[Orientation Issue] Arts and Entertainment: Courses foster musical expression

It’s true what they say: The best things in life often
come unexpectedly. One day at the beginning of fall quarter last
year, recent graduate Monica Sheftel was practicing in the gamelan
room of the music building with a group that performs music from
Ghana when she met an Indian man named Abhiman Kaushal.

Kaushal, a master player of the tabla, a two-drummed percussion
instrument from North Indian classical music, invited Sheftel to
join one of his tabla classes. It was a chance meeting that turned
into perhaps one of Sheftel’s most valued experiences at
UCLA.

“I decided to go out and give it a shot, and it changed my
life basically,” she said. “Some of it is beyond words.
It’s a real spiritual experience. It has a meditative quality
about it. It’s very independent, but at the same time,
you’re very connected to the people you’re playing
with.”

Although Sheftel was a women’s studies student at UCLA,
one of her favorite classroom experiences was going to tabla class
each week and studying under Kaushal, who has dedicated his life to
the instrument and has recorded for and performed with famed
sitarist Ravi Shankar. A highlight of her day was often her routine
of entering the dimly lit gamelan room where she would take her
shoes off, pick up a tabla set, sit down on a rug, and practice or
write down the compositions Kaushal would verbally recite, as well
as listen to her teacher recount tales associated with the
tabla.

Classes such as this, the Music of India class, in the
ethnomusicology department provide non-music students like Sheftel,
who played percussion in high school, with a musical outlet.

Third-year biochemistry student Eric Taur said the Music of
China ensemble class, in which he played the dizi, or Chinese
flute, during the spring and winter quarters this past school year,
was a welcome step away from his rigorous academic studies and
volunteering.

“It helps you lead a balanced life in college,” he
said.

There are 12 world music ensembles at UCLA, ranging from Bali to
Balkan and Afro-Cuban to Mexico, most of them taught by master
musicians from each country and all of them open to any UCLA
student until classes are filled.

Most students in these classes in fact do not have prior
experience with the music they are studying and start together at
beginning level. Furthermore, Kaushal is not alone when he
estimates that 50 to 60 percent of his students at UCLA are
non-music students.

Instructors of these world music classes understand that the
time students can devote to musical studies is limited, so they
don’t require endless hours of class or practice.
Kaushal’s classes meet once a week for an hour and he asks
beginning students to practice outside of class three times a week
in half-hour sessions. On the other hand, the Music of Brazil
ensemble, which incorporates samba, bossa nova, hip-hop beats and
Puerto Rican influences into its repertoire, requires more in-class
practice. They meet once a week for three hours; however,
instructor Beto Gonzalez does not require students to practice
outside of class.

World music ensemble instructors also accommodate to the various
skill levels of students. Gonzalez makes an effort each year to
bridge the difference between those whom he calls his veteran
students because they come back after a year, and his beginning
students. He knows from experience it is best to split the two
groups in the fall quarter so that the veteran students don’t
lose interest from material that is too easy and the beginning
students don’t become discouraged by pieces that are too
challenging for them. It is only when winter quarter rolls around
that he finally brings the two groups together.

And Kaushal, Sheftel said, is continually looking for ways to
improve his students’ musical abilities and compliment them
on their advances.

“He’s very good at gauging where you’re at and
how much to give you and not to overload you,” Sheftel said.
“He really caters to the individual and where they’re
at and encourages their development.”

Grades for these two-unit classes are determined mostly by
attendance and participation rather than musical abilities. The
instructors of the world music ensembles welcome beginning
students. Kaushal said each year there never fails to be several
newcomers who completely blow him away.

“It’s such a delight to see,” Kaushal said.
“They have never before touched the tabla in their life and
some of them come just out of curiosity. The moment the first
couple of classes happen, and I keep watching their fingers, the
way they play, sometimes it seems to me that they were born to play
tabla. The hands are so well fit on the tabla, and their reception
of the sounds, and the body language that comes with playing the
tabla. For the person who teaches, it is the most gratifying to see
that a student ““ even if they come fresh ““ is so
receptive. They’re meant to be tabla players.”