# Indian — Teental (tabla theka, 16 matras) # Reference: the Hindustani tala repertoire — Zakir Hussain, Alla Rakha, # Anindo Chatterjee. Teental (tintal) is the most-played tala in # North Indian classical music and the one every student learns first. # Pairs with the raga scales in the Xen module: Yaman, Bhairav, Kafi and # Bhimpalasi are all commonly set in teental. # # ONE BAR = ONE AVARTAN (one full 16-matra cycle), so the transport's bar # counter counts cycles, not 4/4 measures. Each matra is one step of the grid. # At 90 BPM a matra lands every ~170 ms — madhya laya, the medium tempo. # # The theka (the tala's spoken skeleton), with its four vibhags of four matras: # Dha Dhin Dhin Dha | Dha Dhin Dhin Dha | Dha Tin Tin Ta | Ta Dhin Dhin Dha # ^sam ^ ^khali ^ # The bols are combinations of two hands: # Dha = na (right/dayan, treble) + ge (left/bayan, bass) # Dhin = tin (dayan, on the sur) + ge # Tin = tin alone Ta / Na = na alone # Matras 10-13 are the khali ("empty") section: the bayan lifts off entirely. # That silence in the bass is how a listener knows where they are in the cycle, # and it is why the bayan grid below has a four-step hole in it. # # GM substitution: General MIDI has no tabla. High bongo stands in for the # dayan's na/ta strokes, muted high conga for its tin, low conga for the bayan's # ge, and mute cuica for the bayan's pitch-bent ghe — the cuica is the only GM # voice that slides the way a bayan does under the heel of the hand. # GM notes: 60=hi bongo (na/ta), 62=mute hi conga (tin), 64=low conga (ge), # 78=mute cuica (ghe) # # There is no cymbal anywhere in this pattern. The `crash` section — which the # generator fires after a fill — restates the sam on the tabla instead, because # a crash cymbal landing on sam would be wrong in this music. # # ── Step grid notation ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────── # Each character in a step grid represents one subdivision of the bar. # Resolution 16 = sixteen matras = one full teental avartan. # # X Strong accent — velocity = base_velocity × 1.00 (full hit / downbeat) # x Medium accent — velocity = base_velocity × 0.75 (firm stroke / upbeat) # o Soft hit — velocity = base_velocity × 0.55 (brush / light touch) # g Ghost note — velocity = base_velocity × 0.28 (barely audible, mostly felt) # . Rest — no note fired at this step # # Matra positions — one char per matra: # pos 0 1 2 3 | 4 5 6 7 | 8 9 10 11 | 12 13 14 15 # matra 1 2 3 4 | 5 6 7 8 | 9 10 11 12 | 13 14 15 16 # bol Dha Dhin Dhin Dha Dha Dhin Dhin Dha Dha Tin Tin Ta Ta Dhin Dhin Dha # ^sam ^ ^khali starts # # Swing / feel: straight — the tala is even; expression comes from the bols. # ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── name: Teental (16 matras) family: indian bpm_range: [60, 130] time_signature: [4, 4] resolution: 16 feel: straight instruments: na: { note: 60, base_velocity: 92, velocity_range: 12, timing_jitter: 0.010, duration_beats: 0.06 } tin: { note: 62, base_velocity: 86, velocity_range: 12, timing_jitter: 0.010, duration_beats: 0.07 } ge: { note: 64, base_velocity: 100, velocity_range: 10, timing_jitter: 0.010, duration_beats: 0.12 } ghe: { note: 78, base_velocity: 88, velocity_range: 12, timing_jitter: 0.012, duration_beats: 0.16 } # Tabla playing is precise but not mechanical; the jitter here is small enough # that the theka still locks, large enough that it sounds played. humanization: timing_jitter: 0.010 velocity_jitter: 10 velocity_drift: 0.04 sections: # Four clicks on the dayan mark the four vibhags before the cycle starts. intro: type: count_in hits: 4 note: 60 groove: bars: 1 variations: - name: theka weight: 4 # The theka exactly as spoken. Read the three grids together and every # matra spells its bol: na+ge = Dha, tin+ge = Dhin, tin alone = Tin, # na alone = Ta. The bayan (ge) drops out across matras 10-13 # (pos 9-12) — the khali. na: "X..xX..xX..xx..x" tin: ".xx..xx..xx..xx." ge: "XxxxXxxxX....xxx" - name: theka_bayan_slide weight: 3 # Same theka, but the bayan's Dha strokes on sam and matra 9 are played # as ghe — the modulated stroke where the heel of the hand slides on the # head after the strike. It is what makes a tabla sound alive rather than # sampled. na: "X..xX..xX..xx..x" tin: ".xx..xx..xx..xx." ge: ".xxx.xxx.....xxx" ghe: "X.......X......." - name: theka_open weight: 2 # A lighter reading for accompanying a slow alap: the bayan plays only # the vibhag heads, and the dayan's ghost strokes carry the pulse. na: "X..gX..gX..gg..g" tin: ".gg..gg..gg..gg." ge: "X...X...X......." - name: tirakita weight: 2 # Double-density filler on the dayan (the "tirakita" figure) over the # unchanged bayan skeleton — how a tabla player fills a repeated cycle # without leaving the theka. na: "XgxgXgxgXgxgXgxg" tin: ".x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x" ge: "X...X...X....x.x" fill: bars: 1 variations: - name: tihai # A tihai: one five-matra phrase played three times (matras 1-15) so its # final stroke lands on the next sam. This is the standard way an Indian # musician signals the end of a section, and the reason the last matra # here is empty — the resolution belongs to the next cycle. na: "XxxxxXxxxxXxxxx." ge: "X....X....X....." - name: kaida_expansion # Kaida-style: the theka doubled into 16th-feel strokes on the dayan # while the bayan marks only sam and the ninth matra. na: "XxxxXxxxXxxxXxxx" tin: ".x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x" ge: "X.......X......." - name: bayan_sweep # The bayan takes the fill with sliding ghe strokes on every vibhag head # and a doubled pair into the return. ghe: "X...X...X...X.X." na: "..x...x...x....." crash: bars: 1 variations: - name: sam_accent # No cymbal: the whole ensemble lands together on sam, then the theka # resumes. This is what a "crash" means in this music. na: "X..xX..xX..xx..x" tin: ".xx..xx..xx..xx." ghe: "X..............." ge: ".xxxXxxxX....xxx" structure: fill_every: 4 break_every: 0 break_length: 1 crash_after_fill: true dynamic_build: false