Krsna Kirtana Songs
est. 2001 www.kksongs.org
Lesson 7: Sixteen Matra Tintal
Carrying
off from the two larger methods discussed in Lesson 6A, the rhythmic cycle
shown at Lesson 6A is presented here formally. This rhythmic cycle is known as tintal. Tintal literally means “three claps.” This is a common
classical tala used in tabla.
Some Bengali musicians will refer to this as “tritala.”
“Tritala” is a sixteen matra
tala, but it is not necessarily the same as tintal.
Structure-wise,
tintal contains sixteen matras.
The tala divisions are 4+4+4+4, where the talis are located at the sam, matra 5, and matra 13. The khali is located at matra 9.
Here
is the theka of tintal.
Remember in Lesson 6, the theka has the tala numbers, matra numbers, and bols. Therefore, here is the official theka
of tintal.
|
X |
|
|
|
2 |
|
|
|
0 |
|
|
|
3 |
|
|
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
|
dhā |
dhin |
dhin |
dhā |
dhā |
dhin |
dhin |
dhā |
dhā |
tin |
tin |
tā |
tā |
dhin |
dhin |
dhā |
This
rhythmic cycle might sound easy and dedicating a whole lesson to that might be
redundant. From this lesson onwards, most of the rhythmic cycles may not be
familiar to you, especially if you have no background in Indian music. Therefore,
please develop the habit of listening, saying the bols,
and playing the bols in the correct timing.
This will help one study a rhythmic cycles without much difficulty, even though
a cycle may be difficult.
AUDIO CLIP: Lesson 7 Tintal Practice
This
tala is considered to be a symmetrical tala. Symmetrical tala refers to talas that have
identical halves on the dayan side only. The baya in one or the other
half has to change somewhat. If it doesn’t, then it would be a four matra tala (repetition of “dha dhin dhin
dha” without distinction of what matra
number.)
ACCOMPANIMENT
To
main focus of this mridanga course is to allow you to
accompany someone, whether they are singers or musicians. Here is a repetitive
loop of santoor playing Raga Gunarki
in tintal. You should play mridanga
in such a way that it accompanies properly. Listen to the clip without the mridanga and then listen to the clip with the mridanga.
With
this track, you will see that the santoor resolves
towards a certain note. That “note” is where the sam
should be. While matching the sam of the track and
the sam of the tintal works
fine, not all songs start off at the sam. This will
be discussed later in the final unit of this guide.
For
now, practice playing tintal. After you feel
comfortable, listen to both tracks and then play along with the “without mridanga” to build some confidence.