Finally got the mic position right. Looks like the gain was turned up too much, though. Im not really sure if I am playing faster or clearer than before. I haven’t figured out a good way to play the same thing for evaluation without getting bored so Im just playing what I’ve been practicing and learning in class. A few interesting things I learned since last time

  • It is easier for me to play TRKT on my smaller tabla. I think the shape of the tabla actually does matter. That’s also the one I’ve been practicing the most on.
  • There is a whole new “Ta” that I learned recently. It is played with three fingers on the white part instead of just one. It happens at the end of “KTT KTT KTT KTT Kat Ta” – The last Ta is the special one. I tried to sneak it into the video but it doesn’t sound great. (Tabla notation is not precise enough to distinguish these different notes! It doesn’t have to be this way, though. I think it’s just that the serious players don’t care about the imprecise notation so no one takes the effort to improve the system)
  • The open sounding keherewa is fun to play and can really add a nice oomph to fast parts of bhajans!