I have been fascinated by how rhythm helps in improving skills in individuals with neuro-developmental disabilities such as Autism, intellectual disabilities and Downs Syndrome. I am convinced that rhythm exercises can make the Neurons work harder and communicate among different parts of the brain, leading to improvements in many faculties. A case study of how rhythm exercises helped develop 'sense of rhythm' leading to improved quality of tabla playing by a developmentally disabled person is presented in this post.
It is little more than an year and half I started working with Anand, an intellectually challenged individual, who has been learning Tabla for many years. We were setting up a music initiative 'Tarang' under Yash Charitable Trust, with Aarti doing vocal, Pratibha playing Sitar and Anand on Tabla. I have observed that Anand is able to play many 'kayadas' and 'thekhas' of quite a few 'taals'. When tried to play along with vocal, I could see Anand's struggle. I felt that the struggle is due to not having a 'sense of rhythm' within. Because of this, Anand was finding it difficult to sync with the rhythm of singing. Initially Anand went on playing Tabla, irrespective of what is rendered by the vocalist. The video clip below (April 2016) demonstrates this.
To address this problem, we started with rhythm exercises every week, and asked Anand to practice rhythm exercises regularly. Rhythm being central to any genre of music, and such a powerful medium for enabling different parts of brain, I persisted with rhythm exercises with all the team members of Tarang. The main objective was to instil the 'sense of rhythm' within the members, especially Anand, as he is playing a percussion instrument. The first change noticed was, with prompting Anand was able to follow the rhythm of singing for few seconds. When his attention drops, he loses the rhythm.
Five months later in September 2016, Anand was able to play Tabla with simple rhythm to a great extent, provided he is prompted by touching his body rhythmically, or showing him the beats while performing. This improvement is visible in the clip below.
As Anand could get the beats for the straight rhythm with 'Teen Taal' (Pattern 4-4-4-4), I introduced a complex rhythm with 'Roopak Taal', where the beats follow a pattern 3-2-2, which is quite difficult. Repeated rhythm exercises with different combination of patterns helped improve the 'sense of rhythm' within. In couple of months time, Anand could play the basic Roopak Taal on Tabla and play in sync with vocal and sitar renditions. The clip below shows Anand's Roopak Taal rendition for Aarti's vocal singing.
I consider this as a huge leap in gaining proficiency in playing Tabla as an accompanying percussion instrument. It gives me immense satisfaction to see the way Anand grows steadily in his Tabla playing. Support of his parents is a major contributor in achieving this.
What we saw here is how rhythm exercises helped Anand improve his Tabla playing skill. But I am sure, the rhythm exercises must have definitely helped improve other functions such as cognitive and behavioural development.
It is little more than an year and half I started working with Anand, an intellectually challenged individual, who has been learning Tabla for many years. We were setting up a music initiative 'Tarang' under Yash Charitable Trust, with Aarti doing vocal, Pratibha playing Sitar and Anand on Tabla. I have observed that Anand is able to play many 'kayadas' and 'thekhas' of quite a few 'taals'. When tried to play along with vocal, I could see Anand's struggle. I felt that the struggle is due to not having a 'sense of rhythm' within. Because of this, Anand was finding it difficult to sync with the rhythm of singing. Initially Anand went on playing Tabla, irrespective of what is rendered by the vocalist. The video clip below (April 2016) demonstrates this.
To address this problem, we started with rhythm exercises every week, and asked Anand to practice rhythm exercises regularly. Rhythm being central to any genre of music, and such a powerful medium for enabling different parts of brain, I persisted with rhythm exercises with all the team members of Tarang. The main objective was to instil the 'sense of rhythm' within the members, especially Anand, as he is playing a percussion instrument. The first change noticed was, with prompting Anand was able to follow the rhythm of singing for few seconds. When his attention drops, he loses the rhythm.
Five months later in September 2016, Anand was able to play Tabla with simple rhythm to a great extent, provided he is prompted by touching his body rhythmically, or showing him the beats while performing. This improvement is visible in the clip below.
We persisted with rhythm exercises in order to build 'sense of rhythm' within Anand, so that he reaches a stage of playing with vocal by synchronising himself. Anand progressed steadily and today Anand can sense the rhythm of the same bhajan that Aarti is singing and follow on tabla in sync. The clip below (taken from a performance on 28th April 2017, in Pune) shows this improvement of Anand.
I consider this as a huge leap in gaining proficiency in playing Tabla as an accompanying percussion instrument. It gives me immense satisfaction to see the way Anand grows steadily in his Tabla playing. Support of his parents is a major contributor in achieving this.
What we saw here is how rhythm exercises helped Anand improve his Tabla playing skill. But I am sure, the rhythm exercises must have definitely helped improve other functions such as cognitive and behavioural development.
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