![]() The ideal three-octave range of a vocalist is considerably easier to attain on sitar and sarod, where the range is provided on the strings in vocal alap. The point in the instrumental alap where the performance begins to be more rhythm-oriented and where the speed accelerates noticeably is the jor. A pulsation becomes obvious, too, although it is not consistent. Later, toward the end of the un-metered portion of the performance, the artist refers constantly to the drone pitch (by using the drone / rhythm strings on stringed instruments) and maintains a rapid, constant pulsation by plucking (or tonguing, on a wind instrument) each pitch separately. This articulation and this section of the performance are called jhala. The melody of the gat to follow is frequently foreshadowed in this jhala, as melody pitches stand out from the drone pitches in the rhythmic drive. With a tremendous climax of speed and virtuosity, the performer brings the un-metered portion of the performance to an end with jhala. ![]() Occasionally, the soloist challenges his tabla player at this moment by refraining from telling him in advance which tala the gat will be played in. Furthermore, the soloist has probably chosen a difficult or rare tala, such as one with 11 counts or one with 13 counts. Challenges such as these are part of performance practice in Hindustani instrumental music. There are two basic types of instrumental gats: Masit Khani gats and Reza Khani gats. Masit Khani gats are in slow or medium speed, and Reza Khani gats are in medium or fast speed. In performances, they are often linked as a pair- slow to fast- as the two types of khayal are linked. Most gats are only one tala cycle long and function both melodically and metrically in the performance. A gat's melodic shape is determined partly by the structure of the particular raga being played, but various compositional means are employed to show off the structure of the tala cycle, as well. One of the compositional elements of sarod and sitar gats is stroking patterns- patterns of inward strokes (called da), outward strokes (ra), and a quick succession of in and out (dira). The ideal Masit Khani gat, for example, has the following basic pattern: The stroking pattern divides the tala cycle into two equal parts: counts 12 to 3 (past sam) and counts 4 to 11.The rhythm and melodic contour of a gat are additional compositional elements that may be used to delineate the tala structure. Beyond the initial playing of the gat melody that begins the gat portion of the performance, the artists proceed quickly to improvisation. The gat returns in part or in full at cadences. ![]() The speed accelerates throughout the gat improvisation and the performance arrives finally at a breathtaking jhala section towards the ending. The jhala is metered on this occasion, but the same driving rhythm heard in unmetered jhala is obtained by constant articulation of pitch Sa. This type of instrumental sitar and sarod alap-jor-jhala-gat sequence is probably the best known of all Indian music due to the popularity of some of India's finest instrumentalists: sitarist Pt Ravi Shankar, sarodist Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, and drummers Alla Rakha and Chatur Lai. Sitarist Ustad Vilayat Khan is known for a somewhat different style of this type of performance. His style is said to be gayaki (vocal) style. That is, he tries to reproduce on sitar the legato style of vocal music. |