Taus, Dilruba, and Esraj Method Book Now Available

Greetings all!

I am very pleased to announce  the new book "A Practical Method for Taus, Dilruba, and Esraj" has recently become available at Amazon.com and Rain City Music. This text was the result of several years of work/learning/research, so, to be able to offer it (finally) feels really great. 

The book outlines a brief history of the instruments, maintenance and care, music theory, and practical lessons. Its not entirely a self-study text, but those of you who have experience with musical instruments you could probably work with it on your own. It would be most useful, however, with an instructor. 

So, if you have been meaning to learn Taus, Dilruba, or Esraj I would like to invite you to consider "A Practical Method" as I really feel it will help you on your way. There is also a much less expensive Kindle version as well.

Order at Amazon.com

Purchase the Kindle Version

Order at Rain City Music

All the best!
-Michael 

The Ending of a Graduate Student Jorney; Part III

My masters degree program kicked off with our first residential which happened in August of 2010. I had never been to the UK before and was fairly anxious about traveling internationally. Not that it was really terribly new to me, as a child I lived in Japan and visited as an adult. Plus growing up on the Mexican border meant short trips to our southern neighbor. Still, the fear of the unknown plays strong in my psyche and I can be a fairly nervous person in general.

I flew to London from Phoenix AZ, and caught a bus up to Sheffield, it was a long trip (about 17 hours total). I checked into the university accommodation and fell asleep rather easily on the small cot in my dormitory. The weather was lovely in South Yorkshire, not at all like the 110 degree summers I was used to in Phoenix. Walking was really enjoyable with all the green around and save for a few cultural hiccups (stores don't open terribly early) there were no real adaptation problems.

The residential itself was fairly overwhelming, but also really wonderful. I met a few fellow-Americans as well as many students from a host of other countries. I took some pride in the fact that we were such a diverse group. There were several Europeans, a charming young woman from Japan, a brilliant violinist from Hong Kong, and a record producer from Trinidad. In retrospect, I think I can safely say that I learned just as much from my classmates in the program as I did from the modules.

Myself and a (younger than me) tutor at the pub.

Over the next three residential (during the course of two years) my classmates and I would spend much more time together. Of course, the University provided events which we could attend, as well as mini-field research projects, but just venturing around the community was equally as fruitful. Naturally, we are all still connected (on some level) through FaceBook.