To master a Taal, first memorize the boles, then learn to read (show) it on your palm. If you know a Taal’s flow by heart, then you can take any boles (sounds) and make them fit in that Taal.

Showing a Taal on your palm
Method:

1. Get your left palm out and count 1,2,3,4, 5,6,7,8 (beats in a Taal vary Taal to Taal) in any constant speed. Take a little paus before ‘5’, thus accenting 1st and 5th beat. Or count, 1 and 5 loudly than the others.
2. Now each time you say a number, touch your left palm with one of the finger tips of your right hand.
3.  Now clap on one (very quietly) with all four fingers on your left palm and count 2, 3, 4 with using your index, second and third finger tips.
4.  On 5, do not clap, move your right hand away to the right instead, leaving this beat empty.
5. Count 6,7,8 the same as 2,3,4 by using your index, second and third finger tips.
6. You just counted the ‘Kehrva Taal’ on your palm.  It will look something like this:

Kehrva
(8 beats, two sections)

The Purpose:
The purpose to count on hand is getting to know a Taal. You can sing anything while giving the Taal with your hand. It is a perfect way to find out if your piece ends on one (sum) or not. Or you can try to make a pick up or a fill. Once again, this is how the palm system goes:

1. we clap on every clap point (that is the Sum and the other Taali points in a Taal)
2. We count all the other beats with our finger tips just to keep rhythm.
3. We wave our right hand to the right to show Khali (empty point).

Sometimes only the Sum (first beat) and the Khali (ligheter point/s) are shown on the hand. It is called ‘giving Khali-Taali’. Please refer to definitions of rhythmic words to know more about these words.

A key to pronounce and memorize Tabla Boles (sounds)
The Tabla boles (sounds) can be really hard to remember if you see them individually. The key to memorize them is to see them as a group. Try to form a combination bole (sound). Sometimes the combination boles are spread over two, three or four beats. If that is the case, then I have tried to spell them as they appear in the list of combined boles in the last post. See the broken ‘words’ and pronounce them together in whatever time they are written in. If there is no combination bole (sound) then try to read a section together. Memorize it then read the next section. In most Taals, you will find that you only have to memorize a portion of it. As the whole Taal forms a poetry of boles. For example let’s see ‘Daadra Taal’s’ (name of a 6 beats pattern) structure:

Taal Daadra
(6 beats, 2 sections)

Let’s separate Dayan and Bayan and see what is going on

Here you see that in the both sections, the right hand is playing the same thing. To make the first beat and the first section heavier, two boles (sounds) have been added with the left hand. As I have described before, ‘ta+ge’ is ‘Dha’ and ‘tin+ghe’ is ‘Dhin’.

So find this kind of hidden repetition in the sections of Taals. It is just like any drum patterns. If you take them apart and write them in sections, you will see that how the bass drum separates the Taali (heavier) and Khali (lighter) sections.

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