when i told my music teacher (now ex - music teacher) who teaches the instrument, about this wonderful forum and just by how much i had learnt loging in and visitng warren's austen database he dismissed it as a waste of time. I could not believe his arrogance!!! He said that if i learnt from other sources i was going to play everything wrong but surely it would be more objective to the see the intrument from other perspectives and varying the material that we learn
I agree with you and congratulate you on making that teacher X teacher. I can understand when you get bol from other sources you might play it wrong or there might be some special technique to play that one but it is not acceptable to say you can not learn.
One wonderful thing about Indian music or any music and (ancklowged by all of musicians) is "there is no end for learning" no matter where you learn from. It is possible that what you learn could be wrong but that is why teacher is there.
Last thing Zakir become this great only with the experiments(and riyaz). So, be creative as long as it sounds good to your ear and is mathematically correct.
Indian teachers are usually quite conservative in their teaching. Thay come from very old traditions, where the specific technique are unique, they often don't acknowledge other masters but their own, from their area (of india) - even if they are second generation living in the west.
Therefore take it easy, you are not supposed to carry the ancient haritage on!!! (or are you) - you are probably supposed to use the technique and inspiration in a blend with your own cultural background.
Listen to as many different tablaplayers as possible, and take what you can use in your own playing. In contemporary music there are no boundarys.
And make it funky!
Derest
David Milo
I remember spending time with my teacher on the web and looking through compositions and later I teacher would play it and show the variation and intricasies involved in the particular composition which we found on the web. It was a great fun. I feel sorry I can not do that anymore since my move to UAE.
