Classification of Musical Instruments
The expected framework is Bharata's fourfold chaturvidha classification, applied with correct examples, instrument parts and playing technique. Classification follows the sound-producing medium, not the material of the body.
The four classes
- Tata (string): plucked - sitar, sarod, veena, tanpura; bowed - sarangi, esraj, dilruba; struck - santoor.
- Sushira (wind): bansuri, shehnai, nagaswaram; the harmonium is a free-reed aerophone and is usually accepted under sushira, with a note on its reed mechanism.
- Avanaddha (membrane percussion): tabla, pakhawaj, mridangam, dhol, nagada.
- Ghana (solid/idiophone): jaltarang, manjira, kartal, ghatam, morsing.
Instrument detail worth naming
- Tanpura: drone; four strings usually tuned Pa–Sa–Sa–Sa (Ma–Ni–Sa–Sa in some ragas); jawari governs resonance.
- Tabla: dayan (right, tuned to Sa or Pa), bayan (left, bass with pitch glide); parts - puri, maidan, syahi, kinar, gajra.
- Pakhawaj accompanies dhrupad; mridangam belongs to Carnatic music.
Worked example
"Classify the sarangi and justify it." It is a tata vadya: sound comes from bowed strings passing over a parchment-covered belly, with sympathetic strings adding resonance. Even though a membrane is present, the membrane does not produce the sound - so it is not avanaddha. The class is decided by the sound-producer.
Traps
Calling the tabla ghana because the shell is wooden; putting the ghatam under avanaddha because it is a pot (it has no membrane - it is ghana); classifying the harmonium as a percussion instrument; forgetting that classification asks how sound is made, not what the instrument looks like.