Two Days Before the Exam: A Buzzing Syahi and a Pitch Rise
Two days before your practical exam your set develops problems. The dayan (5.5-inch head, tuned to C# at about 277 Hz) buzzes on 'dhin': the centre of the syahi sounds clean, but the edge on the dhin side rattles. Pressing a fingertip on the syahi edge stops the rattle; pressing on the gajra does not. The bayan (9.5-inch) sits at about 138 Hz and sounds dull. Room humidity is 85% and the exam hall will be air-conditioned at roughly 24 degrees Celsius. The dayan head is four months old. You own one spare dayan head, no spare bayan head, a tuning hammer, and there is no repairman within 100 km. The exam requires a steady Teentaal theka at 60 matras/min and a short solo. The harmonium player's Sa is C#.
1. Diagnose the buzz from the evidence given and choose a repair, explaining why the alternatives are worse.
Read the worked answer
The two pressure tests localise the fault. Damping the syahi edge stops the buzz, damping the gajra does not, so the braid and lacing are probably sound and the noise comes from the syahi lifting at its rim; a four-month-old syahi can dry and curl at the edge, and the loose flake rattles against the head on the low 'dhin'. The proportionate repair is a thin fresh layer of syahi paste worked under the lifted edge, dried flat for 24 hours away from damp. Superglue is wrong: it sets brittle, deadens the tone and cannot be undone. Fitting the spare head is also wrong this close to the exam, because a new head keeps stretching and, in 85% humidity, keeps dropping in pitch.
2. The harmonium is later found to be at D (about 294 Hz). How do you raise the dayan, roughly how much extra tension is needed, and what do you do with the bayan?
Read the worked answer
277 to 294 Hz is a ratio of 1.061. Since frequency rises with the square root of tension, the required tension ratio is about 1.061 squared, roughly 1.13, so about 13% more tension. That means small, even taps on each ghatka, working round the drum in two or three passes and rechecking the dhin pitch after each pass, not one heavy blow. I would leave it two or three Hz sharp, because the head will take up moisture in the hall and fall in pitch. The bayan is not tuned to the dayan's note; it supplies the low supportive tone, so I would clear its dullness by checking that the syahi and rim are free and adjusting its own ghatkas.
3. What would you refuse to do in this situation, and why?
Read the worked answer
I would refuse to change the dayan head the night before, and refuse glue or tape on the syahi. A new head needs days of settling; in high humidity it drops in pitch and the lacing keeps moving, so exam morning would be spent retuning rather than practising, and there is no spare bayan head if something goes wrong. I would also refuse to force the semitone with hard hammering in a single pass: uneven or excessive tightening can tear the head or distort the rim, and neither can be reversed in the hall. The aim is a playable, stable drum, not a perfect one.