Talk:Tala (music)

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Todo: add information about kalai (as in 1-kalai, 2-kalai). I think it's already a little confusing with gati, jati, etc. Anyway, relevant link: http://www.sangeetham.com/bboard/quest.php3?submit=yes&qid=4956&forid=13 Ambarish 15:14, 18 Apr 2004 (UTC)

The font used on this page does not displayy properly in IE on Windows XP. This being the most poular browser/OS on the planet may have signifcance. --66.245.216.246 06:53, 1 Oct 2004 (UTC)

The reference to RTP in this text links to unrelated topics. Could someone provide the right "RTP" link please? Iani 13:42, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Things to do

This is a very interesting article; I like math and music, so this area is quite intriguing to me. Having said that, I'd like to suggest a few possible ways to improve the article. I might do some of this, but I should be careful because I'm quite ignorant about Indian music.

  • Add references. This is the most important. Ideally, all facts given in Wikipedia should be backed up with external sources. Is there a good book or website that is authoritative on this topic?
  • Improve presentation of combinatorial and numerical information. For example, there is a big table that is simply preformatted in fixed-width type; it should be redone with a Wiki table.
  • Adopt standard spelling of Indian words. For example, either use double vowels or a length-mark, but don't oscillate between the two.
  • Give language origin and translation for each technical word when the word is introduced. I assume most of the words are either Sanskrit or Tamil; perhaps the devanagari or Tamil could be given as well when the word is introduced, for those who can read Indian languages.
  • Use italics only for the first time a term is introduced.
  • Don't use a hyphen when forming English plurals of Indian words. I understand the temptation to separate the Indian terms from the English plural suffix, but it makes the text harder to read. "Talams" and "aksharams" are OK; it's not necessary to write "talam-s" every time.
  • Decide whether to use a "1" or a vertical bar to symbolize laghu, and use it consistently.

In addition my curiosity was aroused and I would have loved to learn the answers to these questions that came to my mind:

  • How long is a maatraa in actual time? It seems likely that it's about a quarter of a second, but there's no hint in the text. (From the length of a maatraa, of course, one could compute the approximate time taken up by all the larger rhythmic patterns.)
  • What is the actual significance of the maatraa? Is it merely a time unit that is introduced to control the speed of the talam, or is it an actual audible part of the music? All the ways of tapping the beat that are described in this article (palm down, palm up, finger tapping) seem to happen at the beginning of the aksharam (on maatraa number 1, so to speak); does anything happen on the other maatraas "inside" an aksharam, or are these internal maatraas all in the minds of the musicians?
  • In misra- and sankeerna-jaati laghu, what fingers are used after the sixth aksharam? I ran out of fingers attempting these!
  • Is there a generic term for the class of patterns including anudhrutam, dhrutam, and laghu? The article just calls these "patterns".
  • Is there a reason that the numbers 3, 4, 5, 7, and 9 are preferred as jaati, both for laghu and for nadai? What is wrong with 6 and 8?

And one final silly note: Carnatic musicians must really like 7: there are four different talams with 7 aksharams. They are the khanda-jaati rupaka, chatusra-jaati jhampa, tisra-jaati triputa, and misra-jaati eka talams. No other number of aksharams has four talams; all the other lengths have three or fewer.

I hope you can tell I am having fun learning about this! ACW 22:48, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

Could someone also elaborate on the taal structure in hindustani classical music, in addition to the carnatic taal system.

[edit] For more info...

the article had far more on the Carnatic tala system than Hindustani one. if anyone wants more info on the hindustani system, contact me at theantichrist81@hotmail.com - maybe i'll eventually get around to editing the article and adding all i know on the matter. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 122.162.167.67 (talk) 09:23, 15 May 2007 (UTC).


[edit] Taal and speed

various Taal can be played at various speeds. The comment about Ektaal being the slowest is misleading. Usually, most of the vilambit khaylas in Kirana gharana are in Ektal while those in Jaipur gharana tend to be in Tintal/Trital. So even a Tintal can be slow. Many of the vilambit khayals are also in Zumra. Therefore, ektaal is not the only one which is played as slow tempo. --Kaveri 16:47, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

yes there is no relation between taal and tempo. any taal can be played in any tempo. also can some one add rhythtm sylables to Karnataka Sangetha taala? such as: tha ka dhi mi tha ka Jha Nu?

~rAGU (talk) —Preceding comment was added at 19:47, 23 April 2008 (UTC)