Instruments and Accompaniment: Tanpura, Tabla and Harmonium
Instrument questions are practical: which string of the tanpura is tuned to what, how the tabla's two drums differ, and why the harmonium cannot reproduce a gamak. Answer with the part names and the reason, not just the instrument's name.
Tanpura
- Four strings, no frets, a curved bridge (ghodi) whose thread gives the buzzing jawari; tuning pegs are kunti.
- Standard tuning when the raga uses Pa: first string Pa, second and third Sa, fourth lower Sa. For a raga without Pa, tune the first string to Ma (Malkauns: Sa g M d n) or to Ni where Ma is also absent.
- Strings are plucked in a fixed order and left to ring, producing an unbroken drone that gives the singer their Sa.
Tabla
- Dayan (right, the tabla proper) is tuned to Sa, or to Pa/Ga; bayan (left, duggi) gives the bass and is tuned by shifting the gatta under the straps and by pressure from the wrist.
- Parts: syahi (black centre), maidan, kinar, chanti, gajra.
- Bols include dha, dhin, ta, tin, na, tit, ka, ge/ghe, tirakita; khali passages sound lighter because the bayan is silent.
Harmonium
- A reed organ with bellows, keys, reeds and often a scale-changer; it supplies the lehra and accompanies the voice, and is used for practice.
- It cannot produce meend, andolan or gamak, and its equal-tempered tuning blurs shruti. A singer who phrases like a harmonium loses marks for gayaki.
Worked example
Before singing Malkauns (Sa g M d n), check that Pa is absent, so the tanpura's first string is tuned to Ma rather than Pa; the dayan may still be tuned to Sa. An answer that tunes the first string to Pa contradicts the raga itself.
Traps
- Calling the bayan "tabla", or naming the dayan as the bass drum.
- Tuning the first string to Pa in a raga that omits Pa.
- Claiming the harmonium can produce meend.
- Ignoring the relationship between the singer's Sa and the tabla's tuning.