Tala, Theka, and Tihai: A Workshop for Drummers and Beginner Tabla Players with Krissy Bergmark

Adult Group Class / Drumming Program

This workshop introduces core concepts from North Indian classical tabla, with a focus on how these ideas can inform and expand your rhythmic practice. Designed for drummers, percussionists, and beginner tabla players, it offers both practical tools and broader musical context.

Participants will learn to navigate time cycles (tala) through foundational rhythmic patterns (theka), developing a deeper sense of pulse and structure. We’ll also explore the tihai, a phrase repeated three times that resolves against the cycle, creating tension and release.

Through group exercises, participants will work together to practice maintaining tala while clapping and vocalizing tihai using tabla language (bols), translated into body percussion. Tabla players, and drummers with tabla sets, are encouraged to bring their instruments.

This workshop introduces core concepts from North Indian classical tabla, with a focus on how these ideas can inform and expand your rhythmic practice. Designed for drummers, percussionists, and beginner tabla players, it offers both practical tools and broader musical context.

Participants will learn to navigate time cycles (tala) through foundational rhythmic patterns (theka), developing a deeper sense of pulse and structure. We’ll also explore the tihai, a phrase repeated three times that resolves against the cycle, creating tension and release.

Through group exercises, participants will work together to practice maintaining tala while clapping and vocalizing tihai using tabla language (bols), translated into body percussion. Tabla players, and drummers with tabla sets, are encouraged to bring their instruments.

Krissy Bergmark is a tabla player, percussionist, improviser, composer, and educator who brings tabla into new contexts through collaborative, genre-fluid work. Rooted in her nearly twenty years of tabla study, and long-term mentorship with maestro Pandit Yogesh Samsi of the Punjab Gharana, her practice expands the tabla’s role across contemporary, improvised, experimental, and folk traditions. You can check out her work at www.krissybergmark.com, Instagram, and Facebook.