Getting Started With Trop
When you see printed bible
text, it includes consonants, vowels, trop signs
and a few other special markings. If you
know your consonants and vowels, most of what remains is trop. This is the first
verse of the Torah. Find all the consonants and vowels.
Remove the consonants and vowels. This is what is
left:
Some trops are more important
than others. Two have vital importance:
If you only want to know two trops, there are the two
to know. With just these two you can chant the whole Hebrew Bible.
Not everyone uses the same melodies for the trops. But
in most formulations, etnachta goes up and sof pasuk goes down, like this. Sing it with me a few times to get the
hang of it.
Etnachta means resting. Sof pasuk means end of verse.
Sof pasuk tells you that the word containing it is the end of the verse
(sentence).
A verse always has one sof pasuk. Most verses have one
etnachta. A very short verse might not have an etnachta. There is never more
than one etnachta.
Thus etnachta divides
a verse into two parts, and sof pasuk ends
the verse.
Say just the two
words (elohim ha’aretz) that
contain etnachta and sof pasuk. Now try singing them with
me. Do it again until you feel completely comfortable with those two words.
Do you feel like taking a big leap and trying the whole
verse? Here goes Sing it with me a few times.
Feeling brave? Want to get a preview of where all this
is leading.
I’m not going to explain the other trops (the full
sequence is tipcha munach etnachta mercha tipcha mercha sof-pasuk) right now,
but just so that you can hear the difference, here’s what this verse sounds
like if I actually represent all the trops in the
verse. Sing it with me, or alternate between listening and singing.
Describe the shapes of the trops. (Ideas: bracket,
quarter circle, wishbone, vertical, end stop. Invent your own descriptions too.)
Trops following interesting and meaningful graphic design. The chosen shapes
are not random. They sometimes clue you in on how different trops work and what
functions they have.