Sidiyasa

The rhythm we have been working on in class for the last several months is Sidiyasa. It is a harvest rhythm, which seems appropriate for the season!

There are 6 variations of the rhythm and the way Sidy teaches it, we learn them in a linear way, separated by a played break. Eventually, though, we begin to overlay the rhythms on top of one another. The crazy thing is that all six rhythms can be played at once and they fit together in one incredibly complex polyrhythm. We have just started experimenting with this this week when we had 7 people in the class.

What a sound!

For newbies, it is very difficult to maintain a steady beat, so after a few minutes the whole thing veered off into chaos. But for a few minutes there, you could actually get a sense of what it was going to be like when we all were playing our parts steadily.

Tonight, Nguyen and I are going to the Providence Black Repertory Theater to see Sidy play with Afro-Sonic. It is the first time we have been out to a club in years. I am excited!

I wrote to a friend today and told her that I was playing drums... and what a miracle it is, at 42, to discover you are a musician.