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Indian Musical Skills

Music can be broadly categorized into pitch and rhythm. In your music lesson in lower primary, you have learnt to sing rhythm syllables (ta, ti-ti, tika-tika etc.) and solfege (do, re, mi etc.).

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There are pitch and rhythmic syllables in indian music too. They are mastered and used frequently in Indian music. Read on to find out more.

Konnakol

Konnakol is the art of performing rhythmic syllables vocally in South Indian music. Konnakol refers to a combination of konnakol syllables spoken while counting the tala (meter) with the hand.

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It is frequently paired with the percussion instrument Tabla.

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View from 1:10 to 2:15 for short example.

Tala

Tala means clapping or tapping using the hand. It is a cycle of beats, comparable to the time signature in western music.

 

Tala can be grouped from 3 to 128 depending on the music.

 

Watch the video (0 to 0:55) to learn how to tap 8 beats using tala.

Swara

Swara is the equivalent of western solfa. Refer below to see the 7 swara syllables.

 

Western :   Do   Re   Mi   Fa   So   La    Ti

Swara     :   Sa   Re   Ga   Ma  Pa  Dha  Ni

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