Thai Language Blog

Given the previously mentioned issues with Thai sheet music, I asked around friends who were more or less Thai traditional music experts to get some guidance. It turns out there is sheet music which has slightly more detail out there. 

A perfect example can be found here:

http://www.sakamula.com/note.html

So what do all those dashes and vertical lines mean?

Thai music can be divided up into 8 rooms (ห้อง hawng3), and in each room there are four notes (โน้ต not4). For example:

|ดดมซ | – ซซล | ทดรม | – - – - | มรดล | ซลดม | ดรดด | – ดดด |

A dash symbol (-) can have two meanings. If it is followed right after a note, such as ซ- and ม- in the above example, it means you should extend that note twice as long. Instead of hitting it once, you hit it several times in rapid style. This is called a graw1 กรอ.  This is regardless of the (-) being in the following room. In this video you can hear both single notes and graw’d notes:

If you see multiple dashes together, it’s a pause.

So how does the ching conductor come into play? Well, there are three different styles – each appropriate for different types of traditional Thai music. Each style is defined by the number of levels, or ชั้น chan4.

3 Levels สามชั้น – The slowest ช้าสุด.

With the first style, the ching beats at the end of every other room as so:

| – - – - | – - – ฉิ่ง | – - – - | – - – ฉับ | – - – - | – - – ฉิ่ง | – - – - | – - – ฉับ |

4 Levels สี่ชั้น – Medium speed เร็วขึ้น.

With this style, the ching beats at the end of each room as so:

| – - – ฉิ่ง| – - – ฉับ| – - – ฉิ่ง| – - – ฉับ| – - – ฉิ่ง| – - – ฉับ| – - – ฉิ่ง| – - – ฉับ|

1 Level หนึ่งชั้น (ชั้นเดียว)– Fastest speed เร็วสุด.

This style is meant for the fastest of music and has the ching beating with every other note:

| – ฉิ่ง – ฉับ| – ฉิ่ง – ฉับ| – ฉิ่ง – ฉับ| – ฉิ่ง – ฉับ| – ฉิ่ง – ฉับ| – ฉิ่ง – ฉับ| – ฉิ่ง – ฉับ| – ฉิ่ง – ฉับ|

A section of music is called a tawn3 ท่อน. Music is often divided into sections when certain parts are repeated (like the chorus, for example).

A practice sentence for the more advanced learners:

 Thai music has 8 rooms, and 4 notes per room.

Don1dtree1 thai1 mee1 baed2 hawng3 hawng3 la4 see2 not4

ดนตรีไทยมี 8 ห้อง ห้องละ 4 โน้ต

In my Thai music class, the teacher printed out these letters and cut/taped them directly onto the instruments so can easily find them. If you see a ฟ, look for the ฟ on the instrument and hit it. Done. In this respect I’d say it’s easier than western sheet music – no need to count lines and match them to seemingly random buttons on the clarinet (or whatever).

But how do we know the speed of the music? Or where the pauses are? Or which notes are long and which are short, or which notes are loud and soft or even which octaves it’s in?!?!

I personally find Thai sheet music almost useless other than to jog my memory. If I haven’t already heard the music, or just can’t remember it, I can only guess at how the notes are played. As such Thai music is very open to improvisation and emotion, resulting in music that’s never played the same twice. Some would say that’s a good thing, but to me it’s a hindrance.

note: These days everything is on youtube, so that helps looking up songs.

Classical Thai music players do have a conductor, but to the untrained eye (ear?) you would never know. Within the Thai orchestral group you’ll see many instruments, and you’ll likely pay the least attention to simplest one – the tiny cymbal:

This cymbal is called ching2 ฉิ่ง, and only makes two different sounds depending on how they are hit together: ฉิ่ง ching2 and ฉับ chab2. While the other instruments get all the attention due to glamorous looks, size, and complexity, this seemingly unimportant ching player is the conductor!

Although the ching player isn’t in front of the other instrumentalists to see, the loud ching sound keeps the beat effectively. But alas, this is still a bit limited compared to the tools available to a western director. I also find the Thai conductor a bit random with the beat – it’s not always consistent.

The beat is determined by hitting the cymbals.
Bawk2 jang1wa2 nai1 gaan1 dtee1 ching2
บอกจังหวะในการตีฉิ่ง
Enjoy this tutorial video on using the ching:

to be continued . . .

When I was in grade school I had about ~5 years of formal musical training, most of it on the clarinet. I’ve taken several months of Thai instrument classes recently and it’s definitely been a ‘Thai’ experience I’d like to share. As not all my readers can read sheet music, or has musical experience, I’ll quickly review how western music works first. And then we’ll move into how to read Thai sheet music.

music
don1dtree1
ดนตรี

For those who cannot read western sheet music, here is a basic summary. Refer to the image of sheet music above.

In the top row, at the far left, you’ll see two numbers (in this case 6 and 8). These numbers, whatever they may be, represent the speed that the entire musical piece should be played at.

You then see a bunch of horizontal lines on each row. The lines define the pitch of each note – higher lines are for higher notes. Notes above those lines are an octave higher, and notes below are an octave lower. An octave, meaning eight, are the 8 key notes (do re me fa so la ti do).

A hollow white note is a long note, a dot above a note makes a note have a very short sound, notes that are connected by a curved line have a smooth transition sound between them, long curvy lines are crescendos and decrescendos, etc. etc. The list goes on. And to coordinate the orchestra, a conductor is up front directing. He has various hand motions that help everyone keep the same beat, to when to start and end songs, to know if the group is playing too loud or too soft, etc.

The point I’m making is that western sheet music is filled with information describing exactly how a piece is played. Every little detail is defined and nothing is left to guesswork.

But quite the opposite is true with Thai sheet music!

A typical Thai song would look something like this:

ฟฟฟฟฟซซซซซฟรลดดรดดรฟลดลซฟรฟรดฟรรดรฟซฟรฟซลฟซลดลรลดดรดดรฟ

And that’s it. Just a string of notes with no accompanying information.

Each letter represents a note, corresponding to:

โด-เร-มี-ฟา-ซอล-ลา-ที
which sounds just like:

do re me fa so la ti

to be continued . . .