तबला

A tabla is a pair of hand drums. The smaller drum, the dayan, is wooden, sits under the right hand and carries the pitch. The larger drum, the bayan, sits under the left hand and gives the bass. The bayan is most often copper, sometimes clay or wood, and the player bends its bass by pressing the heel of the palm into the head while striking.

Each head carries a black circle of tuning paste. The paste weights the skin and adds overtones. The dayan rings at a clear pitch, and the bayan gives a deep bass with a looser pitch that the palm can shift.

The black spot on a tabla is the syahi, a disc of loading paste, set in the centre of the dayan and off-centre on the bayan. Sources name starch or dough, iron filings or iron oxide, gum, and charcoal or soot among its ingredients. In 1920 Raman and Kumar showed that this loaded head gives harmonic overtones in the same relation to the fundamental as a string.

Yes, the head of each tabla drum, the puri, is a replaceable part, sold and fitted by repairers. Both heads are goatskin, with an outer leather ring, the chanti, and a braided outer ring, the gajra. Tuning and care must be learned from a teacher, so ask a repairer or your teacher before changing a head yourself.

A tabla's right-hand drum, the dayan, is tuned in two stages: the eight wooden gatta under the straps are moved up or down for coarse changes, and the braided gajra is struck with a small heavy hammer for fine tuning. The dayan is usually tuned to the soloist's Sa. Learn the process from a teacher before using the hammer.

Most players leave the bayan, the left-hand drum of the tabla, untuned, because they modulate its pitch constantly. Pressure from the heel of the left hand on the head changes its tone colour and pitch during a stroke. Where it is tuned, it sits roughly a fifth to an octave below the dayan.

Brass is the most common metal for the tabla's bayan, and copper is more expensive and generally considered the best. Bayan bodies are also made of steel, iron sheet, aluminium, bronze, clay or wood, and museum examples include chromed copper and tinned copper. Judge the pair as a whole: David Courtney advises learners to avoid a cheap pair, because a poor instrument makes learning hard.

Six tabla gharanas, or schools, are conventionally named: Delhi, Ajrara (Ajrada), Lucknow, Farrukhabad, Benares and Punjab. Delhi is usually held the oldest, founded by Siddhar Khan in the 18th century. Delhi and Ajrara belong to the Dilli baj, Lucknow and Benares to the bolder, open purab baj, and Farrukhabad balances both, while Punjab has a strong pakhawaj base.

David Courtney, author of Manufacture and Repair of Tabla, advises a beginner to buy a medium-priced tabla pair and avoid a cheap one, because a poor instrument makes learning hard.

KalaSudha's tabla suits the beginner and the professional accompanist alike, and the tabla page gives the price of each grade. Entry sets pair a sheesham (Indian rosewood) dayan (the right-hand drum) with a brass bayan (the bass drum); mid-range sets have a copper bayan and better skins. When the heads wear, KalaSudha re-faces them and renews the syahi, the black paste on each head.

For lessons, KalaSudha's online academy teaches every discipline of Indian classical music, tabla included.