I am writing from Mumbai, India where I have been working on a number of projects – getting caught up with my Canadian Percussionists series for one! Soon I will have a number of new episodes to share through my YouTube channel.
(Instagram: @richbenn_tpt)
I have also been creating a series of Video and PDF lessons, under the project name Inner Time. Each lesson is designed to strengthen a musician’s confidence with rhythm and with the flow of rhythmic time. This highly advanced internal awareness of time is, in Carnatic (South Indian classical) music, known as laya.
These lessons in Inner Time are the culmination of a long gestation period of thought, reflection, and practice.
Over the years, in my encounters with students and practitioners of music, I have wondered why some people seem to have an ease with rhythm – a natural, comfortable rhythmic “flow”, while for others it seems to be a constant source of struggle. For some, the difficulty is in staying “on the beat”, or in maintaining a steady tempo, or playing “offbeat” or “syncopated” rhythms comfortably. For others, it’s learning to improvise and express creatively without losing track of the musical framework of rhythm, without getting “lost in time”.
What I’ve observed is that, in general, rhythm in “Western” music education is ignored, and music students are rarely trained to deepen their rhythmic awareness beyond a shockingly basic level. Also, any discussion of rhythm is usually limited to notational concepts (“this is a quarter note, this is an eighth note”) without helping young musicians focus their attention and train their musicianship to understand and *feel* the depths and nuances of musical time.
Developing my own connection with this inner sense of time is an ongoing practice, one which continues to enhance and improve my musicianship in numerous ways. These new Inner Time lessons have been created as one possible way to assist musicians with their own rhythmic development. I will keep adding to this project over time, beginning with a set of rhythmic lessons and exercises which can be applied to any instrument or voice.
Some excerpts from these Inner Time lessons will be posted as free offerings to my YouTube channel, while the full sets of lessons and practice videos will be available as online courses for subscribers. I’m still developing the technical aspects of how this will be shared, so stay tuned for more information!