5.2 Keeping tala with your hand

The same thing, four instruments

The exercise is the same whichever one you play. What changes is how you make it.

Singing

A singer keeps tala with the right hand on the right thigh and has nothing else to do with it, which is why singers are expected to keep it visibly for their whole career. There is no excuse available here.

On the veena

Both hands are occupied, so the tala is kept by the little finger of the right hand on the side strings, which sound the beat as they are plucked. That is what the side strings are for, and it is why the little finger is trained separately from the start.

On the violin

Both hands are occupied and there are no drone strings to strike, so a Carnatic violinist keeps tala with the foot or internally, and in performance the accompanist and the singer carry it. Learn it with the hand first, away from the instrument, before letting it go internal.

On the flute

Both hands are on the instrument, so tala is kept with a foot or with a small movement of the head, and internally when playing. Practise the tala with the hand away from the flute until the cycle is secure, or an internal count will drift without you noticing.

Work through these

• Keep one cycle of Adi tala with the hand alone, at a slow steady speed.

  Tala (music) · Reference

• Say the swaras of a sarali varisai while the hand keeps the tala.

• Play or sing the same exercise with the hand still going.

• Check that the hand did not speed up when the notes did.