Sarangi - Fiddle |
Santoor - Xylophone |
Dilruba / Esraj |
Sarod - Lute |
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Traditional gut-stringed fiddle that is carved in a single piece of tun wood. The Sarangi's neck is fretless and the bridge is seated on a skin stretched over the body of the instrument. It is played by the light touch of a heavy bow. A great instrument for the sounds of tragedy. When played by a master, it is capable of closely imitating the nuances of the human voice. There are 3 main playing strings and 30 to 40 sympathetic strings. |
Delightful stringed percussion instrument. Made of a trapezoid box of wood with thirty bridges, arranged in fifteen rows, two in each row. A set of four strings of metal tuned to the same note is stretched over each pair of bridges, thus the total number of wires is sixty. The dimensions of strings vary according to the octave, being thickest in the lower octave. It is played with a pair of flat wood or metal forks curved at the striking end |
A cross between a sitar and a violin. This rosewood instrument is 43" long and has movable frets. It is held upright in your lap and played with a bow like a small bass fiddle. With frets like a sitar and sympathetic strings, the dilruba has a shimmering, bright sound. (The frets are simply to let you know where the notes are located and are not pressed as in a sitar or guitar - you simply slide up and down to create the characteristic portamento of Indian music |
Stringed fretless traditional Indian Lute. Made from seasoned teak, the sarod features a goatskin surface, a brass tumba (resonator) and 25 steel strings. Four of the strings are melody or playing strings; three are rhythm strings, and the rest are sympathetic and jawari strings. Instead of the conventional fretboard, this metal plate helps in sliding the fingers faster and enables the musician to get a wonderfully deep gamak. |
Dhol/Pakhwaj |
Tabla |
Bansuri - Side Flute |
Shehnai - Oboe |
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The dhol is a double ended barrel shaped drum held around the neck and played with two sticks, one thin cane stick and a larger bent wooden stick for the bass end. Both heads are made from goat skin laced together over the shell by one piece of rope which is threaded through the edge of both skins. One head is tuned to generate the bass tones while the other head is tuned to generate the treble tones. For this purpose one skin is made slightly thicker than the other. |
Tthe most important
Indian percussion -
consists of a high pitched
treble drum, made of tun
wood and or teak. The
lower pitched drum, the
bass dagga is most often
made of brass. The tabla
is usually tuned to the
tonic of the raga. The
heads of tablas, the
puddi, are the most
critical part of the tablas.
These heads are more
complex than any other
drum head. The actual
playing area of the puddi
consists of three separate
pieces. These different
parts contribute to the
tabla's very distinct
sounds. |
The North Indian bansuri
is a side-blown flute
imade of single jointed,
thin-walled bamboo and is
tuned to an untempered
chromatic scale.
Bansuris have a range of
approximately three
octaves. The best
Bansuris are made of rare
Sunderbans bamboo
reeds and are almost
invariably hand made by
proificient artistes
themselves. The 7-hole
bansuri featured here is
the closest Indian
equivalent of the western
Silver Flute. |
The Shehnai is the Indian
reed oboe that has
traditionally been played
at weddings and festivals
but has been brought o
the fore of classical
music over the past few
decades through the
untiring efforts of Ustad
Bismillah Khan. It is a low
puff instrument that
features a carved rose
wood neck and a nickeled
or brass sole that is
engraved through creating
a two-tone floral pattern.
While the reeds are
called double reeds, they
are actually four layers
thick instead of two. |
Sitar (Single Tumba) |
Vichitra Veena |
Tanpura/Tambura |
Sitar (Double Tumba) |
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The Sitar, a stringed
fretboard instrument is
undoubtedly the most
popular of all Indian
instruments. It has a
body made of tun wood
and a huge round tumba
or resonator made of a
seasoned pumpkin gourd.
There are usually seven
main playing strings
above the arched frets,
and eleven to thirteen
sympathetic strings
below the frets. These
sympathetic strings give
a magical shimmer to the
melody when they
resonate in tune with the
main playing strings.
There are two bridges on
the sitar made of bone or
ivory that give the sitar its
exhilarating buzz. |
The Veena is a complete instrument and provides the basic components: sruti, laya and sahitya. Its main attraction is the mellow tonal quality which is capable of evoking a meditative atmosphere. There are people who swear by this instrument and there are people who hate some versions of this instrtument. The rudraveena and the saraswati veena are very popular, whereas the vichitra veena is fast becoming a rarity withn its complex dissonance and rough sliding sounds. |
The Tanpura or Tambura is a stringed drone instrument. The four strings are plucked continuously to provide a prolonged and resonant drone of the octave and fifth, to which the musicians constantly refer throughout the concert. It usually accompanies a vocalist or a sitar player and is seldom used as a solo instrument. Nowdays it is being fast replaced by pre-recorded and remote controlled drones that can be used both in practice and in concert. |
The double tumba sitar is huge instrument characterised by an additional resonator on the tail end off the sitar. The double tumba is preferred by many to both the single tumba sitar and the surbahar. The resonance of these professional grade 20-stringed instruments is quite marvellous and these are the instruments used by almost of the great virtuosos of the sitar. |
Swarmandal - Harp |
Carnatic Violin |
Shahi Baja with Swarmandal |
Hawaiian Steel Guitar |
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The Swarmandal is a 30
to 42 string finger harp
that is used primnarily for
vocal accompaniment. It
is often played by khayal
singers. Itl is tuned to the
3 octaves on a specific
raga. The singers plays
arpeggio of notes with its
right thumb. The sound
was featured famously as
a solo instrument in the
Beatles' track Strawberry
Fields Forever. |
The Carnatic Violin is only a slightly modified and retuned version the Western violin., In Carnatic music, the violin is placed firmly between foot and chest of the performer. This enables rapid hand movements that are necessary for the innumerable slides, oscillations, grace notes and other types of note -orna mentations that are so intrinsic to (and typical of ) Carnatic music |
The Electric Shahi Baaja combines the best of the Hawaiian Steel Guitar, the Swarmandal (Indian harp) and has many similar characteristics to the Electric Bulbul Tarang. It belongs to the Tat Vadya family of plucked string instruments. This is a very long instrument, over 36-inches and has a double pick up and solid body. |
Slack key steel guitar that is usually played with a slide on the lap of the player. It was developed through people who really loved the guitar and found its mellowness to be compatible to that of Indian ragas. A great instrument for fusion music between hindustani classical and Western music. This is more popular as a modified acoustic guitar. |
Nagaswaram |
Harmonium- Organ |
Tasha - Copper Kettle |
Gopichand |
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The Nagaswaram is a temple or outdoors wind instrument that requires great skill and strenght to master. It has a range of two and a half octaves like the flute. The system of fingering is similar to that of the flute. But unlike the flute, where semi and quarter tones are produced by the partial opening and closing of the finger holes, here they are produced by adjusting the pressure and strength of the air-flow into the pipe |
A reed organ with hand pumped bellows. The keyboard is European, but it has a number of drone reeds which are distinctly Indian. The drone stops are the distinguishing feature of harmoniums. These control the flow of air over un-keyed reeds. There may be any number of drones set to any pitch; however they tend toward, A sharp, C sharp, D sharp, F sharp, and G shar. Scale changer, an elaborate mechanical arrangement whereby the entire keyboard may be shifted up or down, is provided in some models. This allows a musician to transpose the performance into any key without having to learn new fingerings. |
A very rare kettledrum
that can give the most
amazing depth of sound
for any kettledrum. Many
pro-drummers in the
West replace their regular
kettledrums with a tasha
when it comes to solo
acts. The 12" diameter
copper kettledrum is
played with two beaters
and tuned by 9 brass
keys. |
It consists of a length of bamboo that is split through most of the length. The two ends are pried apart and attached to a resonator. This resonator may be a coconut, gourd, metal container or a hollowed out cylindrical section of wood. The open end of the
resonator is covered with
taught skin and a string
penetrates the centre.
This string is attached to
a reinforced section in the
centre. This string then
passes through the
hollow of the resonator
and attaches to a tuning
peg located in the
bamboo. |
