Take rhythmic patterns you already feel in Carnatic gati and konnakol, and translate them into Western rhythmic notation an AP Music Theory student could read.
Geetanjali School of Music teaches Carnatic vocal and instrumental music to students who often sit at the intersection of two rhythmic worlds. Many of our students also take AP Music Theory, where they're asked to hear and write quarter notes, eighth notes, sixteenth notes, rests, dotted rhythms, ties, triplets, tuplets, and syncopation. They already do all of this — through gati, nadai, konnakol, and korvais — just in a different language.
We want a project that treats notation as a representation of musical time, not the music itself. Your job is to move fluently between the two systems.
Start with three Carnatic rhythmic patterns you already understand. Perform and record each one. Identify the underlying pulse and subdivision (gati/nadai), then transcribe it into Western rhythmic notation. Then compose three of your own short rhythmic pieces and present each one twice: once in Western notation, once in konnakol/Carnatic notation. Record audio or video of every composition.
Wrap the work with a 4–6 page written explanation of your translation process — where the two systems map cleanly, where they get awkward, and what a student loses or gains by switching. Finish with a short AP-style rhythm quiz (with answer key) drawn from your compositions, so a future AP Music Theory student could actually practice with it.
You'll receive: reference recordings of gati and nadai patterns, sample korvais and konnakol syllables, notation templates, the AP Music Theory rhythm rubric, and direct feedback from Geeta Shankar on both the Carnatic and Western sides of your transcriptions.