The Tabla, by Pandit Shankar Ghosh - DVD / Booklet
Languages: French, English

This remarkable work, with its simple, user-friendly set-up, doesn’t intend to turn you into a tabla master but provides a real opportunity to make the most of Master Pandit Shankar Ghosh’s knowledge, thanks to its efficient approach, characteristic of Le Salon de Musique’s products.

The instructional part of the DVD gives all necessary information to start playing Tabla (position, tuning…) and includes the description of all fundamental strokes (boles) by traditional means of onomatopeias.

The documentary part presents the Master’s daily practice of this typically Calcuttan instrument and the tabla/tabla tarang duet he forms with his son Bikram Ghosh. Pandit Shankar Ghosh leads us into a trip through the Tabla Capital, Calcutta in a fascinating, 47-minute document, packed with anecdotes and useful advice.

The brilliant work provides an introduction to such fundamental pieces as "theme and variations" compositions (Kaida, Rela, Laggi...) and "fixed compositions" (Tukra, Gat, Chakradhar).

A sucessful effort.