Basic Ornamentation

Ornamentation is the act of making something prettier. As such, we can make our handpan rhythms prettier by ornamenting them!

We are going to introduce some primary forms of ornamentation to our repertoire, by using the Ka that we have just learnt.

The Ka is an ornamental stroke, because it is almost exclusively used for ornamentation, and it is never part of a rhythm’s core. Let’s look at how we can ornament the rhythm that we’ve already learnt, the Heavy Sa’idi!

Adding ornaments to the Heavy Sa’idi #

Let’s get started. The ornamented version of the Heavy Sa’idi we are about to learn looks as follows:

Now, upon first glance, that is quite a complicated rhythm! We’ve added four strokes into the rhythm we were playing previously, and the last section is relatively advanced to play. Nevertheless, I’m confident you will be able to play this rhythm.

For us to play this rhythm, let’s break it down into some more accessible versions so we can progress up to it. Since this is one of the first rhythms we are learning, we’re going to break it down a lot more than we usually would, so if you’re finding it easy, you might get through this lesson quite quickly! If you’re struggling a little, don’t worry. Take your time, practise, and it will come.

Progression 1 – Adding a single Ka #

In our first progression, we are going to start by taking the standard Heavy Sa’idi and adding a single Ka.

I’d like you to get used to walking this rhythm too (like we did with the basic Heavy Sa’idi). However, there is a slight twist in this one. I want you to split the rhythm into two distinct sections. The first section is Ding – Ding, and the second section is Ding – Ding – Ka – Tek. Walk the rhythm out like this:

Note that on the 3rd and 8th footsteps, you should stay silent and not say anything. After a few minutes of walking out this rhythm, you should have it memorised. Remember to think of the two separate sections, as we will use these later on when building up our rhythm.

When you say “Ka”, say it quietly. It will help your hands remember that the Ka is quiet too.

Once you are confident with saying the rhythm and understand the two sections, play it on the handpan! Your right hand plays the dings and the Tek, and your left hand plays the Ka. I’m confident that with some practice, you’ll get it.

Progression 2 – Joining our two sections #

Once you’ve mastered the first progression, it’s time to move on to the second. This progression joins the sections you have already practised with a Ka. Let’s first look at the tab:

For this progression, we are going to join the sections we learnt last time with a Ka, as follows:

Section 1 (Ding Ding) → insert a Ka → Section 2 (Ding Ding Ka Tek)

It might help to walk out the rhythm as you did for the previous progression:

If you can master saying this rhythm, and you’re comfortable with it, give it a shot on the handpan! This one should drop into place nicely if you’ve gotten this far.

Progression 3 – The Teka #

Congratulations on making it to the final progression. In this progression, we will look at the “Teka” that is played at the end of the rhythm, to join the end of one cycle to the start of the next. This is the fastest pair of strokes we have played so far: a light Tek and a Ka, which we’ll call a “Teka”. The tab looks like this:

As you can see, the end of the rhythm contains a Tek and a Ka. However, these have some features we haven’t seen before:

• The Tek is outlined, not solid, and written with a lowercase t. This is a light Tek: an ornamental Tek, played much more lightly than a normal Tek, but still with your right hand.
• The light Tek and the Ka are very close together – they are played immediately after each other (at twice the speed that you play the Ding Ding!). To help us with this, we will refer to them as a “Teka”, rather than a “Tek Ka”.

The light Tek is played with your right hand, and the Ka straight after it with your left hand, so the Teka passes from one hand to the other.

Mastering this Teka is essential to play this rhythm properly. For us to learn it, let’s take a little break from the Heavy Sa’idi and study a more straightforward phrase:

This is a phrase that needs to be played many times to feel it properly. Note that it only lasts one beat, which means that we repeat it on every beat. It sounds like this:

TekaDing – TekaDing – TekaDing.

To internalise this rhythm, I’d like you to walk it out, just as we’ve done previously. This time though, you’re going to do something slightly different:

• On each footstep, you should be saying Ding.
• Before each Ding, there should be a Teka.
• The Teka and the Ding should be so close together that it’s almost as if it were one word: TekaDing.
• So, every time you take a step, you should say TekaDing, while ensuring that your foot only actually touches the ground when you say the Ding part of TekaDing.
• Try and walk for a few minutes while saying this phrase! By the end of this exercise, you should understand how this TekaDing is used in action.
• After you’ve walked this exercise, try and play the rhythm on your handpan. TekaDing, TekaDing, TekaDing, etc.

From this exercise, you should notice that the Teka is directly connected to the Ding, even though the Ding is at the beginning of the next cycle. This is precisely the case in our Heavy Sa’idi:

At the end of the rhythm, we are going to play a Teka which leads directly into the first ding of the repeated rhythm. Let’s play this rhythm in sets of four so that we can get used to joining the cycles together with this Teka:

Notice how the 16th beat (the very last beat on the bottom line) finishes with just a Tek. This is because we aren’t going to join this final cycle onto anything, so we don’t need our Teka. Let that last Tek, and the last ding before it, ring out.

There we have it. Practise this ornamented Heavy Sa’idi and feel proud that you can play such a complicated rhythm! It’s no easy accomplishment!

Remember, if you’re struggling, slow the tempo right down on the tab above and play along.