Teentaal tabla online: 16 beats, theka and free practice player
Teentaal has 16 beats (matras) in four sections of four. You clap on beats 1, 5 and 13 and wave on beat 9. Beat 1 is sam, marked X. The theka is Dha Dhin Dhin Dha, Dha Dhin Dhin Dha, Dha Tin Tin Ta, Ta Dhin Dhin Dha.
Free, no sign-up. SurRoots opens on the Tabla panel with Teentaal already chosen. Press play.
New to the words? A matra is one beat. A vibhag is a section of the cycle. Sam is the first beat, marked X. Khali is a beat you wave, marked 0; the other marks are claps (tali). The theka is the taal’s basic pattern of bols, the spoken names of tabla strokes.
Teentaal at a glance
| Beats | 16 |
|---|---|
| Sections (vibhag) | 4+4+4+4 |
| Clap and wave | Claps on beats 1, 5 and 13; wave on beat 9 |
| Pattern | Clap, clap, wave, clap |
| Tempo | Played in every tempo class, slow to fast (see below) |
| Often heard in | Instrumental accompaniment and tabla solo; the most common taal in north Indian classical music |
| Also spelled | Teental, Tintal, Trital |
The Teentaal theka, section by section
| Section | Beats | Mark | Bols |
|---|---|---|---|
| Section 1 | 1 to 4 | X · sam · clap | Dha Dhin Dhin Dha |
| Section 2 | 5 to 8 | 2 · clap | Dha Dhin Dhin Dha |
| Section 3 | 9 to 12 | 0 · khali · wave | Dha Tin Tin Ta |
| Section 4 | 13 to 16 | 3 · clap | Ta Dhin Dhin Dha |
Bols are the spoken names of tabla strokes. Where a bol is spelled differently by different teachers, we say which spelling we print in the section below.
Teentaal, the classical taal you will meet most
David Courtney calls Teentaal “without any doubt the most common tal in the north Indian classical system of music”, and notes it is also called Maha tal, the great tal. The names Teental and Tintal are the same taal spelled differently, and Trital reflects its three claps.
The DigiTabla guide says it is the most common taal for both instrumental accompaniment and tabla solo, and, with its even 4-4-4-4 structure, the most accessible for new students and listeners after Keherwa and Dadra.
How to count Teentaal
Say the beats in fours and clap or wave on the first beat of each group:
1 2 3 4 | 5 6 7 8 | 9 10 11 12 | 13 14 15 16
Clap on 1 (sam, X), 5 (marked 2) and 13 (marked 3). On beat 9, turn your palm up and wave instead of clapping: that is the khali, marked 0. In the third section the Dhin bols of the other sections become Tin (Dha Tin Tin Ta), so the bols change at the khali as well as your hand. Beat 16 leads straight back to sam.
Where the sources differ
The bols agree everywhere we checked except beats 12 and 13, the end of the khali section and the start of the last. SwarGanga writes Ta Ta, Courtney writes Naa Naa, and Gangolli writes ta then na. Gangolli adds that the theka is often pronounced “na dhin dhin na” instead of “dha dhin dhin dha”, and that Teentaal is played rather differently at slow speeds. SurRoots shows beats 12 and 13 as Ta.
How fast is Teentaal played?
Researchers measure tempo in matras per minute (MPM), which is the same unit as SurRoots’ BPM: one matra, one beat. In a study of Hindustani recordings, the working ranges were slow (vilambit) 10 to 60 MPM, medium (madhya) 60 to 150 MPM and fast (drut) above 150 MPM. The same paper reports that the Teentaal theka adapts easily to every tempo, so Teentaal is played in all three.
One Teentaal cycle takes 12 seconds at SurRoots’ Slow preset (80 BPM), 8 seconds at Medium (120) and 6.6 seconds at Fast (145).
Practise Teentaal with SurRoots
- Press Open Teentaal in SurRoots. The taal menu is already set to Teentaal (16).
- Pick a tempo (start with Slow) and press the round play button.
- Clap and wave along. Basic keeps a steady theka with no variations; Pro adds variations, fills and a tihai.
- Press the tabla’s stop button once to end on sam, the way a tabla player would.
Try this: say the beat numbers aloud for one cycle, then drop the numbers and keep only the clap, clap, wave, clap. If you lose the wave, set Mark Sam with to Manjeera in Tabla settings so every sam is audible.
Questions about Teentaal
How many beats are in Teentaal?
Sixteen, in four sections of four. You clap on beats 1, 5 and 13 and wave on beat 9.
Where is the khali in Teentaal?
On beat 9, the first beat of the third section. You wave your hand instead of clapping, and the bols there are Dha Tin Tin Ta.
Is Teentaal the same as Tintal or Teental?
Yes. They are different spellings of the same 16-beat taal. It is also called Trital, a name that refers to its three claps.
The other six taals in SurRoots
- Ektaal: 12 beats, six pairs, two waves. The taal of slow khayal.
- Jhaptaal: 10 beats, 2+3+2+3. A medium-tempo taal with uneven sections.
- Rupak: 7 beats, 3+2+2. The one taal that starts on a wave.
- Dadra: 6 beats, 3+3. The light-music taal of film songs, bhajans and ghazals.
- Keherwa: 8 beats, 4+4. The folk-and-film taal, spelled four ways.
- Deepchandi: 14 beats, 3+4+3+4. Four silent beats and two versions.
Sources
Beats, sections, marks and bols checked against these pages on 6 November 2026. Where they disagree, we say so above rather than pick one quietly.