I recently talked with someone who had years of formal training in tabla in his childhood. But this man has not practised in years nor does he own a pair of tablas. Nevertheless, he has no problem accompanying a singer impromptu when called upon to do so. He admittedly does not remember most tals except perhaps tintal and keherwa. I asked him what theka he would play if he had to accompany in keherwa, he answer was "Depends on the song". When asked if he mentally recites the theka while playing, he answered in the negative. He just lets the fingers do the playing.
Some of you guys may have reached the stage when recitation of the bols is not necessary. For me it is hard to conceive. Any thoughts based on your experience would be appreciated.
I'm just a beginner,but I think if you knows how a rhythm works, you don� t need to recite any bol, only have to improvise with the rhythm. I think this person has all the reason.
If one has a good inner feel of certain tal and a good vocabulary from listening different recordings and practicing, it will come. If you have something under your belt, it feels easy. It's the result of doing your home work well.
I also know one or two guys who are impropmtu Tabla players. They may not be very well in playing Kaida or Relaas but when it comes to accomponiment, you might think they are expert in all aspects.
I think this all depends on your inner sense of anticipating or truely understanding the song from musical point of view.
I am also Tabla player for about last 9 years but do find it difficult to accompany sometimes. The problem with me is that I have to rely on bols which I have played or pracised many (or at least some) times. But I can not improvise new bols in the same taal.
There are a lot of players like that, there was a film on these courtesan musicians (can't remember the name) but the tabla players were all unformally trained accompanist, but all very skilled in there playing so I think you have consider the different styles just like we have in western music. classical , light classical , folk etc. I think the tabla training that we are familier with is the classical school.
Someone also once explained to me how practicing sets certain synapsis in the brain (and I'm way out of my field in explaining this) and I would love to here an educated explanation of this but anyway here's my poor attempt to explain what I heard.
By practicing your brain creates and then perfects this process which then runs and improves itself automatically and this has nothing to do with the thinking side of our brain so basically it's like are hands learn to play and so we don't have to be aware of it. as you practice something it gets created and stuck in your brain and will never go away, like riding a bike. If you stop, it will become unused and not work as well but it will always be there forever. it won't go away if you stop practising, when you start back up the brain will use that same synapsis and start perfecting it again.
Pete (Jan 07, 2003 03:07 p.m.):
I recently talked with someone who had years of formal training in tabla in his childhood. But this man has not practised in years nor does he own a pair of tablas. Nevertheless, he has no problem accompanying a singer impromptu when called upon to do so. He admittedly does not remember most tals except perhaps tintal and keherwa. I asked him what theka he would play if he had to accompany in keherwa, he answer was "Depends on the song". When asked if he mentally recites the theka while playing, he answered in the negative. He just lets the fingers do the playing.
Some of you guys may have reached the stage when recitation of the bols is not necessary. For me it is hard to conceive. Any thoughts based on your experience would be appreciated.
Hi, for some taals i have developed a sort of muscle memory which means that i dont have to recite the taals in my head and literally the 'fingers do the playing' . I guess this is why the tabla player that pete referred to has become so skilled in this manner.
I can these days play tintaal without thinking about it(not always I guess). Also (although not very well) have been able to improvise on the tintal theka. What I have started to do, is to count in my mind or recite the taal(always) while I am whether playing the theka or any other composition, so that I try to get a good sence of time. Hard it sounds but I am just starting and I will only find out if it works in a few months
(that is, if I keep up with it.) I haven't played any other theka seriously so i have to think about it when playing them. I have been playing for 4 years and I believe another two years
of tintal I should be able to move on to other taals naturally and then withi a year or so I should be able to play other taals and be able to improvise on them too without thinking much. Still, I should be playing few more taals for my coming exams!
