Understand a ghazal in one evening

Understand a ghazal in one evening

This path is for a listener who loves ghazals and wants to hear what is happening inside one. It takes about an hour of reading, with two BeatRootRaga recordings to listen to along the way.

The first guide explains the form with two of our own recordings. The next five are short glossary pages for the words every ghazal singer uses: the sher, the matla, the radif, the qafia and the maqta. Then one poet, Jaun Elia, whose ghazal we recorded. The last two guides are the rhythm cycles most sung ghazals sit on, keherwa and dadra, with clap patterns you can follow.

How to use this path

• Read the first guide with the recording playing, and pause at the matla and the maqta when the guide points to them.
• The five glossary pages take two minutes each. Read them in order, because each term builds on the one before.
• Count along with the keherwa guide on the metronome, then listen to the recording again and find the sam.

The lessons

1. 1
   What is a ghazal? Structure explained with two BeatRootRaga originals

   explainer · 8 min

   A ghazal is poetry built from self-contained couplets, or pairs of lines, joined by rhyme and a shared pattern of line length and rhythm. When sung, a returning melody connects the couplets, while repeated lines, melodic changes and pauses give listeners time to hear the meaning.

2. 2
   Sher

   glossary · 1 min

   A sher is a pair of lines in a ghazal, a poem of self-contained pairs linked by rhyme and a shared rhythmic pattern. The first line sets up a thought, and the second completes or turns it.

3. 3
   Matla

   glossary · 1 min

   The matla is the opening couplet, or pair of lines, of a ghazal, a poem built from self-contained couplets linked by rhyme and rhythm. You hear it at the start of a sung ghazal, where singers often repeat it to establish the melody.

4. 4
   Radif

   glossary · 1 min

   Radif is a word or phrase repeated at set line endings in a ghazal, poetry built from self-contained pairs of lines. It ends both lines of the opening pair and the second line of every later pair, becoming a musical refrain when sung.

5. 5
   Qafia

   glossary · 1 min

   Qafia is the rhyming word or syllable just before the radif, the refrain repeated word for word. You hear it in sung ghazals, poems built from self-contained pairs of lines joined by rhyme and a shared pattern of length and rhythm.

6. 6
   Maqta

   glossary · 1 min

   A maqta is the final pair of lines in a ghazal, a poem built from self-contained pairs of lines, where the poet includes their pen name. You meet it in sung ghazals, where it closes and signs the poem, though not every ghazal has one.

7. 7
   Jaun Elia: the poet behind Kitne Aish Se Rahte Honge

   explainer · 6 min

   Jaun Elia was an Urdu poet whose speakers argue with themselves and mock their own grief. Hear his words in BeatRootRaga’s Kitne Aish Se Rahte Honge, composed by Alap Desai and sung by Gayatri Asokan.

8. 8
   Keherwa: the 8-beat taal of film songs, bhajans and folk

   reference · 4 min

   Keherwa is an eight-beat taal, or repeating rhythmic cycle, arranged as 4 + 4. To recognise it, listen for two groups of four, a lighter second half, and the recurring drum pattern: dha ge na ti | na ka dhin na.

9. 9
   Dadra: the 6-beat taal

   reference · 3 min

   Dadra is a taal, a repeating rhythmic cycle, with six beats grouped as 3 + 3. Keherwa has eight beats, so listen for the return to beat 1 after six or eight beats to tell them apart.

Start with lesson 1