The influence of Indian rhythms on a broad range of contemporary music, from rock to jazz fusion, drum & bass and electronica, and the increasing interest in world music, is presenting drummers with a fascinating new range of rhythmic possibilities and the challenge of understanding a whole new musical vocabulary.
class="bodyf">Indian Rhythms For The Drumset (£14.95 from Hudson Music) is a superb book and CD package by renowned multi-percussionist Pete Lockett, which aims to cut through the mystery and complexity of the Indian rhythmic system, particularly the Southern Indian Carnatic system, and apply them to the drum kit. This is the first book of its kind to explore this approach, and it covers an introduction and background to Indian percussion instruments, from the widely known North Indian tabla to the lesser-known Southern Indian kanjira. Here, he explains and demonstrates with charts, drawings and photos the tabla phonetic system and the Carnatic time cycles and phonetic recitations known as konokol or solkattu, which help count irregular rhythmic groupings.
class="bodyi">Aimed at intermediate to advanced players, the majority of the book focuses on the South Indian rhythmic approach in considerable depth, from more elementary chapters covering 'Units Of Time As Building Blocks' and 'Subdividing Time' to more complex areas involving classical rhythmic composition such as 'Phrase-Reduction Korvai', 'Intricate Korvai' and 'Quintuplet Gear Changes' — all concepts that can be applied to jazz, rock, funk and other styles. Over 200 examples are included on the accompanying CD, which contains MP3 files and three play-along tracks both with and without drums.
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