I have been playing Tabla for two weeks now, and I absolutely love it. I love the rhythms and sounds. I practice at least an hour everyday and go to class most days. My teacher's house is warm and friendly. Often, his one year old son comes out and starts causing banging on all of the drums, but it is adorable so I do not mind. Like Bharata Natyum, I have been using and learning "bols," the words that correspond to sound and rhythm patterns. Even though I have only been learning for a short time, I feel like I have learned so much. My host family and teacher say so at least. The tell me that my sound is getting better. I can tell too; I actually like the sound coming and the patterns now come much more easily. The muscle memory is quite amazing.
Practicing is meditative in that I will play the variation for around ten minutes. Playing the same thing over and over is not as frustrating as I thought it might be. It can get really frustrating when I do it so well at home, and then freeze during class, but the playing itself is great. I always practice around 4pm when I am feeling most tired from the day. At the end of the hour, I am never tired; I am so excited by the music.
I have started listening to more classical Indian music and it has brought peace to my room and my environs. I can hear the tabla masters and understand what kinds of patterns they are doing. I can hear that we are doing many of the same ones, but they play much faster and their sounds and more consistent. That is okay with me because two weeks ago, I could not even get a basic note to resonate.
I love my drums, I have three. Two smaller ones (diyina) and a big one (bahina). One of the small ones is a higher pitch drum. My first teacher bought it for me because it would be good for my small hands. I had to switch teachers for a strange circumstance that I will not get into, but the second teacher, whom I like much more, said that the small drum was a mistake. I agree with him; the smaller drum did not let my hands get stronger or more precise.
I have started Bharata Natyum after a month long break. It was very hard at first, my legs had forgotten how to half sit and I had forgotten some of the combinations, but they came back. I find the class frustrating sometimes. I basically am told for two hours that my hands, feet and everything else are wrong all of the time. I have yet to be told one good thing about my dancing from my teacher. I do not expect constant admiration, but I would like to hear that I did a variation particularly well or something.
I am learning how to tell stories by way of gesture. I have learned how to tell the story of how Krishna stole clothes from some maidens when they were bathing. I like the gesture work; it has allowed me to work on my eye, face, neck and hand expression. We are also working on harder pure dance combinations, which are fun. I have also learned more of the single hand expressions and what the hand expressions can be uses to gesture. Can you believe that one hand gesture can be used to gesture things like, a horse, cutting, darkness, forest, kindness, valor, heat and much more? I have learned twelve ways to use a flat hand with all fingers joined (patak). There are somewhere around 40 ways. There is a Sanskrit chant ( a shloka) that has them all, and I have been learning that.
It feels great to get myself so involved with the arts again. I missed the month without dancing and adding the drums has just made it better.
Practicing is meditative in that I will play the variation for around ten minutes. Playing the same thing over and over is not as frustrating as I thought it might be. It can get really frustrating when I do it so well at home, and then freeze during class, but the playing itself is great. I always practice around 4pm when I am feeling most tired from the day. At the end of the hour, I am never tired; I am so excited by the music.
I have started listening to more classical Indian music and it has brought peace to my room and my environs. I can hear the tabla masters and understand what kinds of patterns they are doing. I can hear that we are doing many of the same ones, but they play much faster and their sounds and more consistent. That is okay with me because two weeks ago, I could not even get a basic note to resonate.
I love my drums, I have three. Two smaller ones (diyina) and a big one (bahina). One of the small ones is a higher pitch drum. My first teacher bought it for me because it would be good for my small hands. I had to switch teachers for a strange circumstance that I will not get into, but the second teacher, whom I like much more, said that the small drum was a mistake. I agree with him; the smaller drum did not let my hands get stronger or more precise.
I have started Bharata Natyum after a month long break. It was very hard at first, my legs had forgotten how to half sit and I had forgotten some of the combinations, but they came back. I find the class frustrating sometimes. I basically am told for two hours that my hands, feet and everything else are wrong all of the time. I have yet to be told one good thing about my dancing from my teacher. I do not expect constant admiration, but I would like to hear that I did a variation particularly well or something.
I am learning how to tell stories by way of gesture. I have learned how to tell the story of how Krishna stole clothes from some maidens when they were bathing. I like the gesture work; it has allowed me to work on my eye, face, neck and hand expression. We are also working on harder pure dance combinations, which are fun. I have also learned more of the single hand expressions and what the hand expressions can be uses to gesture. Can you believe that one hand gesture can be used to gesture things like, a horse, cutting, darkness, forest, kindness, valor, heat and much more? I have learned twelve ways to use a flat hand with all fingers joined (patak). There are somewhere around 40 ways. There is a Sanskrit chant ( a shloka) that has them all, and I have been learning that.
It feels great to get myself so involved with the arts again. I missed the month without dancing and adding the drums has just made it better.
