Tabla Concert Review Essay

On Friday February 10, 2017, I attended the astounding North Indian Drum Tabla Concert at University of California, Riverside in the Arts Building. The venue wasn’t big or small, but it has a roomy stage with one hundred and fifty seats. The setup consisted of three carpets with three tablas, which are membranophones that have one big drum and one small drum, one harmonium, which is a chordophone that is a tiny organ, and many microphones on the stage. The ensemble included Abhiman Kaushal, director of UCR South Asian Ensemble, on lead tabla soloist, Rupesh Kotecha on harmonium, Vignesh Manohar on vocals, Miles Shrewsbery on tabla, and a UCR freshman also on tabla. The ensemble collectively performed a few compositions that were pleasant to listen to. Before the concert started, between fifty to one hundred people showed up to the tabla concert. There were people from different races that attended the venue. Also, there were people ranging from young age to old
When he was playing, he used many parts of his hands, like his fingers, to play a whole mess of notes. He does a lot of ornamentation, playing many notes per beat. He doesn’t just play the same melody. He played different melodies every one or few measures. Next, the drumming made a smooth transition from Kaushal to Shrewsbery. I was surprised that the whole song didn’t pause. From that transition, Shrewsbery played a new melody that was different from Kaushal, which I like how he was unique and he didn’t imitate Kaushal. After, the drumming smoothly transitioned from Shrewsbery to the UCR freshman. He also played a different melody from both Shrewsbery and Kaushal. Every time they switched off drummers, they played a new melody that was very different from the other melodies. It’s interesting to see that the vocals and the harmonium are the background music of the