Tappa, understood to have been the staple diction of the erstwhile camel drivers, has since come to a ripened age, by being nurtured in the hands of some of the legendary masters in this genre. The word tappa stands for jumping, bouncing and skipping, implying the extraordinary rule of unremitting attempts made by a singer on the musical notes, not stopping or taking a pause for once. This outstanding formation is unique to tappa only, absent in the other Hindustani classical forms. It is thus composed of rhythmic and rapid notes, and such a style calls for immense and extreme hold over the singing diction. A contrary to which can damage the whole recital. Tappa is very unlike khayal rendition, crisp and highly volatile in its nature. And the few exponents like Ghulam Nabi, Pt. Bholanath Bhatt or Girija Devi have thus become legends in their own right.

It is usually held that tappa is derived from the songs and tunes sung by the camel drivers of North West Punjab. These songs were composed in Punjabi and Pusthu and, like thumri, were amatory in spirit. The word tappa is derived from the root word tap, which means to `jump`, `bounce`, or `rebound` in the manner of a bouncing ball.

Ghulam Nabi, better known by his pen name, Miyan Shori, is believed to be the creator of tappa. He was a musician in the court of Nawab Asafadullah of Awadh. Ghulam Nabi was taken by the folk tunes of North West Punjab while studying them, especially the jerky, zig-zag patterns they demonstrate, called zamzama. He garnered these tunes, stylized their vocal flourishes and modulations and set them to well-known lighter raagas like Kafi, Pilu, Gara and Khamaj. Soon enough, the new style caught the attention of many musicians. He settled down in Benaras and taught the form to numerous disciples.

The form itself, with its rapid movements, gives the impression of a briskly hopping ball. Singers attempt to capture these rapid rhythms by hopping from one note to the next, without respite. The song-text is very short and not as elaborately structured as a khayal or a thumri. Singers render it crisply and concisely. One of its most striking features is the singer`s use of an unrelenting cascade of jumpy and zig-zag taans called zamzama. Being a highly unpredictable style, the singer cannot, and should not, rest on any of the notes the way khayal and thumri singers do. He or she has to persistently hop from one note to the next improvising as he or she goes along using varieties of taans, which are not used in khayal. Unnecessary to say, this breathless form demands a great mastery over melodic and rhythmic aspects, as the singer has to improvise continually.

Sadly, tappa is seldom heard in concert circuits these days, as it is a highly demanding and difficult style to master. Also, the number of singers capable of rendering it competently has declined abruptly in the recent past. Tappa is most definitely on the `endangered` list of musical forms. Yet, many singers and instrumentalists have freely borrowed and continue to borrow the brisk embellishments like zamzama. Some gharanas have even gone to the extent of combining tappa with khayal, to give rise to an amalgamated form known as tapkhayal.

Some of the great exponents of tappa in this century are Pt. Bholanath Bhatt, Siddheshwari Devi and Girija Devi. The doyens of Gwalior gharana, Pt. Krishna Rao Shankar Pandit and Saratchandra Arolkar were known to sing it in a slow and unhurried pace. In the post-Independence era, it was Pt. Kumar Gandharva who played a substantial role in popularizing this form. Today, Malini Rajurkar is the only singer of repute who has made tappa an essential item in her concert repertoire and also renders it memorably.