Traffic is relatively light and not particularly responsive, which I actually get. I mean, I'm the one out here holding up a blank sign. I don't see many reactions from the drivers, but on the other hand I'm closing my eyes a lot of the time and focusing on the cognitively demanding practice.

2/

I switched bandishes and ragas but not taals; this week is a Jaunpuri composition in medium rupak, and the focus of my practice is singing sets of evenly spaced notes in polymeter against sequences of five beats, while keeping taal (at a relaxed mm. 88). Any one of these is already a challenge, but doing them all together is just fabulously demanding.

3/

The beginning is trivial: three sets of five beats each, arriving at the mukhda, which begins on beat 4. The canvas for the week's exploration is the beat grouping 34567 / 12345 / 67123, and I start by singing single tones each lasting the full five. Technically speaking it's a 1:5 polymeter, but it's basically pro-forma and a prelude to the 2:5, which is a little harder.

4/

Especially so when keeping accurate taal is added to the mix. The placement of claps and waves against the 5-beat strings constantly shifts, so the offbeat note in the middle of each group is unpredictable. I move up to 3:5, which means I am mentally subdividing every beat into triplets, then hearing five subdivisions per pitch, while keeping taal accurately.

5/

I get it, more or less, through the simple expedient of tapping every beat and exaggerating the ones which are part of the taal structure. This is nine notes spread evenly over fifteen beats, and at first I'm just using sargams because the thought of additive textual strings on top of everything else is just too much. I shift to 4:5 speed (12 notes over 15 beats) and wrestle with this...

6/

...eventually moving to incorporate text, as I get the note flow relatively smooth. There is a useful 12-syllable string in the second line of the bandish ("pala pala bata dekhata nainawa") and I would like to be able to sing in the 4:5 polymeter while delivering the 2+2+2+3+3 additive sequence of text and have it click. Around 8:15 I look up and see that Craige has arrived; he overslept.

7/

He tells me he's going to stay for an hour — looks like we're doing this in shifts, which could work. I make a video at 8;24, then we sing a duet on "Get Together" and I leave him to head homeward as the morning gets a little brighter and warmer. My day today is a bunch of students, a couple of errands, and the usual resistance chores.

8/