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Lesson 8: 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	ti	ti	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 8 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.)

 

AUDIO CLIP: Lesson 8 Summary

 

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.

 

AUDIO CLIP: Lesson 8 Practice Without Mridanga

AUDIO CLIP: Lesson 8 Practice With Mridanga

 

 

VIDEO (DIDACTIC AND PRACTICAL)

 

 

 

PRAKARS OF TINAL:

Prakars are always a nice thing to add in accompaniment and solo work, but one must feel very comfortable with the theka before anything else wins. The video below will show some nice prakars. There are certain things, like bol names, that will differ and are beyond the scope of this course, but the general spirit is similar.

 

 

VIDEO (PRAKAR VARIETIES):

 

 

 

UPDATED: January 7, 2010