The Art of Tabla Rhythm: Essentials, Tradition and Creativity- Book & CD (New Vistas in Indian Performing Arts)

Great book

The author of this book was the teacher of my first tabla guru, Hemant Ektobe of Irvine, California. I had heard stories of the discipline and focus that Mr. Saxena engendered in his students, as well as the many hours or daily practice that he required of his students. So, being a lazy Westerner, I figured I would buy the book and save myself years of work. I guess you all know where this story is going...The book is excellent, and it contains a CD version, although I wasn't exactly sure how the CD correlated with the book (I am sure it does, though) The book is really written for those who have studied tabla seriously, and there are lots of compositions, but they are fairly advanced. I did think the book was excellent - something to aspire to - but for a beginning or intermediate student it will serve more as narrative than workbook. But you will definitely get something valuable out of it.Tabla is very similar to surfing and the martial arts: it looks (or, rather SOUNDS) very cool... and it seems like it should be pretty straightforward, but, like surfing and martial arts, it is all about muscle memory and repetition and the perfection doesn't come quickly or without some sustained effort over time. But the effort eventually pays off. Mastery isn't a cheap commodity. This book will be a good introduction to tabla mastery, but you will still need a real teacher to learn properly.

Good book

Very helpful for Tabla Players who completed at least 5th year. A lot of Gharana-bols included. The supplied Audio CD is also helpful to learn the bols clearly.

The media could not be loaded.  Useful book for beginners... 👍👌👌

Most of the information is theoretical