Musical Instruments and Classification
Instrument questions ask you to place an instrument in one of the four traditional classes and to name its parts or tuning. The classification is by the material that produces the sound, not by how the player touches it - that single rule resolves most tricky items.
The four classes
The classification traces to Bharata's Natyashastra:
- Tat vadya (string): sitar, sarod, tanpura, veena, sarangi, violin, dilruba, esraj.
- Sushir vadya (wind): bansuri, shehnai, nagaswaram, harmonium (air through reeds).
- Avanaddha vadya (membrane/percussion): tabla, pakhawaj, mridangam, dholak, dhol.
- Ghan vadya (solid, struck): jaltarang, manjira, ghungroo, kartal.
Parts and tuning
A sitar has a gourd tumba, a long neck with movable frets, main strings and sympathetic tarab strings. A tabla pair is the tuned dayan (right, with syahi) and the bass bayan (left). The tanpura gives a drone, tuned Sa–Sa–Pa–Sa or Sa–Sa–Ma–Sa; it does not present a raga.
Worked example
Classify the harmonium. Reasoning: the keys suggest a keyboard instrument, but the sound comes from air driven by bellows through metal reeds; the vibrating material is air, so the harmonium belongs to sushir vadya, not ghan or tat. The interface (keys) is irrelevant to the classification.
Traps
- Classifying jaltarang as avanaddha; it is ghan.
- Putting sarangi under sushir because it is bowed softly.
- Calling the tabla a ghan vadya.
- Describing the tanpura as an instrument that plays a raga.