Tabla

Players learn, remember and recite the tabla repertoire through bols, the syllables that name each stroke. Gordon Thompson notes a pattern in the sounds: dental syllables for right-hand strokes, guttural ones for the left hand, and aspirated ones for both drums struck together. Na, Ta, Tin and Tun sound on the dayan, Ghe and Ka on the bayan, and Dhin joins Tin with Ghe. Spellings and fingering vary between gharanas and teachers.

The strokes ring at a definite pitch because of the syahi, the black patch built up on each head. Accounts of it differ: C. V. Raman and Sivakali Kumar describe a composition with metallic iron as its main constituent, and Thompson calls the treble patch a specially prepared rice paste. In 1920 Raman and Kumar reported that a loaded head of this kind gives harmonic overtones like a string instrument. The player tunes the dayan to the soloist's tonic (Sa), sometimes the fifth or fourth; Thompson describes tuning an overtone of the head to the tonic. The bayan's pitch lies a fifth to an octave lower.

A taal (tala) is a repeating cycle of counts, each count a matra. The cycle divides into sections (vibhag). Claps (tali) mark the stressed sections and waves (khali, meaning empty) mark the unstressed ones. Phrases resolve on sam, the first count. On the tabla each taal is known above all by its theka, the fixed bol pattern that supports the music, and Kippen found that hereditary musicians identify a taal by its theka first.

Teentaal (also tintal or trital) has 16 counts in four groups of four, with khali on count 9; jhaptal has 10. Traditional accompaniment used a handful of cycles, of 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16 counts, and most solo repertoire sat in teentaal. Manuals list many more: Taranath Rao's compendium Pranava Tala Prajna gives 101 rare taals of 2 to 35 counts. Kippen traces many thekas to folk and light dance grooves of the North and North-West, which explains why their clap patterns follow no single rule.

Laya means tempo, in three broad grades: vilambit (slow), madhya (medium) and drut (fast). Layakari is playing at a set density against that pulse. Students train single density (thah or barabar), double (dugun) and fourfold (chaugun), and ad laya, at one and a half times the pulse.

The Ajrada gharana is known for kaydas in ad laya and other triple-based ratios, which players of every gharana now use.

Six tabla gharanas (schools or stylistic lineages) are commonly recognised: Delhi (Dilli), Ajrada (Ajrara), Lucknow, Farrukhabad, Benares (Banaras) and Punjab. Two historical styles (baj) group them. The Dilli baj covers Delhi and Ajrada; the purab, or eastern, baj covers Lucknow, Farrukhabad and Benares. Punjab developed apart, on a pakhawaj base, and shares features of both.

Delhi, traced to Siddhar Khan Dhadi, favours light, precise strokes, a restrained bayan and a two-finger technique, and is the home of the kayda and peshkar. Lucknow came from the Delhi line through Mian Bakhshu and took bolder, open strokes from kathak and pakhawaj. Farrukhabad, from Haji Vilayat Ali Khan, is known for gat, rela and chalan. Benares, from Ram Sahai, has a powerful, resonant sound and a strong solo tradition. Ajrada, from Kallu Khan and Miru Khan, stresses bayan work. In India, Punjab now centres on the line of Alla Rakha and Zakir Hussain. Most players today perform material from several gharanas while keeping roots in one.