Today is filled with students, meetings, video editing, and — if it doesn't rain — a leg-stretching walk with my dog. She's getting a little older, a little more comfortable just lying on the rug and dreaming. I'm getting older, too. I hadn't planned to be doing a full-time anti-fascist fight in my late sixties, but here we are.

Have a good weekend. See you Monday.

Man With Sign

end/

Yesterday's MayDay demonstration was a fairly festive affair, with about 30-40 people showing up with signs and banners. Best of all, it turned out to be (drum roll, please) at Roosevelt Circle. How convenient! The organizer was so heartened by the response and the turnout that she is going to make it a recurring action. I'll be there; when it comes to holding signs, I'm a foremost authority.

7/

About 8:15 I do a rhythmic exercise, singing groups of dotted half-notes while keeping taal. The steady flow of 3-beat tones tugs at the taal-clapping hand, and it takes many passes before the whole thing clarifies and I move back into free improvisation. At 8:26 I make a video, then sing a few more phrases before shutting down, packing up, heading home.

6/

I take the antara for the first time a few minutes before 8. At this point my voice feels pretty flexible, and I make multiple variations on the antara mukhda before moving on. The whole composition seems fairly solid in my memory, with lines 4-6 of the antara the weakest spots.

5/

It's only after I've been making variations and interpolations no the first line for 3-4 minutes that I move on to the second line, which also comes in for its share of manipulation. Lines 3-5 I sing relatively straight, only trying to be sure of relaxed, curving phrasing, and a sensitivity to ornament.

4/

As this week comes to a close, I've made significant progress in "haa pir mere auliyaa nizamuddin." I start with a few minutes of paltas, finding that my voice is feeling pretty good this morning. A little after 7:40 I start the tabla at 116 bpm, and begin improvising around the bandish, not singing any composed material aside from the mukhda.

3/

Traffic is extremely light and aside from the get-a-job guy (who whizzes by at 8:15 and donates his kind advice) I don't get much in the way of responses. People move faster when there's no traffic (which is why I never use messages that require much cognition on Fridays). I lean on the guardrail and sing.

2/

Man With Sign, May 2, 02025

Friday morning and it looks like it rained last night. The sky is deep grey, temperatures are a little cooler, and everything is pretty soggy, but there's nothing coming down. I reach Roosevelt Circle at 7:29 and set up. No Craige today. I hold up WE MUST BE BETTER ANCESTORS as my heading-into-the-weekend message.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5YNdDriKow
#ClimateChaos #ClimateChange #CitizenActivism #HindustaniMusic

I'm an old white dude, the demographically-safest classification in the current racist nightmare. So I will use whatever privilege I have to advocate for those whose lives are less safe, less secure, less stable. If we are to get through this, we will have to do it together, but this doesn't mean we all have to do the same thing at the same time.

See you tomorrow.

Man With Sign

end/

So the hour passes, with the tabla set at 116 bpm throughout. At 8:22 I make a video, then join Craige for an entirely glitch-free version of "Imagine." We high-five each other at the conclusion, and move to pack up our signs and head our separate ways. Today there are May Day protests and "stand-outs" happening all over the country. I'm planning on doing a little of that in the town center later on.

6/

The two pathways intertwine; the extemporized material triggers my imagination and I receive a useful "problem" from the Force, if you will. Today I study some tihais inside the jhaptaal rhythmic cycle, crafting tripartite cadential formulae from different beats and setting these to melody. And then iterating asthai & antara once or twice before plunging back into things.

5/

When I say "improvisation" I'm really referring to two separate pathways. In one, I simply "jump off the bridge," trying to generate attractive melodies and rhythms that work within jhaptaal and the pentatonic structure. In the other, I conceptualize melo-rhythmic problems and set about solving them.

4/

I move back and forth between improvisations and the composition over the course of today's practice in "Haa pir mere auliyaa nizamuddin." There is a brief memory blip when yesterday's study of the antara completely vanishes, but a single 5-second peep at my notes restores everything.

3/

Traffic is heavy and generally friendly. There are a few calls of "thank you!" and a lot of waves. The get-a-job guy doesn't show up today, so I am spared his advice (though I worry about him when he doesn't go by on schedule!). Mostly I'm in my zone, focusing on solving musical problems in the single least-distracted hour of my day.

2/

Man With Sign, May 1, 02025

It's a pleasant morning, a little cooler than yesterday, and I'm awake and functional early enough that I arrive at Roosevelt Circle at 7:29. Craige gets there a few minutes later as I'm already getting started singing. Today I'm holding up LET'S BUILD A BETTER FUTURE TOGETHER.

1/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dikwEfXrx5A
#ClimateChaos #ClimateChange #CitizenActivism #HindustaniMusic

I'm teaching in the morning, then working on podcast video for the rest of the day, before a string of meetings and students in the evening. The continual parade of horrors continues, though it does seem that some of my country-people are waking up a little. I don't know any other path than the one I tread, and doubt is always walking alongside.

See you tomorrow, come what may.

Man With Sign

end/

Craige and I take turns botching the text on the various choruses of "Imagine," and by the time we're done we haven't sung a single one according to plan. The folk process in action! We crack up laughing. It is, after all, only music — a place in life where mistakes are anticipated and savored. And then it's time to head homeward.

6/

Once the antara is reasonably well-internalized I begin alternating this section with the asthai (which, naturally, needs to be tweaked a little), while pushing the tempo intermittently. By the time I make my video at 8:23, I'm singing at 116 bpm, which is the correct speed for this composition, giving the quarter-note motion enough swing to make it attractive and flowing.

5/

Gradually the piece takes shape, but it isn't until I shift it into the correct register that it starts to feel unified. It's pretty range-y for an antara; these sections tend to stay in the upper register, but this one extends a fourth above the upper tonic and a fourth below the lower one for a range of an octave and a minor seventh. Most of its rhythmic issues are mercifully straightforward.

4/

Today I take a few minutes and do some warm-ups in the Dhani scale (1,b3,4,5,b7 — the so-called "minor pentatonic") before commencing the formal practice. Once my voice is limbered up a little I begin memorizing the antara, singing it first in the lower register to make sure of words, melodic direction, and phrasing/rhythm issues.

3/