Raga Music Essay

Raga is a form a of Indian Classical music, which in Hindi means, “beauty”, “harmony”, and “melody.” The Raga performance in Queensborough Community College consisted of two vocalists and one tabla player. The type of Raga that was performed is called Jog. It is one of the more popular Indian Classical songs performed. It sails away to ascending and descending, where there is a space between the notes, which is explored by the performer. Raga music is expressed as spiritual and harmonic, the instruments are respected with the utmost care, known as Rabi Shankar in Hindi. The instruments are not put on the hard floor, but on carpets, because there is a spiritual connection to the music. Many performers have a personal relationship with their mentors; instructors that spend time teaching the students new skills. The two vocalists were Payton MacDonald and Brenan Dubh and Shawn Mativetsky playing the tabla. Brenan, Australian born, has been a musician for
Payton did not sing but played the harmonium at a simple base tone. Shawn performed tabla solos in which he vocalized what he was going to play. This is known as, "bols," which is also mnemonic syllables. The tabla is similar to bongos and played with two hands. Shawn played the tabla at Standard Teentaal, a 16-beat cycle comprising of four sections with four beats each. It was performed as, "dhaa dhin dhin dhaa/ dhaa dhin dhin dhaa/ dhaa tin tin taa/ taa dhin dhin dhaa." When it was just Shawn playing the tabla he played multiple different solos. One of them was when he played the basic tabla rhythm with one hand; he did this for four to five beats. Which increased the tempo and rhythm of the beats, he is such an astounding tabla player. He made such hard solos appear very simple. His intricacy, precision, and skill during the tabla solos captivated the entire