Digitala is pleased to present our first eBook (Available for download from Apple Books, $24.99).
Can you take a few notes or a musical theme, speed it up and slow it down, or rearrange its parts into new rhythms, and build to an exciting conclusion, all the while keeping a firm grip on the tempo and meter? This is what the classical musicians of India do, and you can do it too in jazz, rock or any music that maintains meters of fixed length, such as a 4-bar phrases of 4/4 time.
The best rhythms grows by their own nature, seemingly oblivious to the meter, only to return to the original accent structure. The effect is a rise and fall of musical arousal, called a “rhythmic resolution”. To an audience, a musician with this knowledge can zig-zag wildly over the meter and then return without losing track of the beat. Two such musicians may seem to improvise in telepathic unison. And if you think that rhythmic mastery is limited to drummers, think again: any musician or dancer can apply these methods to their improvisation.
The text is particularly innovative in its presentation of polyrhythms as speed changes within a fixed tempo, using mechanical gears as a model. The final chapter is devoted to the tihai, an Indian rhythmic structure that serves as a natural ending and a final example of a rhythmic resolution.
These are the lessons of Harihar Rao, who is famous for his innovative method of teaching Indian rhythm to western musicians. To make for easy steps, each lesson is learned first by reciting numbers, and then later by replacing the numbers with simple syllables (which enable faster recitation. Harihar is also revered for his seminal role in jazz and rock fusion with classical Indian music.
Jeffrey M. Feldman, a longtime student of Harihar, has adapted the lessons to the eBook format. Every lesson is accompanied by an audio-visual animation that shows you exactly how to recite the rhythm and clap the beats of the meter with moment-to-moment precision. Each chapter concludes with an Application section with review questions, suggestions and challenges.
(Rhythmic Improvisation: Harihar Rao’s Gift to Western Musicians. (Available for download from Apple Books, $24.99)