World renowned percussionist Pete Lockett shows us

how to recreate the sublime rhythms of the tabla

The cm guide to
Tablas
O
f all the drums in the world, the
tabla has to be one of the most
complex, with its intricate and
finely articulated stroke combinations
and highly developed rhythmic
systems. Its truly amazing how many
distinctly different sounds can come
from such a tiny set of drums, and
programming something that sounds
even close to an authentic tabla part
can be a huge challenge. Of course, if
you have 30 years to spare, you could
always learn how to play the instrument
yourself, but I doubt the record
company would wait that long for the
master mix. Fear not, though here Im
going to show you how create that
realistic tabla vibe using nothing more
than a MIDI editor and a set of samples.
Lets start by looking at the drums
On the DVD
TUTORIAL FILES
All our tabla MIDI parts and
samples are in the Tutorial
files folder, as well as two
Battery kits and an MP3
talkthrough to accompany
the walkthroughs
046
|
COMPUTER MUSIC JUNE 2005 TUTORIAL
make music now Percussion programming
CMU87.t_tabla 046 28/4/05 2:30:42 pm
this particular drum.
The treble drum is tuned by
knocking the wooden blocks with a
small hammer. Fine tuning is carried out
by hitting the leather hoop. The drum is
tuned to the tonic or dominant note of
the scale of the piece of music to be
played. The bass tabla isnt actually
tuned to any particular pitch because
of the essential glissando pitch-
bending that features so heavily in its
playing technique.
To get that essential tabla
resonance, paste patches are applied
to both heads. These patches (shyahi)
are made from a paste of iron fillings,
flour and ground hill stone. In India, a
chemical is also sometimes added to
stop ants eating them not particularly
a problem in the UK, of course.
Balancing act
When I record tablas in the studio, I
prefer a stereo pair of mics left for the
bass tabla and right for the treble tabla.
This gives a good level of control over
the two drums later in the mix. With this
in mind, well be making the overall
sound of our tabla from two sets of
samples: one for the bass tones and
the other for the treble tones. In the
Battery kit on the DVD, the tabla are
already panned left and right so if
youre using that, you can leave them
just as they are (unless you want to
create a different effect, that is). For me,
these pan settings are ideal as they
provide a good balance between the
two drums.
All the grooves were going to put
together in our walkthroughs, including
the glissando on the bass tabla, will be
created with single-shot samples no
loops will be used at all. I recorded the
hits in a top London studio, including
bass tones at various pitches so we can
create the glissando effect by sheer
force of programming. Let's begin cm
themselves before moving on to some
practical programming concepts
for them.
Turning the tablas
The tabla originate from North India and
comprise of a set of two drums treble
and bass. Theyre distinct from most
other drums in that each is played with
a different hand. Very seldom do you
see both hands playing one drum. The
tablas have a regal history dating back
centuries to the time when Indian
palaces had resident court musicians.
The performer sits on the floor with
the drums in front of them, nestled in
two supporting rings called adharas.
The high pitched drum is cylindrical in
shape and about 10" tall. Its made from
wood, usually shisham or nim, and is
hollowed out from the top, like a cup,
remaining sealed at the bottom. The
drum has only one skin, which is
generally about 5" in diameter, and the
shell is wider at the bottom than the top
by about 1
1
/2".
The bass tabla is essentially a small,
single-headed kettle drum made of
nickel alloy (although occasionally you
might see one made of clay). Both drum
heads (puri) are made of goatskin and
held in place by a complicated hoop
(pagri), which is woven around the
edge of the skin. The heads are fixed to
the drum with a long leather strap
(chot), which is threaded through the
hoop and underneath the drum via a
small leather ring. A thin rim (about 1"
wide) runs around the edge of the skin,
both inside and out; this is known as
the kinar or kani and is also made of
goatskin. Tensioning the skin is done by
pulling the long leather strap the
treble drum is pulled a lot tighter and
has small wooden blocks (gattha)
inserted between the shell and the
straps to get it up to the pitch required.
Sometimes you see even smaller
wooden blocks used for the bass tabla,
and in Benares, things are done
completely differently, with rope and
metal rings used to set the tension of
TABLAS ORIGINATE FROM NORTH
INDIA AND COMPRISE OF A SET OF
TWO DRUMS TREBLE AND BASS
P
H
O
T
O
G
R
A
P
H
Y
:

J
a
m
e
s

C
u
m
p
s
t
y
Info
About the author
Pete Lockett is one of the most
versatile and prolific percussionists
in the world. Renowned for his
remarkable ability to bring
traditional instruments out of their
original cultural setting, hes
recorded and/or performed with Bjrk, Afro Celt
Sound System, Peter Gabriel, Robert Plant, The
Verve, Nitin Sawhney, Bill Bruford, Jeff Beck, Zakir
Hussain, Viku Vinayakram, Mandolin Shrinivas,
Texas, Craig Armstrong, Transglobal Underground,
Mel C, Bedlam, Beth Orton, Kula Shaker and
Vanessa Mae, amongst others. Hes also played
on numerous film soundtracks, including the
three most recent James Bonds, City of Angels,
Moulin Rouge, The Insider, Plunkett and Maclean
and Snatch, and has four critically acclaimed
solo albums to his name. To learn more about
the world of percussion, or to contact Pete
himself, visit his website.
www.petelockett.com.
And here are some bols used to
describe pairs of consecutive strokes:
Dha: Ge+Na
Dhin: Ge+Tin
Dhe: Ge+Te
There are many other stroke
combinations and sounds in the tabla
vocabulary, but these are the
essentials to get you started.
KE
Bass drum closed
stroke, played with the
whole hand flat.
GE
A resonant bass tabla
stroke, played with the
finger tips. The wrist bends
the pitch of the drum.
TI
The
second
finger
strikes the treble
drum with the third
and fourth fingers
down, and the index
finger raised. A soft
version of te.
TE
Treble drum closed
sound with flat
fingers. Staccato.
NE
Ring finger on the
edge of the treble
drum. A soft
sound, almost like a grace note.
THUN
Open resonant
treble drum
stroke.
TIN
Treble drum
inner rim sound
played with the
index finger, the second finger
raised, and the third and fourth
fingers damping. Similar to na
but with slightly more bass.
NA
Treble drum sound with the index finger striking
the edge of the rim, the second finger raised,
and the third and fourth fingers damping. This
creates the characteristic ringing tone of the tabla. Theres also
the closed na stroke, which involves leaving the finger on the
skin after the stroke, creating a sharp chick sound.
Rather than a system of written notation, Indian percussionists use
a special vocabulary of syllables to describe the patterns they play
(bols, which translates as word). These syllables are intended to
mimic the sounds that come from the drums. Each stroke, or
combination of strokes, has its own word or set of words that
combine into an alphabet of phrases, out of which longer and
longer patterns are composed. The words have no meaning beyond
the patterns they represent, and generally theyre the first thing a
student studies when learning tabla. Here are some example bols,
along with an explanation of the strokes that they describe:
The Indian phonetic system
TUTORIAL JUNE 2005 COMPUTER MUSIC
|
047
Q&A focus make music now Percussion programming
CMU87.t_tabla 047 28/4/05 2:30:58 pm
3
Select All but MIDI from Batterys drag and drop
options. This means that when you drag a sample from
say C2 to C1, then the note will sound when you strike
C1 and not when you strike C2. >>
2
To do this, first import all of the required samples
towards the bottom of Batterys interface, just to get
them all in there before actually positioning them. >> 1
Having normalised and trimmed our individual hits, we
need to import them into our sampler in this case,
Battery, but any will do. We want to lay the samples out
across the keyboard in a way that makes it easy to play parts
in by hand without crossing over awkwardly. >>
6
This second part is similar to the first, but with just a
little more space. Were going to look at a few treble
drum patterns before moving on to the bass parts;
notice that weve not put any open bass sounds in our
Battery kit. Well be building a bass tabla kit a little later. >>
5
Here we have our first simple part, using two sounds on
the treble tabla. The pattern is Na tin tin tin. Were
using two slightly different tin samples to make the
sound a little less mechanical. Its always a good idea to put
a few different versions of each sound in your sampled
percussion kits for this reason. Velocity variation is another
way of getting a more natural sound. >>
4
Weve dragged the sample from Row C, Column 1 onto
Row A, Column 1 to duplicate it, and then deleted the
original. Go through this process note by note, putting
each individual sample on a key that suits your fingers. Of
course, you could just import each note individually but thats
more time consuming. >>
9
Now we have the characteristic open thun tone. This
sound really cuts through and leaps out of any mix. Like
all the sounds in the treble tabla kit, it's on the same
mute group. Think of the high tabla in the same way you
would a hi-hat it can only make one sound at a time.
8
Here weve introduced the closed na sound. This is an
effective tone for enhancing a groove. Its articulated by
the finger remaining on the skin after the stroke. >> 7
This type of treble tabla part is commonly found in folk
styles. Its this style that you usually hear applied to a
contemporary western environment. Looking at the MIDI
part, we can see how short the notes are. The sounds are
fairly short too, but this is academic as theyre one-shot
samples that sound until another member of their mute
group is triggered. >>
STEP BY STEP Treble tabla concepts
048
|
COMPUTER MUSIC JUNE 2005 TUTORIAL
make music now Percussion programming
CMU87.t_tabla 048 28/4/05 2:31:11 pm
3
Here you can see how the bass part sits with the
corresponding treble tabla part. In terms of panning, the
bass is 11 left and the treble is 11 right in Logic. I dont
like to split them any further than this, especially when some
of the interlocked linear patterns start to come out. >>
2
Here, then, is a simple bass tabla part. The fact that its
a complicated instrument doesnt mean you have to
over-program your parts and make them too busy. >> 1
Heres our bass tabla kit, on a separate audio
instrument channel. Its really four little mini bass tabla
kits in one. The first has four tones from C1 to D

1
(open, high, low, fast bend up), and then the closed bass tabla
stroke (ke) on the next note. From C2 we have a similar set
with slightly different nuances, and then again upwards from
C3 and C4. Putting the groups across octaves like this makes
it easy to switch between them. >>
STEP BY STEP Bass tabla concepts and fast groove patterns
6
Essential elements of any proper tabla part are the
high-speed pick-up and doubling of the groove. This is
the basis for our first high-speed groove on the treble
tabla. It only uses the na' and te tones. Weve used two
versions of the na stroke to give more of a natural feel. >>
5
Another bass melody. This one employs a little high-
pitched flick at the end. This is a variation of the ke'
stroke used for embellishment. Notice how it leaps out
when theres a gap in the high tabla part. If this stroke was
employed over another staccato stroke on the high tabla, it
wouldnt be half as effective. >>
4
Here we have the bass and treble MIDI parts for the
second groove. Notice the melody and resolution of
the shape of the bass tabla part. As an experiment, try
using only one sample for all the bass tabla hits and hear
how it kills the part. >>
9
This pattern sounds much more complicated than it
actually is. The bass part repeats over two bars while
the treble part is one bar long. The treble part is based
on the part in the previous example, but with beats 2 and 3
turning the pattern around so that it starts half-way through
if you were playing ABCD ABCD for the first two beats, then
for the third and fourth youd play CDAB CDAB.
8
The whole bass part is actually four bars long. This is a
common characteristic of tabla: playing one very short,
repetitive part on one hand while the other hand
defines the pattern over a longer period. >>
7
Heres the first bar of the bass part for this fast pattern.
It stays fairly on the beat and fills any gaps in the treble
part, either with the bass tone or the closed staccato
bass tone. >>
TUTORIAL JUNE 2005 COMPUTER MUSIC
|
049
Q&A focus make music now Percussion programming
CMU87.t_tabla 049 28/4/05 2:31:19 pm
3
Here weve cut our part up into units of different lengths
to create something slightly more rhythmically
interesting. Weve changed the snap setting to eighth-
notes and cut some different length combinations. >>
2
Notice how this roll only uses four strokes. Here we see
it repeated to fill one bar. Thinking of this in a division of
eighth notes, this would be divided 2+2+2+2 to make
up the bar of 4/4. >>
1
Fast tabla rolls are very difficult to conceptualise and
program. They involve very fast linear stroke
combinations employing staccato tones. To play this on
a MIDI keyboard, we need to put a sample of the staccato
closed bass tone in our high tabla kit, panned to the centre
so as not to knock the roll off balance (the one disadvantage
of recording tablas in stereo). >>
6
Here weve deleted the very last eighth note, making
our combination of parts 3+3+2. This gives eight eighth
notes in total. >> 5
Repeating this three times makes a combination of
parts nine eighth notes long, divided 3+3+3. >>
4
We got this pattern from joining a two-eighth-note
section with a one-eighth-note section. >>
9
One funky groove later, weve stuck elements of all
this together and come up with this! Check it out on
the DVD-ROM 8
Finally weve reinforced the accents of the resonant high
na tone from the high tabla with the bass tone from
the bass tabla set. >> 7
Merging the parts creates one part thats one bar
in length, making it more manageable on the
arrange page. >>
STEP BY STEP Fast rolls
050
|
COMPUTER MUSIC JUNE 2005 TUTORIAL
make music now Percussion programming
CMU87.t_tabla 050 28/4/05 2:31:28 pm