Konnakol
art of performing percussion syllables vocally in South Indian Carnatic music, i.e., vocal imitation of Carnatic percussion sounds and patterns; the spoken component of solkattu
Konnakol (also spelled Konokol, Konakkol, Konnakkol) (Tamil: கொன்னக்கோல் koṉṉakkōl) (Malayalam: വായ്ത്താരി) (Telugu: కొన్నకోల్)is the art of performing percussion syllables vocally in South Indian Carnatic music. Konnakol is derived from Telugu (koni - to recite), it translates to “reciting the rhythmic syllables”. Konnakol is the spoken component of solkattu, which refers to a combination of konnakol syllables spoken while simultaneously counting the tala (meter) with the hand. It is comparable in some respects to bol in Hindustani music, as both allow for the composition, memorization, communication, and performance of rhythms. A similar concept in Hindustani classical music is called padhant.
Usage
Musicians from a variety of traditions have found konnakol useful in their practice. Prominent among these is John McLaughlin, who led the Mahavishnu Orchestra and has long used konnakol as a compositional aid. V. Selvaganesh, who plays alongside McLaughlin in the group Remember Shakti, and Ranjit Barot, who plays with McLaughlin in the group 4th Dimension, are other noted konnakol virtuosos. A few of the prominent names performing konnakol are B K Chandramouli, Dr T K Murthy, B C Manjunath, Somashekhar Jois, and Mattias 'IA' Eklundh of Freak Kitchen.
Danish musician Henrik Andersen wrote the book Shortcut To Nirvana (2005) and the DVD Learn Konnakol (2014).
“Konnakol” enters the record as art of performing percussion syllables vocally in South Indian Carnatic music, i.e., vocal imitation of Carnatic percussion sounds and patterns; the spoken component of solkattu. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Konnakol, performing and percussion can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3521984. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2005 and 2014.
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This entry incorporates text from “Konnakol” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.