Customer Reviews

Vintage Tabla Repertory: Drum Compositions of North Indian Classical Music (Book & Two Compact Discs)

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Of all the books available on tabla, Vintage Tabla Repertory promises to remain the most precise, and complete. Finally someone had the love and devotion to publish 300 years of tabla compositions in one book. All gharanas, all composition types, all practical taals, and even some pakhwaj 'bols'...in one collection. The notation is unique, but any intermediate student can quickly grasp the layout. Every variation is full with fingering and dynamic description. For any serious tabla player, this will enrich their repetoire by 10 years. - krishna

This is an excellent book that is well written and well demonstrated. The only problems that I have with it is the notation used to print the tabla bols is unique. It makes sense when the author explains it but I have never seen tabla bols written in grids the way they are here. Not only that, the print of the bols is very small and if you really want to study the bols and learn how to play them, then you will have to re-write them out. Not a major deal. There are 2 CDs that come with the book that have various exercises and compositions. These are played very clearly and at a reasonable speed by the author. This is where I think this book is really excellent.