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Taalam (thALam) in Carnatic music

Having grown up learning Carnatic music, it never struck me how complicated our way of keepingthe beat on our fingers and palm is, to an outsider.

This song from the Tamizh/Telugu movie, Missyamma, has the famous film star,

Savitri,

putting Adi Taalam, the most basic of the Talams (Adi means beginningthis four-by-four-equals sixteen talam is the first one to be taught to beginners.)

Yes, thats the way all Carnatic vocal musicians keep the talam, whether singing privately or inconcert, even today.

Here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tala_(music))

is the Wiki about Taala. If one goes through it (worth the read!). one realizes that though there is avery complex system of Taalam in Carnatic music, the Suladi Sapta Tla is the widely accepted one,with seven types of Taalam, and even in that, by default,

Dhruva tala is chaturasra jati dhruva tala

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Dhruva tala is chaturasra jati dhruva talaMatya tala is chaturasra jati matya talaRupaka tala is chaturasra jati rupaka talaJhampa tala is misra jati Jhampa tala.[1]Triputa tala is thisra jati triputa talaAta tala is kanda jati ata talaEka tala is chaturasra jati eka tala

Marking the Taalam on the thigh with the palm and fingers, to any taalam, has the followingangam or parts:

Anudhrutam : This is a single beat, notated U. An anudhrutam stroke consists of a downward clapof the open hand with the palm facing down.Dhrutam: This is a pattern of 2 beats. This is notated O and consists of a downward clap with thepalm facing down followed by a second downward clap with the palm facing up.Laghu: is a pattern with a variable number of beats, 3, 4, 5, 7 or 9, depending on the jati chosen. It isnotated l and consists of a downward clap with the palm facing down followed by counting thefingers from little finger to thumb in order and back again after reaching the thumb depending onthe jati chosen

Each laghu can have different jaathis:

Chaturasra 4Thisra 3Khanda 5Misra 7Sankeerna 9

So, Aadi Taalam, which is, technically, Chaturasara jaati Triputa Taalam, would be notated as I-4 OO.

In each taalam, the nadai (or gati, that is, speed) might be differentcorresponding to the jaathi.That is, between each count, the interval might be 3, 4, 5, 7 or 9.

A combination of these obviously gives rise to a huge variety of taalam.but in common practice,only Aadi Taalam, default Roopaka taalam ( U O) , Mishra Chaapu (I-3 O O) and KhandaChaapu (usually kept only with beats of two/three) are used. I am reasonbly proficient in manyvarieites of taalam

The point of this post? What one grows up with is so familiar, and so easy, it is difficult to imaginethat it might be quite complicated to someone else! I was trying to explain to someone all about itjust now, and I dont know if I have quite succeededso I am putting it down here, and will besending the link to her to further clarify things!

Tags: carnatic music (http://deponti.wordpress.com/tag/carnatic-music/), explanation(http://deponti.wordpress.com/tag/explanation/), music (http://deponti.wordpress.com/tag/music/),wiki (http://deponti.wordpress.com/tag/wiki/)

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