March 23, 2006 | Posted by at 5:19 AM

If These Tablas Could Talk

Sharaab

My dad once bought us kids a set of tablas and sat my younger brother down with a tabla teacher. All in the hope that we'd become half-blooded-but-worthy Indian musicians who could accompany his late night singing.

When the instructor taught the tabla's sounds, he'd make the noises with his mouth, like "Taddum takka tai takka taddum takka tai." (I'm paraphrasing. ) We loved this.

Which gives me a nostalgic soft spot for the sample that drops at the 1:06 mark on this one:

Sharaab - "High Life"

The track's off Sharaab's new album Evolution. You can't buy it quite yet. He's still looking for a distributor for this one, but you can find more on him at sharaabmusic.com or hear more tracks on his mySpace page.

He'll be hanging out at M3 in Miami this weekend. If you see him, dance with him and, uh, give dude a distribution deal.

Comments

"When the instructor taught the tabla's sounds, he'd make the noises with his mouth"

I feel like I've heard this before; is this a standardized verbal notation among tabla musicians?

Posted by: Dave at March 24, 2006 4:59 PM

From my little knowledge (readers who know more, please chime in):
So tabla rhythms are mainly passed down person to person, through playing for each other in person and through what bols, which we kids called called "the noises with his mouth".

Some interesting notes on attempts to make written tabla drum notation here: http://kippen.org/notation.html

I have heard what sounds to me like bols all over Indian recordings. My favorite is the intro to "Dheem Thana Thana Nana" (you can hear that killer track on Dance Raja Dance, a Vijaya Anand compilation). Though I don't actually know if that's a bol or just sounds like one to me.

I never actually took the tabla lessons, though, so anyone who has taken some please add info.

Posted by: saleem at March 27, 2006 3:18 AM
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