Hindustani Classical

Hindustani classical instrumental music is the raga music of North India played on instruments: plucked and bowed strings, flutes and drums. It is one of India's two major classical traditions, alongside Carnatic music, and shares two ideas with Hindustani vocal music: raga, a melodic framework of notes and phrases, and tala, a repeating cycle of beats. A common ensemble pairs a melodic soloist, such as a sitar or sarod player, with a drummer, most often on tabla, and a tanpura drone.

On the sitar, pulling the string sideways at a fret bends its pitch, a glide called meend. Tabla players learn bols, spoken syllables that name the drum strokes and carry compositions from teacher to student. The pages for sarod, sarangi, bansuri and the other instruments describe how each is played.

Melodic players and percussionists both study tala and laya (tempo). Percussionists add compositions, solo playing and accompaniment.

Many sitar and sarod performances open with an unmetred alap, gain a pulse in the jor and speed up in the jhala, where the player strikes the drone strings in rhythm. The tabla then joins for a composed gat. When choosing a course, ask whether it covers solo playing, accompaniment or both, and what experience it expects.