A Quest of Mastering the Art of the Tabla

Imagine this: Ustad Keramatullah Khan, the Khalifa of the Farukhabad tabla gharana, one of the most celebrated tabla virtuosos of the 20th century, agrees to give you tabla lessons. He begins with the absolute basics, such as the tabla bols or strokes, and then slowly increases in difficulty, until he builds up to relas, or literally torrents of music, the pinnacle of tabla mastery.

Well, it’s a dream come true: we stumbled across The 42 Lessons for the Tabla by Ustad Keramatullah Khan at Smithsonian Folkways’ website. We plan to document our journey as we follow these lessons. For an introduction to what we are doing, check out the following video.