls and rolls and if you're not paying attention, well….Sam will sneak up on you. It's tricky to define each Palla actually…they can all sort of blend into one another if you're not careful. I flavoured each one differently in the Ten Ragas version, but went straight at it here. It has a kind of floaty relentlessness.

As I mentioned in the Ten Talas post, it leapt out at me as perfect for some kind of non-trad treatment, which brings me once again to comment on the versatility of tabla. It challenges the perception I think a lot of people have of 'drumming' as just a stream of boinks and bonks and thwacks on a drum (heard any good drummer jokes lately? Tabla=/= Bongos!!). There's a deep music here, a rich musical language, and the practice and performance of that language can really change both the player and audience. What else. Oh….

The blog had a makeover! I'm sure you noticed.

Orange and purple!
It's the FUTURE!

I updated the template, and lo and behold! Tabs!! Wow. The possibilties are endless! We are talking triple rainbow potential here people! There's an Albums tab, for just music. A Video tab for just videos, aaaaand the mooooooost exciting thing ever….wait for it….…a GLOSSARY!!

If you're new here, or new to Tabla in general, it might be handy to keep open in another tab. I realize a lot of terminology gets tossed around, and I can't redefine every word in every post.

Anyway…in an effort to keep everyone on the same page, terminology-wise, a glossary is useful.

Now it's Bonus Video time!

Wherein the author does a slight remix of a prevously recorded track (scroll down to #4, Lucknow Rela), and cuts video to it. But not any video. Outerspace video, man. Are you seeing a theme here yet?


I'm developing some Finalcut skills for a video for an upcoming track. It's a solo in Chartal Ki Sawari (11 beats) with material drawn from a workshop with Pt Swapan Chaudhuri. There might be 2 versions of the audio. I'm not sure yet. The one I really really want to make is a kind of massive production, and somewhat daunting on the costliness side of things, what with hiring musicians (sitar, drums, bass and keys) and an engineer and renting a studio. Wanna hear that? Buy some tracks people! I might start an Indiegogo campaign actually.

Did you know that almost all NASA photographs and video are public domain? That today is the 46th anniversary of Star Trek (the original series, puh-leassse)? That this site exists?

Swigert: 'Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here.'
Houston: 'This is Houston. Say again please.'
Lovell: 'Houston, we've had a problem. We've had a main B bus Tabla solo.'
Houston: ' ... O_o '

Jhaptal Solo, Live, Part 2

Part 1 is here

Part 2:


This section has 2 compositions: A Peshkar (that flows into a Kaida), and another Kaida: the famous Delhi Kaida everyone knows and loves, albeit in Jhaptal. I learned both of these from Pt Suresh Talwalkar in Pune during the formative start-from-scratch-but-in-Jhaptal phase of my life.

The Peshkar starts in Tisra (triplets) and man, did it ever take me a long time to feel this comfortably.

Dhin - - Dha - re Dha - Thin - Na - - - -  is the basic phrase*.

The end of the phrase is where the romping and frolicking happens:
…Dhin - Na - - - -
…Dhin - Na - - - Kre
…Dhin - Na - Takita
…Dhin - - Terekite

It hangs out in triplets for awhile (I kinda rush through it actually…nerves perhaps), and then morphs (hopefully) seamlessly into Chatusra (4s), using almost the same phrase (the gaps are slightly different), which is always a bit of a mind bender. That 3s to 4s transition is so cool that you could groove out on it for a few cycles and not bore anyone, as far as I'm concerned. And then it morphs again into a really awesome Kaida with a deeply cool Tihai.

I have a 'special moment' the first time I try to step into the Kaida, but hey…these things are permitted as long as you get it right the second time. I get it right the second time. (My actual thought process was "Doh! ok ok FOCUS man! Gosh." …simultaneously channeling Homer Simpson and Napoleon Dynamite and almost making myself laugh).

The Kaida is heavy on Dha, and I have a Tintal version of this Kaida from Pt Anindo Chatterjee that I really must spend some more time with. When I learned it, it was so hard to play that I kinda shied away from it, but now it may be time for a revisit. I digress. I only touched on a few of the Jhaptal variations here, but when I record the whole thing, I'll try to play all the variations. And get this: there's an entire Rela section at the end!

Looking at the closeup video, i'm not playing Terekite right in the centre of the Gab, which I really should be at this speed. Bad Talawallah! The sound is quite different when you nail the centre. Note to self: play in the centre! It's funny how the wide and relaxed focus I have in practice sometimes gets restricted in concert (or when I'm nervous). I simply have less mental bandwidth to work with, so some things fall outside the available range. Though when the music is really flowing, and therefore I'm relaxed, there seems to be almost unlimited bandwidth, and those moments are why I play music, ultimately. It's a meditation I guess….shutting down the analytical left side of the brain, and letting the intuitive right side fill the space. That feeling is really without compare.

Ergo: more practice! Embed the physicality so deeply that it doesn't fall apart at the big moment, or require a lot of thinking to pull off, and you can listen to, and play with, the sound.

AND…the more you perform, the easier it gets. More practice, more performance, less thinking, more music.

Enough self criticism for the moment. The trickster-y Thun (pause) before the downbeat is some superfine funkyness IMHO. That's pure Suresh Talwalkar right there.

We are treated to some more loveliness from Rattan, and then: Cunning drum switch! Wasn't sure how I was going to do this actually…glad it worked out. Hence the weird nodding…I'm thinking: 'ha! ok phew…that potentially embarrassing moment is done.'

Which reminds me…a big low tabla is the bomb to practice on. You have to work so much harder to get definition, finger placement involves serious travel, and the gab is usually massively thick, so you have to really nail it to get any 'pop'. Good for technique, and you'll really notice a difference when you move back to a small, higher pitched drum.

The next Kaida is the famous Delhi Dhatete (or Dhatita) Kaida that I recorded in Tintal, and wrote about here.

The Jhaptal version adds another DhaDhatete to the Tintal version:
Dtt Dtt DDtt DDtt DgTnkn

Pssh! Easy! You're just adding a phrase to make it into 5! Yes, BUT! The cool thing is how it opens doors up for a whole different set of variations/improv tools. The breakdown is 3, 3, 4 and 4, 6. Both add up to 10. You can start playing around with 5s, and it really gets interesting: 5, 5, 4, 6 etc. Again, I played it safe and only touched a few variations, but there's a ton of possible transmogrifications: DDDtt, ttDtt, Dtttt for 5s, DgTnkn can become ttDDtt for the 6s (not to mention DttDtt), so mix and match, and some wild and wonderful combos happen. Just remember: 2 Tetes in a row? Accent the 2nd one, HARD: teteTEte. It hurts, but it sounds very cool and adds definition. Also: Delhi Gharana = 2 finger Tete. No cheating!

The theme happens single, then tisrafied (334, 334, 46) which is my (not terribly scintillating) contribution to the proceedings, then double.

грязной Гарриет: "I know what you're thinking.
'Did he play six Dhas or only five?'
Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement
I kind of lost track myself"

Sigh. Once again, I almost blow a tire, recover, and kinda stagger into the Tihai, where I almost crash and burn completely! :P The Tihai is, quite simply, a beast. Tihais within Tihais within a Tihai…it's the Russian Stacking Doll of Tihais! A single error in this Tihai, and it's off to the Gulag for sure.

I should have played it again, and if it wasn't such a lengthy beast, I probably would have.

I have a visualization system for monster Tihais like this that involves a map of the whole Tihai in cells (see pic below) that light up as I move through them to help me keep track. Doesn't help when one of the bulbs flickers… but most of the time it works, I swear! I need to work on this Kaida more before I try to record the whole thing. But I will.

clicky-pop

Internalizing a tihai like this, so it's felt really clearly, so the gravity of Sam exerts an inexorable pull, and the strokes flow in an aesthetic, rather than logical way, is something I'm always working on….though maybe I shouldn't be. It's more about turning things off than concentrating harder, but the visualization is helpful to get through when that's not happening yet. Plus I think that visualization can be a tool for creation, improv, performance, if your brain works this way.

Get your Tabla Geek on, Episode 2:

*Tisra Peshkar bol breakdown! Uh-huh uh-huh.

Dhin - - Dha - re Dha - Thin - Na - - - -

3, 3, 2, 2, 5 which is a nice round 15.

The beat is subdivided in double tisra (6 subdivisions/beat), giving us a total of 60 subdivisions in one cycle of Jhaptal.

15x4=60

So…play that phrase 4 times (3rd time Khali) and you're off to the races! Of course it goes offbeat every other time, which is a whole other conundrum.

ok, I think that's it for this video. The next one has one of my all time favourite Kaidas. Stay tuned. It's a doozy.

tata,
E

What is a kaida?

A good friend of mine asked me this when I told him about this blog. He's a very accomplished musician and composer who has studied south Indian music, but he's never studied tabla theory or practice. I agreed that an explanation of some sort is in order.

Disclaimer:
It is, I'm discovering as I write this, fairly difficult to explain what's going on here for people who aren't already in the know. The explanation usually takes place over many many classes, replete with examples and exercises, during, say, the first 6-12 months of study. The kaidas themselves are the vehicle for the information, so writing it down is  tricky, to say the least. The following is way longer than I intended it to be, and not for the faint of heart, but there's lots of explaining to do, so here goes...

To start at the beginning: this is a blog of tabla solo recordings, with a focus on kaidas and compositions in the kaida family.

Tabla is a percussion instrument used in north Indian classical music, as well as in folk, devotional and increasingly, popular music, both inside and outside India.

Tabla consists of 2 drums: a treble drum (called dayan) and a bass drum (called bayan).

The history of tabla is slightly contentious, and I'm not going to wade in with an opinion (did i mention I'm no scholar?) The Wikipedia entry for tabla changes on a regular basis, and not just a bit...it get's completely rewritten, so a couple of well-spaced visits to the tabla entry will give you a range of opinions ;)

A kaida is a type of tabla composition. There are different types of tabla compositions, both fixed (pre-composed) and improvised. I'll play a variety of different types of composition in each solo, and will identify them, with sources, gharanas (styles or schools, lit 'houses') etc when possible.

Kaida is a form based on theme and variation. A rhythmic seed (theme) is introduced, which is then used as a basis for elaboration through improvisation and/or composition.

The word kaida is an Arabic word meaning 'rule' or 'a system of rules'. The rules for playing a kaida are complex, but in short, one must only use the bols that are in the original theme, follow the rules of tala, and maintain the bhari-khali structure.

Each of those terms requires lengthy explanations, and I will try to explain these in detail over the course of this project. As I mentioned, I'm not a scholar or a writer, so I would refer anyone who is interested in knowing more to an excellent series of books by David Courtney.

Tala: time is cyclical in Indian classical music. Rather than time signatures with bars and beats, rhythmic cycles are used.

So, a tala is a rhythmic cycle of a certain number of beats. For example, 7, 8, 12, 16. I'll identify the rhythm cycle by name and number of beats in each post.

Bhari-Khali: in a nutshell: full-empty, or, as I prefer, open-closed. As mentioned before, a set of tabla consists of a pair of drums, a treble drum (dayan), and a bass drum (bayan). Tabla strokes are played on either one or the other drum, or on both simultaneously.

There are what I think of as 2 states of many strokes played on tabla: an open state and a closed state. Water and ice are the same material, but in different states, if that helps with the concept. So, any stroke that has an open, bass component, can be played without that bass component, or in a 'closed' state. The open stroke Ghe (an open, resonant bass stroke on the bayan) can be closed by playing a stroke so the drum doesn't resonate. Instead of a 'boom', one gets a 'slap', called Ke. A combination stroke, played on both drums, can be closed in the same way, but keep in mind that only the bass component changes. The stroke Dha is a combination of Ghe on the bayan, and Na on the dayan. To close this stroke, one simply omits the Ghe part of the stroke, playing only the Na (which then changes name to Ta in most cases and is an example of why writing about tabla is tricky, and is why it is almost impossible to learn tabla from a book... or a blog for that matter!).

Some tabla strokes are only played on the dayan, and have no 'closed' state.

Are you completely lost yet? The important thing, when listening, is to notice what happens with the bass strokes, and to listen for the pattern repeating without the bass strokes.

So, to summarize: any kaida theme or variation has 2 parts: an open part, and a closed part. These 2 parts are essentially the same material, but the second time it is presented in a different state. First we hear it open, then closed.

But... it's not that simple! The open part often closes before we get to the closed part, and the closed part opens up again about 1/2 way through. So, only about 1/4 of the material is actually without bass strokes, and where things open and close changes, depending on the kaida, the tala, the phrases being used, the player's aesthetic choice at that moment in time, the prevailing wind, etc. (Ok, I'm kidding about the wind part...)

A crude version of the above can be illustrated thus: (O=open, C=closed, and the material repeats, in a different state, after the bar line: |)

OOOO OOOO | CCCC OOOO

But what may happen is more like this:

OOOO OOOC | CCCO OOOO

or

OOOO OOOC | CCCC COOO

Example with real tabla strokes:

Dha - ghe na Ta ge ghe na   Dha - ghe na Thun na ke na |
Ta - ke na Ta ke ke na         Dha - ghe na Dhin na ghe na

Which, using my crude O/C illustration method, would be shown roughly like this:

OOOO OOCC |
CCCC OOOO

So, this is our theme. The first line is the Bhari, and the second line is the Khali. The actual closed strokes are in italics. So, Dha became Ta, and Ghe became Ke, and Thun is the closed version of Dhin.

Bols:
At this (late) point, I should explain tabla language. Tabla is taught through an oral tradition, so, passed down from teacher to student verbally. Every stroke that can be played on tabla can be spoken. Indeed, must be spoken! This is how tabla players learn, compose, improvise, remember. These words are called bols, and they are very specific: each bol is an instruction to play a certain stroke. There are bols for each sound that can be made on tabla, whether on the dayan, or on the bayan, or simultaneously on both drums.

The language itself is beautiful on a number of levels: the bols are onomatopoeic, and a well delivered recitation of a tabla composition can be as beautiful as the performance.

A combination stroke, (i.e. a stroke played simultaneously on both drums) has one bol, and so contains an instruction for both hands. If one plays Ghe on the bayan, and Na on the dayan at the same time, one gets a new stroke: Dha.

Formatting permitting, let me see if I can show how this works:

Dayan:         Na         Na
Bayan:         Ghe Ghe  
                   __________
Both drums: Dha Ghe Na

Someone once said something like: 'Writing about music is like dancing about architecture' and I wholeheartedly agree! Best to listen.

On a side note, tabla players are often seen mumbling to themselves and counting on their fingers in public. This is perfectly normal. We're practicing! Although i know one person who almost got into a car accident while calculating a tricky tihai, and I've walked blindly into traffic on more than one occasion...

On to the next relevant term:

Lehara: a melodic ostinato that outlines the tala. A melody that helps the listener and the performer hear the rhythmic cycle. When listening to a tabla solo, it's useful to tune into the lehara initially, and figure out where the time cycle is. Beat 1 is the strongest, and is usually pretty obvious, but not always. Indian rhythm has a lot of tension and release, and without any kind of context or framework for the drumming (the lehara, or some other way of marking the tala cycle), tabla solo can sound like a blistering stream of notes. The lehara provides a frame of reference.

In a concert (or recording), the lehara would ideally be provided by an instrument called a sarangi (IMHO), but dilruba, esraj, violin, sitar, sarod or even voice can be used. Or, unfortunately, harmonium.

In the case of this blog, I don't have access to any of the above instruments, (or people to play them once a week!) but I do have a funky little 5-string electric mandolin (I just love U. Srinivas!) that I will play the leharas on. I don't like this anymore than you do, believe me, but I'm sure I'll get better over the year. Still, at least the leharas aren't sequenced, and at least it's not harmionium!

The kaida form:
Kaida is a very strict form. There are rules. Here's a rough map of what happens during the presentation of a kaida:

1. establish the tala (the context, if you will)
This is done in 2 ways: by the lehara, which marks the time cycle melodically, in the case of a tabla solo, and by the drummer, who plays the theka -a series of strokes specific to each tala. The thekas for some common talas:

Tintal (16 beats)
Dha Dhin Dhin Dha | Dha Dhin Dhin Dha |
Na Tin Tin Ta | tete Dhin Dhin Dha |

Jhaptal (10 beats)
Dhin Na | Dhin Dhin Na |
Tin Na | Dhin Dhin Na |

Rupak (7 beats)
Tin Tin Na | Dhin Na | Dhin Na |

2. introduce the kaida theme slowly
The theme of the kaida is presented at 1/2 or even 1/4 of the eventual speed. This allows the listener to clearly hear the thematic material, and allows the player to establish exactly what they're about to do.

3. Optional

Between step 2 (single speed kaida theme) and step 4 (double speed kaida theme) there is an optional step. In a kaida that has even subdivisions (2, 4, 8 etc) the kaida theme can be played in triplets, and it will eventually (I promise!) cycle around and meet up with the beginning of the tala again. If the kaida theme is originally in triplets, the theme can be played in even subdivisions, and it too will, eventually, hook up with the beginning of the tala again.

There is no way I am attempting to illustrate this with blogger's primitive text editing, but maybe photoshop can help:

4. Double speed!
Play the kaida theme at 2x, or even 4x the speed of step 2. This is the final performance speed.

5. Present variations on the theme.
This is the bulk of the kaida, and allows the player to elaborate on the thematic material in a myriad of creative ways, while still adhering to the rules stated way back at the beginning. The construction of variations is such a massive subject I'm not going to attempt to get into it here. Hopefully, I'll be able to use examples over the course of this project.

6. Finish with a tihai
A tihai is a rhythmic pattern repeated three times, ending (usually) on the first beat of the rhythmic cycle, which is called sam.

The first beat (the downbeat) is the most important point in any tala. Tabla can be very mathematical, and tihais are a good example of this. Let's say we are in a 16 beat cycle (tintal). We want to play a pattern that repeats three times, and lands on the first beat of the cycle. For this example, let's have the tihai start from the first beat of the cycle and let's have it take 2 cycles to complete, ending on the first beat of the 3rd cycle.

16+16 =32 beats. But that doesn't take us to the downbeat..it only takes us to the 16th beat of the 2nd cycle! So, we need to play for 33 beats.

Here's some basic math:

33 divided by three is.....11! So, in tintal, if we start on sam, play an 11 beat pattern three times, we will land back on sam. Very satisfying!

It's hard to do yourself initially, but you can try this with a friend (and earn your first 'tala geek' scout badge in the process):
person 1 counts to 16 over and over again, at a constant tempo!
person 2 joins in, starting at 1 of course, but only counts to 11, and does that three times.
Eventually, both people will hit 1 simultaneously!
Boom! Tihai! The kaida is finished!

7. Back to the theka (step 1). Rinse, repeat with the next kaida.

Ok, that's a start, though I'm not sure how helpful it will be to newcomers to tabla. Feel free to ask questions, and I'll try my best to explain things further. That being said, I don't intend this to be a super scholarly treatise...I just want to engage my love of three things: tabla, recording and web geekery.

I hope you enjoy.