Shehnai
शहनाई
Build control of reed response, note articulation and a taught phrase.
Shehnai, the North Indian reed instrument related to the oboe: suggested activities for reed response, note starts, fingering and phrasing, worked through with a teacher.
History & Evolution
Grinnell College's collection notes that hereditary Muslim musicians have usually played the shehnai. Bismillah Khan was born in Dumraon, Bihar, in 1916, into a family of court musicians. He learnt shehnai from his maternal uncle Ali Bux, the shehnai player of the Vishwanath temple in Varanasi. The Sangeet Natak Akademi gave him its award for Hindustani instrumental music in 1956, and he received the Bharat Ratna in 2001.
In concert, the lead player works with supporting shehnai players who follow the melody, a second shehnai holding the drone (a constant reference pitch) and tabla. Practice varies: Darbar's listing for a 2012 London recital names tanpura and harmonium alongside tabla.
Later Akademi awards in Hindustani instrumental music went to Anant Lal in 1989, Ali Ahmad Hussain Khan in 2009 and Shailesh Bhagwat in 2025. Anant Lal learnt from his father, then studied with the vocalist Mahadev Prasad Mishra; the Akademi records that he also plays the flute. It places Ali Ahmad Hussain Khan in the Benaras school. Shailesh Bhagwat studied with Bismillah Khan for four decades. All India Radio employed Anant Lal as a staff artist and graded Ali Ahmad Hussain Khan a top-grade artist.
- 1947
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Bismillah Khan at the Red Fort
Bismillah Khan played shehnai at the Red Fort in Delhi at India's independence in August 1947. New India Samachar, a Government of India magazine, recorded this in a 2021 retrospective; Sruti places it on the eve of 15 August. - 1950 release
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Sanai Gath on Folk Music of India
Smithsonian Folkways' album Folk Music of India includes Sanai Gath, credited to Mr. Bismillah with a drummer and a drone player. The CREM-CNRS sound archive lists it as recorded in India by Harold Courlander, in raga (melodic mode) Kafi. - 1995
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From naubat to gayaki ang
Reis Flora's 1995 article in the Yearbook for Traditional Music sets out a framework for studying twentieth-century Hindustani shehnai styles. Its title names the change it studies: from naubat, the ensemble that set the model for outdoor court music in northern India, to gayaki ang, playing modelled on singing. - 2023-2024
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Shehnai in a BPA degree
The Maya Somaiya School of Music and Performing Arts lists a Bachelor of Performing Arts student in shehnai for 2023-2024 in its 2024-25 admissions brochure, and says it has added a shehnai course.
Technical Aspects
Reed response and articulation
The shehnai sounds when the player's breath sets a small cane reed vibrating. Airstream and lip pressure shape pitch and ornament, and the tongue marks where notes begin. Jeremy Montagu observes that the lips hold the reed, as on the orchestral oboe, giving finer control of tone and tuning. Accounts differ on whether the reed has two blades or four.
Reed, bore and bell
A shehnai has a reed mounted on a small metal tube called the staple, a conical wooden body whose bore widens towards the far end, a row of finger holes and a flared metal bell. Length varies between instruments and with the reed and staple fitted: museum specimens run from 33.6 cm (Horniman Museum) to 66 cm (Metropolitan Museum of Art). On Grinnell College's specimen a decorative string holds spare reeds, staples and a mandrel for adjusting the reed.
Finger holes, range and tuning
Covering and uncovering the finger holes changes the length of the sounding air column, and overblowing (extra breath pressure) brings in a higher register; Grinnell College's specimen spans about two octaves. The two Horniman Museum shehnais have seven finger holes and no thumb hole. Grinnell's adds a vent hole that wax can stop to adjust tuning.
Journey to Mastery
Follow this structured journey to master this discipline
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Find a repeatable reed response
Start with a reed your teacher has chosen and checked. Using the mouth position they demonstrate, play a short, gentle note, hold it for a moment, then rest. Repeat on the same fingering and listen for a note that begins the same way each time. If the reed's response changes, stop and ask your teacher to check it before you carry on.
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Separate and connect sounds
Choose a comfortable note with your teacher and practise starting it with the tongue and releasing it without a bump. Rest between attempts. Then play two short notes on that pitch, followed by one connected note of the same total length. Listen for a clear break between the short notes and a steady sound in the long one, and keep every attempt short.
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Coordinate fingers and reed
Hold the shehnai as your teacher shows you, with one hand covering the upper three holes and the other the lower four. Play a short fingering pattern they have demonstrated, at a pace that lets you hear each pitch, then return to the first note. Compare that note with a reference pitch such as a drone, and notice whether lifting a finger also changes how the reed responds.
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Learn a phrase and its resting note
Learn a short musical phrase from your teacher and identify its resting note, the pitch where the phrase settles. Play the phrase in small sections before joining them. Keep the chosen pause in the same place for each attempt, and listen to how the first note after the pause leads towards the resting note.
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Enter after a musical cue
Agree a short exchange with your teacher: a phrase to hear, an entry point and a phrase to answer. Listen through the complete cue before you enter. Repeat the exchange with the same note pattern, and check that the reed sound starts on the agreed entry.