Frequency, tone, scale and octaves form important ingredients in music. But let us not forget the other equally important element: the rhythm. The concept of the ever-recurring cyclic rhythms of the universe is one of the basic tenets of Indian philosophy. The perception of the cyclic nature of life is reflected in Indian classical music through the device of tala, a recurring time-measure or rhythmic cycle. Just as the Hindu religion believes, man is born, lives his life, dies and is then reincarnated to begin a new life, so the tala cycle begins, develops and then returns to the sam, the first beat of the cycle, anchor of all melody and rhythm and the leading beat to which all returns.
Lets play a simple, but interesting game, a brainteaser for your sense of rhythm. We call it the Snap Test.
Tap the middle finger with the thumb - call it "a".Tap the index finger with the thumb -
Just to keep track of things, assign 1 point each for both "a" and "b". The test is split into 3 sections :
Section 1:
With the right hand, do the following: a b a b. By doing this you score 4 points. Right? Good! By repeating the same pattern 3 times {a b a b : a b a b : a b a b.}, you can get your 12 points. Great, you are through with your first section!
Section 2:
With your left hand, do the following: a a b. By doing this you score 3 points. Now, by repeating the same pattern 4 times {a a b : a a b : a a b : a a b}, you can get your 12 points! Simple, isn't it? Hold on folks, now it's teaser time!
Section 3:
How will it be if you do both section 1 and section 2 simultaneously (*$%#@)!
Try it out - that's the snap test!
To frame the Snap test a little technically: Pattern 1 is usually called Sathusaram.-4
