Now that the Silk Road Project has a home base at Harvard University, we have more opportunities than ever to partner with students and faculty. Though we have been affiliated with Harvard since 2005, our programs this March introduced the Project to the University's community for the first time since we moved our headquarters to campus in July 2010 to deepen our collaboration.
Last month, in addition to a concert by the Silk Road Ensemble with Yo-Yo Ma, we worked with the Office for the Arts at Harvard to connect undergraduate percussion students with world percussionist Shane Shanahan. Fellow Silk Road Ensemble member and cellist Mike Block was in town early for rehearsals; he had planned to observe the workshop, but once the fun started he had to try his hand at drumming for a change.
Seven Harvard students gamely showed up on a Wednesday evening with instruments ranging from conga drums to the Balinese kendang, ready to try something new. Shane taught the South Indian method of vocalizing rhythm with syllables corresponding to two, three, four, five and seven beats. Once students were able to keep up the patterns silently, they took turns around the circle improvising on top of that rhythmic structure.
As the group grew more comfortable with the unfamiliar approach, Shane discussed the benefits of practicing this method. Once vocalizations are internalized, a player can simply feel them, much as Americans do a standard European 4/4 time signature, without effort. Then these tools not only orient a musician in a piece, they also help to generate ideas, as the syllables activate the creative side of the brain rather than the analytical side used in counting. The workshop covered a lot of ground, moving on to more complicated polyrhythmic tools such as the tihai: a cadential pattern that occurs three times before resolving on the downbeat of the next cycle. The techniques Shane introduced are what underpin Indian pieces such as Sandeep Das' "Shristi," which you can hear on our Silk Road Radio. Sandeep will visit campus on April 26, 2011, for a talk cosponsored by Harvard Sangeet, the Office for the Arts at Harvard and the Silk Road Project. Photos © Heidi Koelz
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