Tutorial on Khartal, Folk musical instrument of Rajasthan by nadsadhna.com

Nad Sadhna Institute for Indian Music & Research Centre (www.nadsadhna.com)
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Tutorial on Khartal, Folk musical instrument of Rajasthan

Welcome to the tutorial on how to hold the khartal.

But before this, let us briefly know about khartal also known as kartal. It is a four-piece wooden instrument clapped together to create the sound.

Basically, khartal is used in folk and devotional songs of Rajasthan as a percussion instrument

Let us now see how to hold a khartal in your hand.

- First, take khartal in your hand, 2 in each like this. With the help of your thumb try to hold one piece of khartal and keep another piece loosely on other four fingers.

- Now do the same with the left hand. Make sure that you hold the khartal with your thumb tightly. It is considered to be a difficult instrument to play because of its grip, as the pieces on fingers do not have any firm grip. It is just placed loosely in your hands. So be careful while clapping khartal, otherwise it may fall.

- After holding khartal with your hands, you can create your own rhythm by clapping khartal towards each other.

- While hitting khartal towards each other, make sure to hit the khartal held on your four fingers on the center of the opposite khartal.

The syllables used in this instrument are ‘TA’ and ‘KA’.

‘TA’ should be played from right hand and ‘KA’ with the left hand.

The rule is reversed for the left-handed people.

When the khartal are played together, it creates the sound of ‘TRA’.

Importantly, in ‘TRA’ syllable, it should not be clapped absolute together, but there should be difference of fraction of a second, So that the sound TRA is audible.

These 3 syllables create the whole language for this instrument.

Let us now see different rhythm patterns and practice them accordingly.

Now, make some voice modulation.

Hit the first one hard and rest three normally.

As you can see here, just the voice modulation has changed the rhythm pattern completely.
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Now let us explore more rhythm patterns.

1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2

Usually, we see that performers on the stage hold the khartal facing inwards like this.

You can now explore many rhythm patterns by yourselves.

We are not professional khartal player. This video is made as a basic reference on how to hold the instrument and going about starting it.