East & Southeast Asia, Pacific

Korean jangdan are the recurring rhythmic patterns of the janggu. Gutgeori is twelve eighth-note units in four groups of three, marked 덩 deong on 1 and 쿵 kung on 7, halfway round. Say the syllables and tap all twelve units quietly underneath. Jajinmori shares that frame at a quicker pace with its own janggu pattern, so the same two written marks do not mean the same played pattern.

Semachi is nine in three groups of three, with 덩, 덩 and 덕 deok on the group openings, and it makes a good next step after Gutgeori. Its stroke pattern is one selected version and does not match every account of Semachi. Jungmori slows the count to twelve quarters and puts a strong stroke on the ninth. If you expect the first count to carry all the weight, spend a few cycles listening for nine.

Jungjungmori sits between the slower and faster twelve-count patterns. Salpuri is another slow twelve, marked deong and kung. Eotmori divides ten as 3+2+3+2, a later exercise in keeping alternating long and short groups steady. Jinyangjo opens a much longer, slow cycle of four groups of six. Hwimori rushes through a four; come to it with a calm count, not first.

The marks are only selected stroke syllables, a click cannot voice the janggu, and these rows are scaffolds rather than complete drum cycles. Tap Gutgeori’s twelve units while speaking deong at 1 and kung at 7. Drop the syllables for a cycle, then bring them back. Move on to Semachi when your hands know where the cycle begins without checking the screen.

Chinese opera counts in banshi, its meters. They are built from 板 ban, the main beat, and 眼 yan, the beat between. Yuanban puts ban on 1 and yan on 2. Manban stretches that to one ban and three yan across four slow counts. Kuaiban puts ban on every quick count, with no yan at all. Erliu ban takes the one-ban, one-yan pair at a moving pace. Speak the words over the boxes before you follow a quicker passage.

The Japanese rows use other names and settings, not ban and yan. Honbyōshi is a plain four. Matsuri-bayashi and Sōran bushi are quick twos. Taiko: don doko don names the basic beat of ensemble taiko, though its row shows only a four-count accent scaffold, not every spoken stroke. Haya-yohyōshi is a slow courtly four, and Awa odori (zomeki) a dance two. No Japanese stroke syllables are written under these boxes, and these selected scaffolds do not reproduce the played drum patterns.

Start with Yuanban, saying “ban, yan” while your fingers tap the two counts. Then take Manban slowly enough to hear the space between one ban and the next. For a different exercise, keep Honbyōshi’s four in your foot while you listen to a taiko part, using the click only to keep your place.

In a Javanese colotomic cycle, the great gong closes the cycle instead of opening it. Lancaran has sixteen counted units. The marks under the boxes are N for kenong, P for kempul, G for gong and W for an empty slot. Follow the numbered positions and listen for G on 16, not on 1. The accent clicks pick out some of those punctuation points, but one lane cannot sound the different gongs as different instruments.

Ketawang also spans sixteen, divided more broadly, with the gong at the end. Ladrang reaches thirty-two and saves its closing gong for count 32. Bubaran (lancaran form) uses a sixteen-count outline. In Lancaran, say “gong” on the last count, then let the next first count arrive without moving the gong onto it out of habit.

Thailand’s rows use a different system, with ching and chap, the cymbal syllables, under the boxes. Chan diao has the quickest cycle, with chap on counts 2 and 4. Song chan widens the span to eight, chap every four. Sam chan stretches it to sixteen, chap every eight. These three levels are a cymbal scaffold, not a transcription of the drums.

Zapin gives the Malay world a four-count pulse, and Joget a six in two groups of three, with no stroke syllables under either. They are sensible entry points if the long gong cycles look crowded, though matching clicks cannot give the instruments’ full phrasing.

Tap all sixteen counts of Lancaran quietly and speak only N, P and G where they are marked, with your clearest sound on the final G. Then play Chan diao, saying ching and chap in turn.

These four rows are selected pulses, not a claim that four communities keep time in one way. ’Ōte’a is a fast four tied to Tahiti’s to’ere log drums. Haka is a stamping four for a Māori posture dance. Sāsā is a steady two for Samoa’s seated body-percussion dance. Clapsticks marks all four counts of a steady Australian practice pulse.

No instrument syllables are written under these boxes. A four-click row, Clapsticks above all, cannot describe a songline or stand for one universal Australian rhythm. Use it as a place to count while you look for the music and its people, not as a replacement for either.

Start with Sāsā at a comfortable pace, tapping one and two with alternate hands for four cycles. Then try Haka, counting all four and marking 1 and 3. Leave ’Ōte’a’s quick tempo until your four stays clear without rushing.

Gilak (gong outline), the gong cycle of Balinese gilak, has eight counted units in two groups of four. The G under boxes 4 and 8 marks the gong positions, and the accents fall there; listen above all for the second G, which ends the cycle. The row is an eight-beat scaffold. It gives neither the played sound nor the full gilak texture, nor all the parts of a Balinese gamelan between the gongs.

Count all eight units softly and say “gong” on 4 and 8. Then go silent for one round while your foot keeps the count, and bring the word back on 4, not on the first box out of habit.

Romvong is written as a four-count pulse for Cambodia’s circle dance, with 1 and 3 accented. Tinikling, from the Philippines, has three counts, and the accented third is where the bamboo poles close. Neither row has instrument strokes under its boxes, and Tinikling’s strip shows one timing landmark, not every movement of the dance.

Start with Romvong, counting all four quietly with a foot on the beat, then clapping on 1 and 3. For Tinikling, say “one two three” and clap only on three, without poles at first, since the metronome forgives a mistake that bamboo does not. Hold the first two counts lightly without rushing towards the third, and keep the cycle steady for several repeats before following a performance beside it.