Need Help - How to recognize "SAM" in song, music, bandish (Classical-Semi-Classical-Light Music.

[DNA]

Namaskar

I am learning/practicing Hindustani Classical and Light music. I use
Radel Digi-100 Tabla Machine and practice on harmonium. I have
difficulty to know the sam of song I am playing on harmonium.
Therefore, question is How to recognize the SAM in the song. For
example= song "Naino me badra chhaye" of Mera Saya. Taal=Kehrwa. Now
how do I recognize the SAM on which beat? Like wise which beat is SAM
in Taal = Roopak, Dadra, Teen Taal, Jhaptaal etc.

Is there any underlying principle to recognize the SAM? Is there any
book available on this?

Advice from all of you are most welcome.

With Kind Regards
Chandrakant

[Vivekanand P V]

It is not apparent what you have actually learnt about taals.
Presumably, you know different taals, but that is not enough. What you
need to know is perhaps the mechanism of a taal (the way taals are
structured and executed). I don't suppose you could learn it on your
own. The easier option would be to consult a good teacher. However,
some information may suffice your questions.

Sam is always the first beat (matra, actually) of any taal. Usually
the song/bandish will have a recognisable pressure to indicate the sam
(there are exceptions). However, taals have other important features
like 'bhari' and 'khali', whose knowledge is essential for anybody to
arrive correctly at sam. Actually, the smaller and faster taals are,
in a way, easier to keep the track, while the longer ones and slower
ones demand more dexterity.

I don’t think electronic tabla would be useful to you at this stage.

V

[Chetan Vinchhi]

On Feb 25, 5:17 pm, Vivekanand P V <vivekanan...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I don’t think electronic tabla would be useful to you at this stage.

While it can certainly not replace proper instruction, an electronic
tabla may actually be useful since in most models there is a 'sam'
LED.

Chandrakant: what you could do is this:

- tune the e-tabla to the taal and the tempo of the desired song. Then
just listen to the tabla, paying close attention to the bols and the
'sam' LED (does your model have this?)
- Once you are comfortable with this, listen to the recording of the
song and try to map the bols. For 'naino.n me.n badra chhaye', the sam
is clearly on 'badraa', and then 'chamke' etc.
- Now try to start the e-tabla to match the recording while it is
playing. For this, the tempo has to be tuned to match the recording
precisely of course.
- As the last exercise, start the taal and then play along. This is of
course the most difficult part because the mukhda of the song may
begin arbitrarily. 'naino.n me.n' begins somewhere around the 4th
matra. If you have a friend around while you are practicing, start
playing ask him/her to 'start' the tabla when you reach the sam -
indicate with a hand gesture or nod of the head if required. This
ought to make it easier to get into the flow in the beginning.
- Writing down the words with maatra allocations on a sheet of paper
might also be a good idea.

HTH
C