Beginners Lessons in Tabla playing

Posted on Sunday, June 29, 2008

How to play tabla [PDF - 17Mb]

Many years ago, I took a course in tabla playing. The tutor was of Caucasian origin, but had studied with some great tabla players and clearly knew his Tin Taal from his Keherva Taal. For years since I've had the often hand-written sheets he gave me to learn from and felt they were a fantastic resourse that anyone at my stage of interest in tabla playing (ie just starting out) would find invaluable.

After a question from someone on the Composition Today site, I finally got round to scanning the sheets in, and have uploaded them here in PDF format.

Unfortunately I no longer have the tutor's name, as it appears nowhere on the lessons, but if he happens to stumble across this, I hope he doesn't mind, and I'd love to hear from him!

How to play tabla [PDF - 17Mb]

COMMENTS

Zull commenting on Beginners Lessons in Tabla playing:
Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 16:15

Thank you very much for the PDF Manual on instrucions of how to play the Tablas !! So much work went into producing this manual and also converting it to this format for sharing it!

BSrao commenting on Beginners Lessons in Tabla playing:
Saturday, October 30, 2010 at 13:56

This is really very useful information for beginners,
especially the construction of Kaidas. Thank you

Venkatesh Kanekar commenting on Beginners Lessons in Tabla playing:
Wednesday, November 24, 2010 at 08:33

Nice piece of information. Specially for those who are interested in learning Tabla.

Anish commenting on Beginners Lessons in Tabla playing:
Monday, November 29, 2010 at 02:30

i am too intrested in tabla. i just want a cutor .i am sure that if i got a chance i will wiprove and i knoe only few tal to play may be 5 or 6.

Thiru commenting on Beginners Lessons in Tabla playing:
Wednesday, December 15, 2010 at 06:31

Dear David Bruce,
Thanks a lot for your Tabla notes, It's really very useful.

Ajitabh Acharya commenting on Beginners Lessons in Tabla playing:
Monday, January 17, 2011 at 02:47

Thank you so much for this... it'll be very usefull for me.....

Sunil Bhongale commenting on Beginners Lessons in Tabla playing:
Friday, January 21, 2011 at 04:56

A very good information for Tabla learners

Jayesh commenting on Beginners Lessons in Tabla playing:
Monday, February 7, 2011 at 08:17

nice picture to learn the seating position which is very important to the begginers

mir anees commenting on Beginners Lessons in Tabla playing:
Tuesday, February 8, 2011 at 09:01

i am a begineer and wana learn tabla

Dinesh commenting on Beginners Lessons in Tabla playing:
Tuesday, February 15, 2011 at 10:11

Thank you so much for present this wonderful document. I appreciate your efforts and if you can plan to have online training sessions.

dhruvin mehta commenting on Beginners Lessons in Tabla playing:
Thursday, February 24, 2011 at 12:59

i am too much intrested in tabla but now i am studying engineering so that i have no time & this is very useful me to know basic of tabla .

Victor commenting on Beginners Lessons in Tabla playing:
Friday, February 25, 2011 at 19:01

I am not able to download the whole document because it stops at 2MB. Could anybody send me the pdf documento to my email?
Thank you very much in advance for your help!
victor.diez@hotmail.com

Ajay commenting on Beginners Lessons in Tabla playing:
Wednesday, March 9, 2011 at 17:57

Wow.. thank you very much. I'm looking forward to playing and practicing some the Kyda's listed in the notes.

Setiadi Utomo commenting on Beginners Lessons in Tabla playing:
Friday, March 25, 2011 at 00:55

Thanks for your information about how to play tabla. I want to learn play tabla, and with this book a can understand how to play tabla.

mridul commenting on Beginners Lessons in Tabla playing:
Sunday, March 27, 2011 at 07:25

of gr8 help !!!!!!!!!!!!
thank u soooooooo much

Pradipta Shome commenting on Beginners Lessons in Tabla playing:
Sunday, July 10, 2011 at 04:07

Thank you for the treatise on Tabla playing. This is a great contribution.

sridhar commenting on Beginners Lessons in Tabla playing:
Saturday, July 23, 2011 at 17:46

This is very good basics for biginers, thank you very much for sharing this information.

Mukesh Pandey commenting on Beginners Lessons in Tabla playing:
Saturday, August 13, 2011 at 10:16

Namashkar..'
thank you for uploading this treasure

commenting on Beginners Lessons in Tabla playing:
Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at 13:20

quelle est son origine

A.Chicayban commenting on Beginners Lessons in Tabla playing:
Thursday, October 13, 2011 at 18:57

Thanks a lot!

Pramod Kulkarni commenting on Beginners Lessons in Tabla playing:
Wednesday, December 7, 2011 at 05:56

Merci beaucoup ! For this excellent share. I do appreciate your efforts for sharing it and even more of the person who originally prepared it. Will be definitely useful to me for learning tabla.

jim commenting on Beginners Lessons in Tabla playing:
Monday, December 12, 2011 at 11:47

Thanks a lot, i was looking for this a long time, not much teachers of Tabla in Holland this wil help me on the way for sure.

Nitesh Patel commenting on Beginners Lessons in Tabla playing:
Saturday, December 24, 2011 at 03:33

The greatest information for the people who are keen interested to know the basics of TABALA. Thanks a lot.

CK commenting on Beginners Lessons in Tabla playing:
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 20:01

VERY NICE-VERY GOOD INFO ON TABALAS.....
THANKS ALOT.

Atul commenting on Beginners Lessons in Tabla playing:
Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 22:44

David:

Great contribution to the tabla community especially those who are amateurs and are in search of good detailed guide online. Do you have additional docs that talk about art of ornamentation, i.e, how to add bols to basic taal or kaida to make it sound more melodious? There is no documentation on that anywhere....
Thanks

Deepak commenting on Beginners Lessons in Tabla playing:
Tuesday, March 13, 2012 at 09:11

superb

mudit commenting on Beginners Lessons in Tabla playing:
Sunday, March 18, 2012 at 02:21

WOW, this is what i was searching for since long. It's a great resource.
we have books available in hindi but not in english. for people like me who knows only english and is learning to play tabla this comes as great assset.
thank you so much.

Viswanathan R commenting on Beginners Lessons in Tabla playing:
Sunday, April 8, 2012 at 16:22

excellent and thanks. Those who are really interested in learning tabla, this notes will be definitely a guide.

Raman commenting on Beginners Lessons in Tabla playing:
Saturday, April 28, 2012 at 17:02

Thanks a lot. I was looking for the basic 101 on Tabla to give it to my students. Your posting the pdf file is a blessing.
Bless you and keep up the good work.

Joseph commenting on Beginners Lessons in Tabla playing:
Wednesday, August 1, 2012 at 15:29

Thank you very much for the valuable information. hope so this will useful to everyone who really wanna learn how to play Tabala..

Pradeep commenting on Beginners Lessons in Tabla playing:
Thursday, November 8, 2012 at 15:43

Thanks for nice information. I have starte learning tabla and really unerstanding how difficult it is. Still after 3-4 classes, I am unable to produce the correct sound of Na, Ti, ga. Hope this will help

Rakesh DHyani commenting on Beginners Lessons in Tabla playing:
Tuesday, January 29, 2013 at 08:35

Valuable notes for the beginners. Helped me tremendously in my earlier efforts in learning. Thank you for sharing the treasure.

Imran commenting on Beginners Lessons in Tabla playing:
Wednesday, March 13, 2013 at 17:22

Thanks a lot for your Valuable notes . :)

RAJIv commenting on Beginners Lessons in Tabla playing:
Wednesday, June 26, 2013 at 09:21

Thank you very much for sharing these notes

Mev commenting on Beginners Lessons in Tabla playing:
Monday, September 16, 2013 at 07:12

Well Very good compilation indeed. Im still fairly new but im sure this will definitely help.

Many thanks

Kristen commenting on Beginners Lessons in Tabla playing:
Monday, September 10, 2018 at 19:37

Thank you!!! This is a great resource

Cheers, from Phoenix az

Beginners Lessons in Tabla playing

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