Being in it, then letting go

It recently dawned on me that I’ve been studying tabla for almost 20 years. Through the good times and the bad, I sit with my drums on a daily basis. I take the amazing repetoire that has been passed on to me by my teachers and try to breathe life into it. There are days when tears come to my eyes as I gain a bit more insight into the balance of my hand, how the tension in my jaw affects the tension in my wrist and the importance of elusive relaxed thumb and pinky. As my mind spins, I realize that the lessons in life can be applied to tabla and vice versa.

On February 4th, I will be presenting a tabla solo with the immensely talented George Koller joining me on dilruba. My goal is not to play to perfection but to enjoy the process and then let go as I move through the material. The audience will get a glimpse of these beautiful and mathematically brilliant tabla compositions, composed by musical geniuses (i.e. Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri, Ahmed Jan Thirakwa).

“Lehera II” is the sequel to my first solo performance at Musideum in 2012 (entitled “Lehera”). Lehera is the melodic cycle that represents the structure of the taal or time cycle in North Indian classical music. Within the lehera played by George, I will be exploring the movement of Jhap taal (time cycle of 10 beats), Chartaal ki sewari (time cycle of 11 beats) and Teen taal (time cycle of 16 beats). There will be explanations of tabla concepts including: taal, laya, tihai, teka, palta teka, kayda, rela, gat, tukra and chakradaar.

For more details check the live section of this site, and our FB invite. Please do come out and join me on this journey of being “in it” and then “letting go”.

~ Anita

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