Beautification of Music through Tabla

Travel Day 884 – Kolkata, INDIA

Today was one last and final day of Tabla class with my teacher and from now on I would seriously have to figure out how to continue…

Beautification of Music through Tabla

It was funny because the last two days my teacher had finally taken the time to actually sit down with me and go over certain things. The result was the realization that I had to go back to square one and start over again while improving my technique. This was obviously a great and helpful realization, but I personally was just hoping that we could have come to this conclusion on the first day of teaching in India and not on the last…

So if the morning was rather a little bit frustrating, the afternoon was then quite interesting again as my teacher was holding a seminar at the near by Rabindra Bharati University. The curse was a special arrangement and held on the topic of beautification of vocal music through the use of Tabla…

Unfortunately the first two hours held in Bengali were a real drag, but the continuation under the use of life music examples were an actual treat. Most of the demonstrated performances were obviously vocal but two pieces were under the use of Sitar and they were really amazing…

What was also amazing to me was the visit of the local university. This must have been the first time in my life that I have a main auditorium with a few blankets on the floor instead of the usual fixed seating. Also this must have been the first time that I have seen so many women in one spot within India. It was actually really interesting to see and to observe the local behavior…

Guests on Chairs and Students on the Floor

There seemed to be a special etiquette of how to address my teacher and there seemed to be hierarchical order within the auditorium. All the students were sitting on the blankets on the floor, while the organizers, guests and musicians were provided with plastic picknick chairs. As a guest I found myself on a picknick chair and when the chai boy came in the serve tea, we on the chairs were served right after my teacher and obviously before all the students on the floor…

So while the music was great, being able to observe the local culture in a university was even better, but having both in combination was definitely the best… : )