Music

I’ve been spending much of my free time practicing my two new loves: the Sitar and Tabla. For those unfamiliar, the Sitar is a classical Indian stringed instrument somewhat similar to the guitar. Like the guitar it has frets (although they are movable), but unlike the guitar the majority of the strings serve as drones—that is they are simply played open, while the melody is carried on a single string. I’ve been taking sitar lessons with a professor of music who lives in the town, and also Tabla lessons with a professional player. My knowledge of the guitar has helped me learn fairly quickly, but lessons on tuning and the basic technique have been great help.

The Tabla is a set of 2 small drums that are used to accompany almost every kind of Indian music. Unlike Western hand drums, they are played primarily by hitting with single fingers. There is much more technique involved than in any drum I have played previously—different parts of the drum only centimeters apart make different sounds, so it requires much precision. It is certainly a very subtle instrument.

I’m still struggling to get a grasp of Indian music theory. Traditionally, Indian classical music has no notation—the different musical notes and types of strokes are represented by “boles” or words (much like do re mi …). These words are meant to mimic the sounds of the instrument—for example “Dha Dha Tite Kite Dha” sounds pretty much just like that! The timing is typically broken up into 8 or 16 beats but when played at full speed they can come very fast!

Sorry, I can't find my pictures right now, you're gonna have to use wikepedia...