My Instrument de Jour

I just got my first lesson on the pandeiro!! What an awesome instrument! It's similar to a tambourine, but I have to admit, people who play the pandeiro look way cooler than tambourine players. In fact, it was seeing Michaelle playing the pandeiro that made me want to take her class! There's a lot of technique involved. Tonight we learned some different right hand hits: heel, toe, slap, muff and tone. There's also the left hand, which doesn't do as much fancy stuff as the right hand. No, the left hand is the poor stepsister. It's got to hold the darn thing up and pivot to give the right hand an easier time. But Michaelle described the role of the left hand as an energy thing. She had first learned to play with the left hand stiff and stable, but once she learned to pivot with the left, the whole energy of the instrument and its relation to her body changed. She said that the energy was free to circulate throughout her body, and playing was way more comfortable. I like that concept. Now I just have to practice it! I'm way totally excited about this class. Hooray!!