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:
