What are the desirable qualities in a tabla player?
DRC: There are several qualities. Let us presume that the basic training is there and that the basic musical senses (i.e., sense of rhythm, sense of pitch, etc.) are developed. From there I can say that I believe a good tabla player is one who sees the music in the same way as the person that he is accompanying. That is that he (or she) has to sense when to be aggressive and when to be supportive. The tabla player should also know how to make the tempo breath, that is to say how to contract and expand the beats in order to put the life into the music. Finally I think that one should be sensitive to the audience without pandering to the more basic tastes which may be present. In other words “Don’t play to the peanut gallery!” TAR: You have had a broad experience in the Biomedical engineering field and computer sciences and how do you relate that experience to tabla percussion? DRC: I think that it has given me a more scientific approach to the field. I find that I can constantly invoke
