Musical Instruments: Construction, Tuning, Maintenance and Technique
Instrument questions combine craft and practice: how the instrument is built, how it is tuned to the performer's Sa, how it is maintained, and which technique produces which sound.
Construction
- Sitar: gourd tumba, wooden dandi, tied movable pardas, jawari bridge, 6–7 main strings plus 11–13 sympathetic tarab strings; played with a mizrab.
- Tabla: dayan (sheesham or mango, treble) and bayan (copper, brass or steel, bass); goat-skin pudi with syahi, gatta and chanti.
- Sarod: skin-covered body, steel strings, fretless metal fingerboard, jaba plectrum. Flute: bamboo tube closed at one end, six or seven holes.
Tuning
- Tabla: dayan to the tonic Sa, bayan to mandra Sa or Pa. Use the gatta for coarse adjustment and light tapping at the syahi edge for fine tuning.
- Sitar: the baj string carries the raga's key note (often Ma or Sa, by gharana), chikari strings to Sa; check that the jawari gives a clear, buzzing ring.
Maintenance and technique
- Loosen strings after playing, wipe with a dry cloth, control humidity, keep the syahi dry, replace worn strings before a performance.
- Sitar right hand: da (downstroke) and ra (upstroke); left hand: meend, kan, murki. Tabla: open bols na/ta/tin, combined dha/dhin, and bayan pressure for giss.
Worked example - matching tabla to a C tonic Set the dayan to C by tightening the gatta until the stroke 'na' matches the tanpura; tap close to the syahi if it is slightly flat. Tune the bayan an octave below, then check the combined 'Dha'. Reasoning: the dayan carries the melody-bearing pitch, so it must match Sa exactly; the bayan supplies bass, so mandra Sa or Pa is acceptable and gives the resonant 'ghe'.
Traps: tuning the bayan to the same octave as the dayan; overtightening the gatta and splitting the pudi; ignoring the jawari; describing strokes without naming da/ra or na/dha.