> there's some very well developed verbalization of percussion

It's called bol[1] in Hindustani music, and koṉṉakkōl[2] in Carnatic music. The basic 4-count syllables are 'na dhin dhin na' in the former, and 'ta ka dhi mi' in the latter.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bol_(music)

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konnakol

Both are easily heard and seen performed by live musicians in the archetypal North and South Indian dance forms, Kathak and Bharatanatyam respectively.

For the life of me I couldn't cope with western bar notations especially regarding polyrhythms/polymeters trying to follow accents and groupings ... it gets unwieldy

So in the spirit of "pass the goddamn butter" [0] I was introduced to konnakol via this book [1] some time ago. There seems to be a lot of truth in the the notion: "if you can say it you can play it". Once I can "vocalize it" it is way easier to translate that into the instrument itself. It is very intuitive to learn this e.g. the "takadimi" route.

[A pretty fun dissection of a Meshuggah song with the help of konnakol.][2]

[0]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1NI4QAh_V3w

[1]https://www.amazon.com/You-Can-Ta-This-Precision/dp/19300800...

[2]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2iyd2zkgOU0

I think you are exactly correct. My big revelation in graduate school (music performance) was the idea that vocalizations of music "short circuit" our learning process and tend to get a performer closer to what we'd call an "expressive" or "musical" rendition. Notated music's function is simply to give a systematic way to for people to reproduce/recreate an aural experience, but it is a "lossy" format that western classical musicians have to spend years training in performance practice and interpretation to adequately recapture the expressive elements that are not easy to capture in notation but are vital for engaging performances.

Teen taal definitely, everyone loves that. Usually the first taal people begin to learn playing. I think you mean "ada chautaal"?

Yes the verbalization is called the "bol". "Bol" in hindi means things like "word", "speak", "lyrics", etc. Indian classical musicians don't use sheet music, so they have to orally pass down their teachings. The bol that Zakir Hussain (and all other tabla players) say _are_ the notes that they play. Word for word/note for note. Each sound on the tabla has its own name, which is expressed as an onomatopoeia like "dhin". Then you can verbalize the percussion you're about to play.

https://youtu.be/e8tfg2GBYP8?t=1549

Here's a great composition being verbalized, explained, and played by Zakir Hussain and his brother.

Thanks, I've been looking for that video.

The track I'm thinking of is Raag Bhimpalasi (from the excellent album, "Ravi Shankar: Sounds of India") which seems to be ada chautaal.