RUPAK TAL
Lesson 2
Teaching Artist: Mir Naqibul Islam
SUMMARY
This is the second lesson of the South Asian Rhythm & Grooves unit. Students will be introduced to the seven-beat groove, rupak tal. They will learn how to recite the groove and clap along with the rhythm. Students will then perform together as a group.
OBJECTIVE
Summarize important information about the culture, instruments, and sounds of South Asia.
Describe the rhythmic structure and characteristics of rupak tal by listening to examples in this groove.
Demonstrate and apply hand gestures for keeping time.
Recite bols in a steady rhythm: “Ti – Ti – Na – Dhi – Na – Dhi – Na.”
Perform the rupak tal groove using counting patterns and tabla bols (tabla words).
MATERIALS
Body percussion
Adaptive instrument options: feet, tongue clicking, harmonica, gripping aids for holding mallets or sticks
EXPLORE
Display the Google Slides: Rupak Tal. Show the students a slide with pictures of tabla, sitar, bansuri, and harmonium. Play short audio clips for each instrument: tabla, sitar, bansuri, and harmonium.
After showing and playing the examples, ask students: Do you know the names of any of these South Asian instruments? Which one sounds like something you’ve heard before?
Introduce Students to these songs that are based on rupak tal. Allow students to react to the music. Ask: Which instruments did you hear in the songs? How did this music make your body feel—did it make you want to move, sit still, or relax?
LEARN
Play Rupak Tal Watch & Learn. After watching the instructional video with Mir, begin by leading the class in counting the seven-beat rupak rhythm aloud together:
“One, two, three, four, five, six, sevent” keeping a steady medium tempo (around 120bpm).
Repeat the count in groups of four or eight cycles, emphasizing the accents on beats 1,4 and 6.
Introduce the hand gestures for keeping time: Practice these gestures together while continuing to count aloud
Beat 1: Wave your right hand in the air.
Beat 2: Touch the tip of your right pinky with your right thumb.
Beat 3: Touch the tip of your right ring finger with your right thumb.
Beat 4: Clap your right hand onto your left palm.
Beat 5: Touch your right pinky to your left palm.
Beat 6: Clap your right hand onto your left palm.
Beat 7: Touch your right pinky to your left palm.
Divide the class into two groups. Have one group keep time using numbers (1–7) and the other group mirror the pattern using hand gestures. Then switch roles so everyone practices both counting and physical timing.
Once students are confident, replace the numbers with *bols — reciting:
“Ti – Ti – Na – Dhi – Na – Dhi – Na”
*Bols are special sounds or syllables used in South Asian music to help remember and say rhythms out loud. Musicians use them like a musical language to practice and understand patterns of beats.
Repeat the cycle several times as a group, then play a short children’s song in rupak tal and encourage students to clap or gesture along with the rhythm.
Have students practice independently or as a group using the Rupak Tal Practice and maintain a steady seven-beat cycle. Clap or use hand gestures in time saying the bols, “Ti – Ti – Na – Dhi – Na – Dhi – Na.”
PERFORM+SHARE
Invite a few students to demonstrate the full rupak cycle—first counting “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7” twice; then repeating it with hand gestures; and finally reciting the bols, “Ti – Ti – Na – Dhi – Na – Dhi – Na.”
After the demonstrations, invite the whole class to join in. Perform together using claps, hand gestures, and bols of rupak tal. Share a video, picture, or artifact of the performance on the S’Cool Sounds Padlet.
Tell students in the next lesson they will introduced to the eight-beat groove, keherwa tal.