Lesson 4 - Part II

Hard ... harder ... hardest was the tone of the day. Too many bols on the Dagga. It's difficult to keep up.

No new bols, it's just the thekas that got complicated. There are seven thekas, and then you play the first with any of the rest

KaTa DeGhe NaaGe
KaTa KaTa KaTa
KaTa TeTe TeTe
KaTa DeGhe TeTe
KaTa DeGhe DeDhe
KaTa DeGhe TaGa
KaTa GheNa NaGhe

so, now you can play things like

KaTa KaTa KaTa KaTa DeGhe NaaGe
KaTa KaTa KaTa KaTa DeGhe NaaGe

KaTa TeTe TeTe KaTa DeGhe NaaGe
KaTa TeTe TeTe KaTa DeGhe NaaGe

and so on for the rest of the four also. The problem is with the repeated DeGhe. The left hand doesn't move a lot. I also realized that I need to make sure that my nails on my left hand's middle and index finger need to be properly trimmed. Otherwise, it hurts as well as messes up the Dagga skin. I think I can already see a small scratch on mine.

This doesn't sound very good because it's mostly flat sounds and I can't play as fast as I would like to. But, I'm getting there.

Lesson 4 - Part I

This was the first time I went to the class early at 7:30 instead of the usual 8:00. We started off with something different and then continued with the regular class. I guess the bols in the regular class proved to be a little more difficult. I really need to get my left hand moving soon.

I'm splitting this in two sections.

Phrases Introduced :

De Di Ghe Ne

De - Dagga - Middle Finger
Di - Tabla - All the four fingers hit on the syahi. Not the thumb. Sort of like a cup.
Ghe - Dagga - Index Finger
Ne - Tabla - Ring Finger at 4 o'clock on syahi

Compositions :

Dha Ge Te Te
Taa Ge Te Te
De Di Ghe Ne
Naa Ge Te Te

Dha Ge Te Te Te Te
Taa Ge Te Te Te Te
De Di Ghe Ne
Naa Ge Te Te Te Te

So what is the tabla ?

Getting to know the basics of the tabla. We have the tabla and the dagga. I'm going to use the terminology that I'm most accustomed to since childhood. This may not be entirely accurate so please don't quote me anywhere.

The Tabla - It's the right drum. Typically has most of the different sounds, where as the dagga is primarily used to maintain the beat. The black raised section in the middle is called the Syahi or Shaaee - Hindi/Marathi for ink. It's not made of actual ink though. The section just around it is called the Sur - which means Note. The last section is called the Kinar or the boundary. The rest of the equipment is called the gajra, dor and gatthhe. The pillow at the bottom is of course called gaddi. The drum itself is made of wood.

The Dagga - It's the big drum on the left. It's made of steel. The sections aren't really called much other than the Syahi. The sounds on this drum are a little muffled - it's primarily used for maintaining rhythm - the taal.

Something about the driver

I've always been interested in music. It's not that I just woke up today and decided that I should learn the tabla. I used to learn the harmonium in school. I can still play melodies and simple songs. I just never learnt chords, etc which make today's songs sound so "full", if I may use that word. Anyway, the interest stuck. I enjoy listening to any kind of music - be it classical or hard rock. As long as it's good music, I'll listen to it. Lately, whenever listen to ragas, I see myself listening more to the beat than the actual composition. Even when I'm driving my car, I keep tapping on my steering (much to the chagrin of my wife). So finally I decided, let's learn how to play the beat properly. Well, actually I have had this in mind for the last 4 years now ... but just never got around to doing it.

So, I signed up for weekly classes by Shri Arshad Syed at the ICC in Milpitas and I'm all fired to go.

Shree

Learning the table is turning out to be quite a challenging effort than what I had imagined. There's so much to learn ... so many places to go wrong ... and so many ways to make music beautiful. I'd like to treat this as a journey which is well documented. Should have started earlier, but anytime is a good time. So, let's begin.