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Year 10 - Music

Voice and rhythm in North Indian classical music

North Indian Classical music and West African drumming

Unit Summary

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Lesson Summary

You will learn to identify some vocal features of North Indian classical music, explain how tala work and can play teental.

Key Notes

  • Singing in North Indian classical music can be in many languages, most commonly Hindi and Urdu.
  • Singers use the raga, and the style is melismatic and microtonal.
  • Tala are repeating rhythmic patterns. They are taught by ear, using the sounds da, dhin, tin, ti, na and ta.
  • Teental is a popular tala in North Indian classical music. It is sixteen beats long.

Vocabulary To Learn

  • Melismatic: A melismatic melody is one in which multiple notes are sung for one syllable of a word.
  • Microtonal: Microtonal music includes notes between the 12 Western semitones. These small intervals are called microtones.
  • Tabla: A tabla is a pair of hand drums from the Indian subcontinent consisting of a small drum (dayan) and a larger drum (bayan).
  • Tala: A tala is a repeating rhythmic pattern in North Indian classical music. They are taught by ear, using the sounds 'da', 'din' and 'ta'.
  • Teental: Teental is a 16-beat tala often used in North Indian classical music.

Common Mistakes To Avoid

  • Teental is in 4/4.

3 Quick Questions (With Answers)

1. Explain the lesson in two key points.

Singing in North Indian classical music can be in many languages, most commonly Hindi and Urdu. Singers use the raga, and the style is melismatic and microtonal.

2. What does this key word mean in this lesson? 'Melismatic'

A melismatic melody is one in which multiple notes are sung for one syllable of a word.

3. Correct this common mistake.

Mistake: Teental is in 4/4. Correction: Teental sounds to us like it could be in 4/4, but this is just a coincidence. North Indian classical musicians don't think of time signature in the same way that we do - the tala is what structures the time and they can be many different lengths.

More Lessons In This Unit

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