Importance of counting in Vilambit Taans

I went to the class after preparing at least 12 taans. All the taans start from 4 and end on 11.

The bol pattern was supposed to be

Doubling the speed

However all my taans were totally unstructured and did not make any sense to my guru. The main reason is that I was not counting at all.

Sir insisted that I count and play. I couldn’t. That’s what I need to practice. What are the mistakes and learnings from last evenings’ class

• I was skipping notes in the taans. This was not necessary at the beginning stages where I was failing to count the notes properly
• I did not keep a count of swaras - Did the taan contain 2 swaras or 3 swaras ?
• I did not count while playing any of the taans. I had to count while playing. The rationale goes like this :
  • Concentrate on counting and play whatever you like, irrespective of whether it follows raag chaya or not
  • The counting has to be internalized
  • Once counting is internalized, then you must focus on the swaras so that raag chaya is maintained
• I was not changing the position of sum. GG M PP D was to be kept constant and then sum could fall on S by playing N S S S ,i.e.the 16th matra could be played in such a way that whatever note you want the sum to fall, you could play it that way
• Let’s say you want to stick to Dir Da Dir Da Dir Da Dir Da pattern and want to create taans with 2 swaras. How does one do it ?
  • GG M
  • GM G
  • MG M
  • MM G
• Let’s say you want to stick to Dir Da Dir Da Dir Da Dir Da pattern and want to create taans with 3 swaras. How does one do it?
  • GM P
  • PM G
• Let’s say you want to stick to Dir Da Dir Da Dir Da Dir Da pattern.Suppose you want the sum to fall on P. How does one create taans?
  • PP P
  • GM P
  • ND P
  • DD P
  • MM P
  • PD P
  • PM P
• Let’s say you want to stick to Dir Da Dir Da Dir Da Dir Da pattern. Suppose you want the sum to fall on G. How does one create taans?
  • GG G
  • NS G
  • SR G
  • PM G
  • GM G
  • MM G
  • SS G ( skipping a note but it is ok)
• Let’s say you want to stick to Dir Da Dir Da Dir Da Dir Da pattern. and you want to use 5 swaras. How does one create taans ?
  • SNDP M NDPM G DPMG R PMGR S
  • NSGM P SGMP D GMPD N MPDN S
  • NDPM G DPMG R PMGR S NSGM P
  • DPMG R PMGR S MGRS N RSND P
  • SNDP M NDPM P DPMG R SRGM G
  • SNDP M NDPM P NDPMP G GRSR S

I hope to practice the above taans by counting aloud the various beats. I have to put in atleast two hours daily if I am to get the counting right.