Tabla Solo in Ektal

Title: Tabla Solo in Ektal

Performer: Ustad Allah Rakha

Culture: Northern India

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3a__f8Lw2eE

In collaboration with Ravi Shankar, the famous sitarist and teacher of George Harrison, Ustad Allah Rakha performed a solo performance that consisted of him playing the tabla. There is a short introduction by Ravi Shankar and he explains what ektal is. Ektal is a tala pattern associated with Northern India. It normally consists of 12 beats which is split up into counts of 4, 4, 2, and 2 beats. The artist decided to split the 12 beats in half so that the counts are 2, 2, 1, and 1 beats, making the total 6 beats. One of the tracks for the listening quiz played examples of Northern Indian tala patterns, one of them being called ektal. I found this piece and felt that it did a good job of showing how the rhythms of Northern India are far different from that of the Western European concepts of rhythm.