I went to the class after preparing at least 12 taans. All the taans start from 4 and end on 11.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
                      dr d dr d r
d d r dr d dr d r d d r          

The bol pattern was supposed to be

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
                               
      dr d dr d dr d dr da          

Doubling the speed

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
                               
      drdr d drdr d drdr d drdr da          

However all my taans were totally unstructured and did not make any sense to my guru. The main reason is that I was not counting at all.

Sir insisted that I count and play. I couldn’t. That’s what I need to practice. What are the mistakes and learnings from last evenings' class

  • I was skipping notes in the taans. This was not necessary at the beginning stages where I was failing to count the notes properly
  • I did not keep a count of swaras - Did the taan contain 2 swaras or 3 swaras ?
  • I did not count while playing any of the taans. I had to count while playing. The rationale goes like this :
    • Concentrate on counting and play whatever you like, irrespective of whether it follows raag chaya or not
    • The counting has to be internalized
    • Once counting is internalized, then you must focus on the swaras so that raag chaya is maintained
  • I was not changing the position of sum. GG M PP D was to be kept constant and then sum could fall on S by playing N S S S ,i.e.the 16th matra could be played in such a way that whatever note you want the sum to fall, you could play it that way
  • Let’s say you want to stick to Dir Da Dir Da Dir Da Dir Da pattern and want to create taans with 2 swaras. How does one do it ?
    • GG M
    • GM G
    • MG M
    • MM G
  • Let’s say you want to stick to Dir Da Dir Da Dir Da Dir Da pattern and want to create taans with 3 swaras. How does one do it?
    • GM P
    • PM G
  • Let’s say you want to stick to Dir Da Dir Da Dir Da Dir Da pattern.Suppose you want the sum to fall on P. How does one create taans?
    • PP P
    • GM P
    • ND P
    • DD P
    • MM P
    • PD P
    • PM P
  • Let’s say you want to stick to Dir Da Dir Da Dir Da Dir Da pattern. Suppose you want the sum to fall on G. How does one create taans?
    • GG G
    • NS G
    • SR G
    • PM G
    • GM G
    • MM G
    • SS G ( skipping a note but it is ok)
  • Let’s say you want to stick to Dir Da Dir Da Dir Da Dir Da pattern. and you want to use 5 swaras. How does one create taans ?
    • SNDP M NDPM G DPMG R PMGR S
    • NSGM P SGMP D GMPD N MPDN S
    • NDPM G DPMG R PMGR S NSGM P
    • DPMG R PMGR S MGRS N RSND P
    • SNDP M NDPM P DPMG R SRGM G
    • SNDP M NDPM P NDPMP G GRSR S

I hope to practice the above taans by counting aloud the various beats. I have to put in atleast two hours daily if I am to get the counting right.