Students Learn Traditional Indian Music

Mrs. Bowen's chorus class recently had two guests: Praveen Narayan and Sriharish Pingali, AMSA class of 2016, his student. They introduced the class to the tabla, a traditional Indian set of two drums. Guru Narayan introduced the students to the Indian way of counting rhythm which is different from the Western notation style. While western music uses a foundation of counting and subdividing beats of 4, Indian music has rhythms that subdivide the beat all the way to 10. Indian music tradition is also passed down orally rather than with written notation so the relationship between guru and student is essential. Students counted out the syllables (with lots of trial and error!) and then were treated to a short but captivating performance! All of this was to expose students to the diverse musical heritage around the world as well as an introduction to a song in Hindi that the group will be performing at Arts Night in January. Special thanks to Mrs. Bandaru for arranging the visit!