Krsna Kirtana Songs est. 2001                                                                                                                                                 www.kksongs.org

---

Home ⇒ Music Center ⇒ Instrumental Guides ⇒ Kartal Guide

Lesson 4: Four Mātrā Cycles

From this point, fixed cycles that will help accompany rhythmic cycles will be studied.

CYCLE 1

X
1	2	3	4
OPEN		CLOSED	CLOSED

Figure 4.1

The first one is the famous “1-2-3” that is used in kirtans. It is actually a four-beat one which begins with the open stroke. It is an open followed by one beat of silence. Then two beats filled with closed strokes finish one cycle.

Note that what people ‘assume’ to be “3” is actually supposed to be “1.” The real counting should be 1-PAUSE-2-3-1-PAUSE-2-3-1-etc. Practice this cycle without the help of the audio clip. Then, play the kartals with the clip.

CYCLE 2

X
1	2	3	4
OPEN	CLOSED	OPEN	CLOSED

Figure 4.2

Cycle 2 is what Western musicians know as “cut-time.” The playing technique has a groove of “1-2-1-2”. This particular cycle is very common for bhajani tāla accompaniment or any fast speed accompaniment.

CYCLE 3

X
1	2	3	4
CLOSED		OPEN	OPEN

Figure 4.3

The final kartal cycle in this lesson is Cycle 3. In regular time, it sounds like an inverted version of Cycle 1. However, this cycle is used for faster rhythmic cycles. In most cases, two cycles of on Cycle 3 fits with one cycle of Cycle 1.

It can be played on the kartal as it is (play closed, wait one unit of time, play open, play another open), however, one will get easily tired by playing it this way. Therefore, many kartal players adopted a unique technique. One hand has the cymbal going up and down, while the other hand turns rotates the angle of the kartal. Figure 4.4 shows this. Mātrā 1 has the kartals closed (as taught in Lesson 2). Mātrā 2 has no strike, but the kartals do not move from Mātrā 1. Since Mātrā 1 is closed, the two cymbals will not break apart until Mātrā 3 where one cymbal goes up and the other at an angle.

CYCLE 3

X
1	2	3	4
CLOSED		OPEN	OPEN

Figure 4.4

Continuously practice these three four mātrā cycles, as they appear very often.

Here are some practice exercises. The column on the LEFT contain rhythmic cycles played on mridanga without kartals. You will play kartal rhythms to these mridanga cycles. The column on the RIGHT is the same rhythmic cycles with kartals played.

Rhythms with NO Kartals	Rhythms with Kartals
D	D

UPDATED: September 13, 2017