The taal of khayal, kathak and the tabla solo: four fours, the wave on 9 turning the second half around.
This page holds 68 Indian taals and talas, each with its divisions, most with their clap and wave marks, and each playable on the metronome at its own tempo. There are 20 Hindustani cycles, six folk and light rhythms, a pakhawaj taal, the 35 Carnatic suladi sapta talas, five chapu talas and a gati. The common Hindustani lengths are teentaal 16 matras, ektaal 12, jhaptaal 10, keherwa 8, rupak 7 and dadra 6.
In Indian classical music time is often shown with the hands. A Hindustani taal is a cycle of matras, counting units, in vibhags, sections, resolving on its first matra, sam. Tali is a clapped division and khali a wave marking a change of weight or drum register, not a silence.
The boxes mark sam ×, the later claps by number, and khali 0, so teentaal reads ×, 2, 0, 3 at its four group starts. Clap on 1, clap on 5, wave on 9, clap on 13, and count all sixteen matras.
The theka, the basic drum phrase, identifies a taal, and speaking its bols gives the cycle more character than clicks. Teentaal's third vibhag is dha tin tin ta, where khali changes the bayan's sound; a click cannot do that, but the 0 marks the ninth matra's different role.
Dadra, six as 3+3, and keherwa, eight as 4+4, run through thumri, ghazal, bhajan, qawwali, folk and film music. Ektaal's six pairs live at extremely slow or fast tempi, and jhaptaal's 2+3+2+3 makes ten asymmetrical but stable. Rupak begins with khali, so its sam is waved rather than clapped, which stops sam reading as merely the loud beat.
Carnatic tala is built from angas, gestural sections. A laghu is a clap and finger counts, its length set by the jati; a drutam is a clap and a wave, always two counts; an anudrutam is one clap. They are marked I, O and U, with the laghu's length as a number on I, so Adi tala, chatusra-jati triputa, 4+2+2, reads I4, O, O.
Chapu talas move differently. Misra chapu is a quick 3+2+2, often spoken tha ki ta, tha ka, dhi mi, its accents clapping landmarks rather than huge sounds; clap them as you count.
A Hindustani taal is a cycle of matras, the counting units, grouped into vibhags, the sections the hands keep. Sam, the first matra and the point of return, has × under its box. A tali is a clap, and its number counts the claps in order. Khali, the wave, is marked 0. It changes the gesture and, in the tabla’s basic pattern, the sound, but never the time, so keep counting and playing through it.
Teentaal is sixteen in four fours, with claps on 1, 5 and 13 and the wave on 9. Dadra is two threes and Keherwa two fours. Where a row prints its theka, the basic cycle of drum syllables, speak it while the hands keep the claps and waves.
Jhaptaal’s ten goes 2+3+2+3, not five pairs. Rupak’s first matra is both sam and khali, so it opens with a wave and claps on 4 and 6, numbered 2 and 3 in these boxes and 1 and 2 by some teachers. Tivra and Pashto share Rupak’s 3+2+2 but begin with a clap.
Ektaal and Chautaal both run six pairs, Ektaal prominent in khayal, Chautaal in dhrupad and on the pakhawaj. Deepchandi and Jhoomra share 3+4+3+4 at very different paces and with different thekas. Dhamar divides fourteen as 5+2+3+4. Tilwada and Addha keep Teentaal’s hand pattern while their syllables change its character. Pancham Sawari runs to fifteen, and Shikhar taal, elsewhere on this page, to seventeen.
Matta taal (2+2+2+3 version) is one teaching version, which lineages divide differently, and Rudra taal’s division is a proposal until a named gharana stands behind it. The strong click marks sam, a place to arrive at, not a beat to hit harder. Play one cycle with the sound on and one with it off, and check that the wave lands where you expect.
16/4 · 4+4+4+4 · accents on 1, 5, 13 · 40 to 320 · also Tintal, Trital
The taal of khayal, kathak and the tabla solo: four fours, the wave on 9 turning the second half around.
dha dhin dhin dha | dha dhin dhin dha | dha tin tin ta | ta dhin dhin dha
×
2
0
3
Teentaal is a sixteen-matra Hindustani cycle grouped 4+4+4+4. Count to sixteen, clap on 1 and 5, wave on 9, clap on 13. The marks are ×, 2, 0 and 3. It carries khayal, kathak and tabla solo, among much else. Speak the theka slowly while making the gestures, and give khali on 9 a full matra rather than a pause.
12/4 · 2+2+2+2+2+2 · accents on 1, 5, 9, 11 · 30 to 300
Six pairs; the vilambit khayal's home at a crawl and a drut chhota-khayal's at a gallop.
dhin dhin | dhage tirakita | tu na | kat ta | dhage tirakita | dhin na
×
0
2
0
3
4
Ektaal has twelve matras grouped as six pairs. Its division marks fall on 1 ×, 3 0, 5 2, 7 0, 9 3 and 11 4. It supports very slow khayal as well as fast performance, which makes internal counting essential. Speak each two-matra vibhag and keep the hand gestures small. At vilambit tempo, subdivide every matra rather than waiting hopefully for the next clap.
Two-three, two-three: ten matras that never feel like five twos.
dhi na | dhi dhi na | ti na | dhi dhi na
×
2
0
3
Jhaptaal is ten matras grouped 2+3+2+3. Clap on 1 and 3, wave on 6, then clap on 8. The marks are ×, 2, 0 and 3. Its theka begins dhi na, dhi dhi na. Count the groups aloud instead of treating ten as five identical pairs. Practise walking the four vibhags, taking two steps, three, two, then three, until the shape holds without counting aloud.
The one taal whose sam is a wave: the cycle begins empty and the claps fall on 4 and 6.
tin tin na | dhin na | dhin na
0
2
3
Rupak is seven matras grouped 3+2+2. Its sam is khali, marked 0 on 1, with claps on 4 and 6. Clap numbering varies between conventions, but the wave at the beginning is the important landmark. The common theka is tin tin na, dhin na, dhin na. Practise returning to 1 with an open hand. If you clap sam from habit, slow down and make the gesture deliberate.
Three and three: thumri, ghazal, folk and film songs beyond counting.
dha dhin na | dha tu na
×
0
Dadra is six matras grouped 3+3, marked × on 1 and 0 on 4. Count “one two three, four five six”, clapping the first group and waving the second. Its theka is commonly spoken dha dhin na, dha tu na. You hear it in thumri, ghazal, folk music and film songs. Practise singing a phrase across the wave so that 4 does not feel like a new bar.
8/4 · 4+4 · accents on 1 · 60 to 240 · also Kaharva
Four and four: bhajan, qawwali, folk and pop; the most played taal in India.
dha ge na ti | na ka dhi na
×
0
Keherwa is eight matras in two groups of four. Clap on 1, marked ×, and wave on 5, marked 0. The basic theka is dha ge na ti, na ka dhi na. It is everywhere in bhajan, qawwali, folk and popular music. Count the full cycle even when the song feels like ordinary four. A clear wave on 5 prevents your ear from mistaking the midpoint for sam.
India’s folk and light rhythms here, Garba, Jhoomar, Bhangra chaal, Baul, Bihu and Lavani, are dances and songs, not entries in a formal taal system. Each row is a practice meter, and for the first five above all it is not the one arrangement everyone who dances, sings or drums them would agree on. The boxes carry no syllables; the clicks are an accent frame, not a dhol or a voice.
Garba is six counts in two threes, with a stronger click on the first of each. Jhoomar has the same division at a slower pace. Baul is six slower counts, three and three, with only the first marked. Bhangra chaal and Bihu are fours accented on 1 and 3, and Lavani a brisker eight, four and four.
Count aloud and let the feet find the group openings, not every click. Switch between Garba and Jhoomar keeping the same spoken “one two three, one two three” and changing only the pace, then try Lavani and stay relaxed at its speed.
The Carnatic suladi sapta talas are seven talas built from three hand gestures, the angas, in different orders. The laghu is a clap and finger counts, and its length, the jati, is three, four, five, seven or nine. The drutam is a clap and a wave, always two counts; the anudrutam is a single clap. Seven talas times five jatis make the thirty-five on this page. In the boxes, I with a number marks a laghu, O a drutam and U an anudrutam, at the count where each gesture begins.
Start with Eka (Chatusra-jati Eka), one four-count laghu, to learn the finger motion on its own. Then take Adi (Chatusra-jati Triputa), 4+2+2, laghu, drutam, drutam, by clapping and counting four on the fingers, then clapping and waving twice. Adi carries much of the repertoire; its ordinary form here is eight, though its two-kalai expansion gives sixteen. Rupaka (Chatusra-jati Rupaka) puts the drutam before a four-count laghu, six in all.
A new jati changes only the laghu. Tisra-jati Triputa shortens Adi’s to three, seven counts in all, and Khanda-jati Triputa lengthens it to five, nine in all. Matya (Chatusra-jati Matya) sets a drutam between two laghus, Dhruva (Chatusra-jati Dhruva) runs laghu, drutam, laghu, laghu, and Jhampa (Misra-jati Jhampa) slips a one-count anudrutam between its seven-count laghu and its drutam. At the long end, Sankeerna-jati Dhruva reaches twenty-nine counts and Ata (Khanda-jati Ata) is two five-count laghus and two drutams. Count the gestures in order, not twenty-nine separate numbers.
The click accents each anga’s start so it can be found, though an anga boundary is a gesture and a landmark, not necessarily a loud stroke, and a click cannot sound the clap, the fingers and the wave apart. Speak each anga’s length as you do it, then look away from the boxes for one full cycle and come back to the first clap on time.
I O O with a chatusra laghu of 4: 8 aksharas. The tala of most of the repertoire; two-kalai (sixteen) is an available expansion, not its usual form.
I4
O
O
Adi tala is chatusra-jati triputa, eight aksharas grouped 4+2+2. The angas are I4, O and O. Count the laghu with a clap and three finger counts, then each drutam as clap and wave. It carries a large part of the Carnatic repertoire. Keep the gestures even and say all eight counts. Do not turn the anga boundaries into oversized accents unless the music asks for them.
Chapu talas are short, quickly felt groups, counted and clapped, not small versions of the suladi gestures. Misra chapu’s boxes carry “tha ki ta”, “tha ka”, “dhi mi”, which give 3+2+2, seven counts, without counting to seven. Khanda chapu answers with “tha ka”, “tha ki ta”, 2+3, five counts. The syllables are counting aids, not equal weights.
Start with Tisra chapu, a plain three, then Khanda chapu and Misra chapu. The accents mark where each group begins, not how a particular musician claps or phrases it. Count aloud, and after four easy cycles speak only the first syllable of each group.
Viloma chapu (2+2+3) reverses Misra chapu, moving the long group to the end of the same seven. Sankeerna chapu, 4+5, is the hardest here, and its form is not standardised, so this row is one practice outline for nine. If the place slips, slow down and clap only the group openings.
Seven as three-two-two, clapped fast: the chapu of countless kritis.
tha ki ta
tha ka
dhi mi
Misra chapu is seven grouped 3+2+2, usually taken briskly. Say tha ki ta, tha ka, dhi mi, with landmarks at 1, 4 and 6. It appears in many Carnatic kritis and feels more like three unequal gestures than seven separate quarter notes. Clap the three groups while speaking the syllables. Then sing the composition over that hand pattern instead of matching every note to a click.
Adi tala in tisra gati keeps Adi’s 4+2+2 sequence of angas, the counted gestures of a tala. I4 marks the four-count laghu, a clap with finger counts, and each O a two-count drutam, a clap and a wave. The gati sets what happens inside each beat, and tisra puts three pulses in each; the hand still keeps eight beats, not twenty-four gestures. The accents mark where each anga begins, as practice landmarks, not louder notes in the music.
Learn Adi (Chatusra-jati Triputa) in the suladi section first. Once the hand goes round unaided, speak “ta ki ta” inside every beat while it keeps its slower pattern. If the syllables make the hand race, lower the tempo and give the three pulses equal space.
Shikhar taal has seventeen matras, or counting units, in five vibhags, or divisions: 4+4+4+2+3. Under the boxes, × marks sam, the returning first count, and the numbers 2 to 5 mark the talis, or claps, at the next four division openings. There is no wave. It is a pakhawaj taal, but the strip gives counted landmarks, not a complete pakhawaj theka.
Clap four, four and four, then two and three, until the short pair near the end stops catching you out; then count every matra through one cycle. If the return to sam slips, slow down and listen for the change from the two-count division to the final three.