How to use SurRoots

1. Set your Sa

Sa is the home note you sing from. Choose it under Your Sa (key) at the top. Everything else (tanpura, pad and tabla) follows this key.

Not sure which key? Pick the note you can sing without straining up or down, and ask your teacher on day 1: “Which pitch (shruti) should we set the tanpura to?”

2. Start the tanpura

1. Choose Tanpura in the row of three buttons.
2. Press the round play button. The drone starts in your Sa, and the small dot on the Tanpura button shows it is playing.
3. Leave First string on Pa for most raags. Pa is the fifth note above Sa (Sa Re Ga Ma Pa). For a raag without Pa, choose Ma, the fourth note.
4. Set the volume with the slider.

Tanpura settings holds the plucking speed (slow, medium or fast) and Fine tune. Fine tune moves the pitch in steps smaller than one key. Use it when a harmonium or a teacher’s recording sits between two keys. It moves the pad and the tabla too.

3. Add the pad (optional)

The pad is a soft electronic sound that holds Sa and Pa in the same key. Choose Pad and press play. Brightness changes the tone, and Add upper Sa adds the Sa an octave up.

4. Play the tabla

1. Choose Tabla, then pick a taal from the menu. The number in brackets is how many beats it has.
2. Set the tempo in beats per minute (BPM):
   • − and + change it by 1.
   • −5 and +5 change it by 5.
   • ÷2 and ×2 halve or double it.
   • Tap in time with the speed you want.
   • Slow, Medium and Fast jump to 80, 120 or 145.
3. Press play. The tabla is tuned to your Sa.

Reading the beat cycle. The big number is the beat you are on. The row of boxes is one full cycle, split into its sections. X marks sam, the first beat. 0 marks khali, shown with a wave of the hand. The other numbers are claps (tali). The bols under the boxes are the strokes being played now.

Basic or Pro. Basic plays the plain theka, the taal’s basic pattern. Pro adds variations, fills and a tihai (a phrase played three times that lands on sam). Both are free. If you switch while the tabla plays, the change starts at the next sam.

Learn each taal. Every taal has its own page with the theka by section, the clap and wave marks and a player already set to it: Teentaal, Ektaal, Jhaptaal, Rupak, Dadra, Keherwa and Deepchandi.

5. Mark sam with a sound

Open Tabla settings and set Mark Sam with to Manjeera or Bell. You hear it on every sam, which helps you keep your place while you sing. The same sheet has the tabla volume and a tempo slider.

6. Stop on sam

Press the tabla’s stop button once and SurRoots finishes the cycle and ends on sam, the way a tabla player would. The button counts down the beats that are left, and a ring fills until the tabla reaches sam. Press it a second time to stop at once.

Stop all is at the top, next to Your Sa (key). While the tabla plays, it lets the tabla end on sam, then fades out the tanpura and pad. Its label changes to Stop now: press it again to stop everything at once.

7. Save and share your setup

SurRoots remembers your last Sa, taal, tempo and volumes in this browser, so it opens the way you left it. They are saved only in this browser.

Teachers: set the Sa, taal and tempo for a student, then press Help next to Your Sa (key). In the Choosing your Sa sheet, press Copy link to this setup. Send the link. It opens SurRoots with the same settings, and it doesn’t overwrite the student’s own saved setup unless they change something.

To keep SurRoots one tap away, add it to your home screen or bookmarks. On some phones and browsers SurRoots shows a tip with the steps.

8. If something doesn’t work

• No sound on iPhone or iPad: turn off silent mode, then press play again.
• A message says this browser can’t play the tools: SurRoots is built for recent versions of Safari, Chrome, Edge and Firefox. Try one of those.
• The low string is hard to hear: use headphones or a speaker. Phone speakers are small.
• You want a phone app instead: see the apps our family uses, with prices.

Found a mistake, or stuck? Email contact@soundrootsglobal.com.

Open SurRoots →

New to the two traditions? Read Carnatic vs Hindustani.