Show By Wade Denniston h Indian musicians share talents passion for sounds of homeland When Yishwanath Iyer lived at home in his native India a few years back he would find any available surface that acted as a substitute for drums and play on it v To say the least his mother got tired of all the racket Iyer was making' “So my mom just decided ‘Let's give him something to play on that produces some music and not noise’ Iyerrecalled That something turned out tb be an instrument called a tablawhich is a : pair of drums: A tabla consists of a - V' classical music a type of music more than six centuries old from the southern regions of India But because so few people in Cache Valley let alone the United States have heard the kinds of music Kiimar and Iyer play they are trying to introduce it to everybody they can “It feels nice to come here and share what e’ve learned” said Iyer who has been in Logan since fall 2002 Iyer and Kumar did just that this past' week On Tuesday die two bf them teamed’ ' ' shop — so the audience could see more easily — Kumar usually performs while on the ground as is sitting cross-legge- d the custom for this type of music Another unique custom for southern Indian music is the performers will always praise Lord Ganesha before- - CCnt ' ’whn Kiimnr vocaJf in thc f mdi: - M&so I was uhddr another gunijj ?"! KM i v ffMDasa was a saint bupMte four yean nbwg "d philosophy a fraction of what people usual® y spend time oh learning an instrumentgEfasa &$'v Sr Shyam Kumar demonstrates a singing styte native tolrtete that falb under the category calted Carnatic music Kumar offered a workshop bn' the intricacies of this musical style during International Education Week at Utah State University Top middle: Kiimar points to an iuetration -- V'detailing the history of Indian music during the workshop' W though: you would figure he s been playing it all his life Now busy studying electrical engineering in graduate school at Utah State Iyer still finds timie for his pas' sion :$ like Much Shyam Kumar does Kumar is alsoin grad school study- ing electrical engineering Qn top of that he continuesto pursue his passion for singing classical Indian music Kumar a native of Banglor India lias been singing since he was a child Besides that he has been performing on stage for IS years! One such performance occuhed Oct 17 in the Taggart Student Center auditorium at USU Kiimar was accompanied by Prashant Subbarao on themridan gam fa drum) and Divya Ramachandran on the violin They performed Carnatic who composed a m' X SSZ tteSS ?: climiil music along with Muttittwam esfti‘tiie tsbfc a instiru- - ’ Thgaraja and Shyama are also popular percussion dohj Shasthn — that tno is referred to as thejfc w?-USfj tnniiy of mcnmaic dpnapoMl around half a million songs in their demonstrated oh his tabla as well as discussed the importance of rag and tal respective lifetimes Tfrat was just ope of the ninny inter-!g- g Rag is derived from the Sanskrit word csting facts Kuitiar brought out in his raga which means “color'’ or “passion!” Tal is the rhythmic form of Hindustani presentation He began his presentation by singing music and literally means “claip" ' Later on he invited two! volunteers The rhythm system of the tabla con-- front the audience to sing along with ' sists of one fundamental unit called a him! Margaret Smith who attended the matra (beat) Thc matra could either be a single beat or several Strokes of the workshop with her five children arid ' Maribeth Evensen-Hengg- e an advisor tabla could form it in the international student office at Referring back to the different USU were asked to join Kiimar drums that make up the tabla the Kumar liked what he heard from the V smaller one is used to create sharp two women and feels they could pick ' tones while the bigger one is responsi' -ble for bass upsinging Indian music pretty easily “If they start they can grasp things in Uke Kumar does vyhien lie sings minutes” he said Iyer plays the tabla while sitting on a ' Though he didn’t during his work- carpet on the floor! Iyer said die cor ftjto'jirfthe'Wbikilw-- f - ' ' ' 1a $3: ! rect position for playing the tabla is to have y°ur shoulders square and hands at an angle Iyer said the three most prominenttabla players are Pandit Kishan Maharaj as well as Ustad Awa Rakha (who has since passed on) and his son Ustad Zakir Hussain v Iyer considers Hussain “a genius” : Yishwanath Iyer demonstrates drumming on the "taMa” This style of drumming cen--! ters around concepts called Rag and Tal Rag is derived from the Sanskrit word raga which means “cotor' or "passion'' Tal is the rhythmic form of Hindustani music and literally means “dap" |