Krsna Kirtana Songs
est. 2001 www.kksongs.org
Singing in an Odd Meter
Let’s admit it, almost all
music is centered around the four-beat category. Everyone can easily clap to that
rhythm without fail. In some cases, waltz-rhythms or three-beat rhythms on
occasion. For Indian musicians and few jazz musicians, seven, fourteen, and ten
beat rhythms are common treats. But most Indian musicians and Western musicians
will find thinking of nine, eleven, or thirteen beat rhythms to be most
difficult to imagine. In my Matchless Gifts recordings, there was a song in
which a cycle of thirteen beats worked out. That concept of an Ekadasi bhajan on thirteen beats
came in a dream. It took me a while to fit it in a thirteen beat cycle, as it’s
not the most common rhythmic cycle to work with. Eventually, I got the hang of
the groove so much that singing in that thirteen beat cycle, known as Vishwa Tala, became second
nature. If you ever became interested in singing odd rhythmic cycles, there are
a couple of steps to make a life a little easier as far as learning how to sing
in it.
Step 1:
All rhythmic cycles bearing the same number of matras
are not the same.
There are two nine matra
cycles which are in use. These cycles are known as matta
tala and ank tala. If one were to examine the two talas,
one could say that matta tala
is divided up as three sections of three. Ank tala is divided as a 4+5 format. Obviously, singing three
sections of three matras will be vastly different
than singing four matras with five following it. In a
little more common example, there are
Step 2: If
your desired rhythmic cycle has a fraction, find a way to undo a fraction.
Certain talas, although
extremely rare, are based on a fraction matra of a tala. For instance, rupam tala or uptala has eight and a
half matras per each cycle. However, fractional matras can be a little difficult to conceptualize. Thus,
the best way to visualize this tala is to use two
cycles. This way, it will be a whole number (in this case, seventeen) matras. Of course, when playing the tala,
it will be difficult to count from matra 9 to matra 17. As it is, counting after matra
8 will be based on counting in the middle of a bol
attack. It was not meant to be a 17 matra cycle, but
for simplicity sake, it is best to visualize it like that.
Step 3:
Try to find a closest common tala.
When looking at complicated information, it is best
to try to look at them from a simpler perspective to understand them. Uptala has 8.5 beats. The bols
are “Dhin na | dhin dhin na
| tin na | dhindhin na/2.” The first
three vibhags, or measures, are almost identical to
that of jhaptal’s! So the first three vibhags can be sung like jhaptal’s
while the final vibhag requires little improvisation.
But nonetheless, the flow is maintained easily.
Step 4:
Use divisions, talis, and khalis
to help you find division points
Most of the very rare talas
are pakhawaj derivatives. Hence phrases like “dhinna naka dhet”
and “tita kata gadi gana” are used quite
frequently. If you have a computer program to loop one cycle of a theka of the desired tala, play
it slow motion and try to fit your lyrics in the cycle. Once you do that to
mastery in the slow speed, you can progress further and further in faster
tempos. Then, it is just the matter of practice.
Back in Vedic times, talas
existed from three beats per cycle to one-hundred eight beats per cycle. People
had full mastery of all of these talas. Throughout
the influence of time, many of these talas were lost.
Now, the commonly used talas range from four to
sixteen matras. Within those, the matras
are four, five, six, seven, eight, ten, twelve, fourteen, and sixteen. If one
really has the effort, one can revive these rare and potentially lost talas and use them in a practical sense. Use them to fit
certain unheard bhajans or mahamantras
in those rhythms! Then, the rare talas will receive
some benefit in this age.