Rhythm reference
Which bar does it land on?
Play a scale in accented groups and the accent drifts across the bar line. Pick your settings to see how many bars pass before the scale’s first note and the accent land together on beat 1.
It works for any scale, five notes to eight.
Bars to land
Rows are how many notes you play in each beat. Columns are how often the accent comes.
| notes per beat | groups of 3tisra | groups of 4chatusra | groups of 5khanda | groups of 6 | groups of 7misra | groups of 9sankeerna |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8ths | 3bars24 notes · 9s | 3bars24 notes · 9s · locked | 15bars120 notes · 43s | 3bars24 notes · 9s | 21bars168 notes · 60s | 9bars72 notes · 26s |
| triplets | 1bar12 notes · 3s · locked | 1bar12 notes · 3s · locked | 5bars60 notes · 14s | 1bar12 notes · 3s · locked | 7bars84 notes · 20s | 3bars36 notes · 9s |
| 16ths | 3bars48 notes · 9s | 3bars48 notes · 9s · locked | 15bars240 notes · 43s | 3bars48 notes · 9s | 21bars336 notes · 60s | 9bars144 notes · 26s |
| sextuplets | 1bar24 notes · 3s · locked | 1bar24 notes · 3s · locked | 5bars120 notes · 14s | 1bar24 notes · 3s · locked | 7bars168 notes · 20s | 3bars72 notes · 9s |
Amber takes more than 4 bars. “Locked” means the accent is back on beat 1 at the start of every bar. With these settings, groups of 5 take 15 bars in 16ths and 5 in triplets.
Quickest to land
Tihai: a phrase played three times that ends on beat 1
Play one phrase three times with two equal gaps, and pick the gap so the last note falls on beat 1 of a new cycle. Carnatic musicians call the gap the karvai and beat 1 sam.
Ta Din Gi Na Tom ×3 · gap 1
Cream, amber and grey are the three repetitions; hollow squares are the gaps. The square marked 1 is the last note. It opens the last row on beat 1, 1 cycle in.
Every phrase length that works in 4/4
Carnatic names for these counts
Carnatic music names each count: tisra (3), chatusra (4), khanda (5), misra (7) and sankeerna (9). Here they name phrases of that many notes, such as phrases of 5 (khanda). The same names also describe how many pulses fill one beat, which is called the gati. Beat 1 of the cycle is sam.
3 · Tisra
Ta Ki Ta
from tri, three
4 · Chatusra
Ta Ka Di Mi
caturaśra, four-sided
5 · Khanda
Ta Din Gi Na Tom
piece, section
7 · Misra
Ta Ka Di Mi Ta Ki Ta
mixed — because 7 = 3 + 4
9 · Sankeerna
Ta Ka Di Mi Ta Din Gi Na Tom
complex — because 9 = 4 + 5
Shapes of changing group sizes (yati)
Growing 3 → 4 → 5 → 6 → 7 is srotovaha, a river widening from its source. Its mirror, shrinking, is gopuccha, a cow’s tail. There are six shapes.
Sama
5 – 5 – 5 – 5 – 5
even
Srotovaha
3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7
a river widening from its source
Gopuccha
7 – 6 – 5 – 4 – 3
a cow's tail, tapering
Mridanga
3 – 4 – 5 – 4 – 3
the drum — narrow ends, fat middle
Damaru
5 – 4 – 3 – 4 – 5
hourglass drum — pinched waist
Vishama
4 – 7 – 3 – 9 – 5
uneven, free-form