Matthew Rosen

My connection to the tabla began way back in 1985. While studying as an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin (my home state in the U.S.), I had the good fortune of going on a college-year-abroad program to Nepal. At the time, I knew nothing about the tabla or Indian music, but decided to take some tabla lessons as an elective course for the program.

My first tabla teacher was Sambu Prasad Misra, a Benares tabla player whose family had emigrated to Nepal. Later that year, I studied with the Hom Nath Updyaya, a Nepali disciple of Ramji Misra (son of Anokhelal Misra) and an occasional student of Chhotelal Misra. Both of these players, unfortunately, have since passed away.

Through Hom Nath, I was introduced to Chhotelal while he was in Nepal in 1986. He encouraged me to come to Benares and so, in late 1986, I boarded a bus from Kathmandu to Benares and began studying in earnest with Chhotelal. I continued studying with him—on and off with some long gaps—until his death in 2013.

Like many who discover the tabla, I became hooked soon after I began studying. But I have never wanted to become a performer of classical Indian music. Rather, I am simply an amateur tabla player in the true sense of the word: “one who loves”.

Over the years, tabla has become a kind of meditative practice for me, and I have rarely gone a day without playing since I began.

Aside from tabla, I played and studied bass guitar for some years in my teens and twenties, and have dabbled in conga and bongos in the Afro-Cuban tradition.

After rhythm, my second great love is language. I have a master’s degree in Applied Linguistics and taught English professionally for more than 10 years around the globe. I’m fluent in Spanish and Hindi.

More recently, I am focusing on digital writing and publishing, primarily for education as you’ll find here on the website.

I mention all this because my background might give me some advantages in explaining a tradition which is remarkably foreign to the West—as well as to many Indians—and which embodies both drumming and spoken language.

But classical tabla is a virtuosos’ tradition. And the only true authorities are the masters themselves. So as much as possible, I defer to what the masters have written, said to me personally, or do in their performances.

I have also learned much from other writers and their research. These works are mentioned in the Bibliography, and on any pages where they were referenced.

I welcome any comments and suggestions for the site. One of the advantages of a website is that edits can be made instantly, and I expect DigiTabla will be in a constant state of updating.