The Music of Hindostan c14.12

c14.12

Confining ourselves now to the *tabla*—the *mṛdāṅga* is played in the same way—we will examine the different strokes (*bols*) given with either hand or both hands; singly, successively, or simultaneously; with one or more fingers or with the whole hand; upon the ‘black’, or the ‘rim’, or upon the ‘white’ between them; damped, or partly damped, or undamped. Indian fingers are extraordinarily supple. The forefinger, as pianoforte players know, is one of the weakest; but its stroke as it comes down flat with a whang on different parts of the drum is curiously powerful, and inimitable by Westerns. It is said to take half a lifetime to make a good drummer, and it will be seen in the following pages that there is much to learn.