Combining taals and raags | Music | Quizalize & Oak National Academy

Starter quiz

Which of the following defines texture in music?

How fast or slow the music is played.

The combination of different layers of sounds. ✓

How loud or quiet the music is.

The order of what happens in the piece of music.
Which of the following can be done with a taal?

Sing it.

Chant the bols. ✓

Clap the rhythm cycle. ✓

Play it on a sitar.
What does a bol represent?

A melodic framework.

A mood or feeling that a raag gives.

A vocal representation of the sound a tabla drum can make. ✓

The length of the rhythm cycle.
Match each taal and raag label with the musical activity.

taal - played

⇔

clap the rhythm cycle ✓

taal - vocal

⇔

speak the bols ✓

raag - vocal

⇔

sing a melody ✓

raag - played

⇔

play an improvisation on a pitched instrument ✓

Teentaal has 16 beats in its rhythm cycle. How can we count these beats?

speak the bols ✓

clap, tap and wave the beats of the rhythm cycle ✓

sing a drone

improvise using notes from the raag
True or false. A raag and a taal must start at the same time.

'false' ✓
Which one of the following would be good advice to offer someone improvising within a raag?

Use all of the notes in the raag.

Playing faster is easier.

Start with fewer notes until you feel more confident. ✓

Use any notes on your instrument - but play quietly.
How many different layers are combined in Hindustani Classical music?

'Three' ✓

Loading worksheet ...

Loading presentation ...

We can develop the texture of our piece by layering the taal and the raag.
The bols and the claps of the taal are a steady pulse we can layer a raag over.
We can add the raag by singing a melody and playing improvisations that use the notes of the raag.
The taal and raag don’t have to start at the same time. A raag can start halfway through the rhythm cycle.

The taal and raag begin and end at the same time.

A raag can start and end at any point in the rhythm cycle.

Taal - a rhythm cycle that measures musical time in Indian music
Raag - a series of notes that inspire a composition (from Sanskrit language meaning ‘to colour’)
Bol - a spoken syllable used to recite the rhythm (from 'bolna', the Hindi word for 'speak'.
Texture - the combination of different layers of sounds