Classification of Musical Instruments and Prescribed Melodic Instruments
Instrument classification tests the traditional fourfold scheme and the ability to place prescribed melodic instruments correctly. Candidates should classify by sound production, then add playing technique and material where useful.
The four classes
- Tat vadya: string instruments, whether plucked or bowed. Sitar, sarod, sarangi and santoor belong here.
- Sushir vadya: wind instruments, including bansuri and shehnai.
- Avanaddha vadya: instruments with a stretched membrane, such as tabla and pakhawaj.
- Ghan vadya: solid, non-membrane percussion or resonant solid bodies, such as jaltarang and ghatam.
Prescribed melodic instruments
- Sitar is a fretted plucked lute with movable frets and sympathetic strings; sarod is a fretless plucked lute with a metal fingerboard and resonant body.
- Sarangi is a bowed string instrument, valued for vocal-like continuity and ornament.
- Bansuri is a transverse bamboo flute; shehnai is a double-reed wind instrument associated with auspicious occasions and Hindustani melodic performance.
- Santoor is a hammered dulcimer: struck strings place it in tat vadya, not ghan vadya.
Worked example
Classify sarangi, shehnai and santoor. Sarangi is tat vadya because a bow excites strings; shehnai is sushir vadya because a reed and air column produce sound; santoor is tat vadya because hammers strike strings. Reasoning: the decisive criterion is the sound-producing medium, not the player's hand movement or the instrument's shape.
Traps that cost marks
Calling tabla a tat instrument because it is played with fingers; placing santoor in ghan because it is struck; confusing sarangi's bowed technique with a wind classification; and ignoring the difference between plucked and bowed strings within tat vadya.