Tabla

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.

Start the tabla with KalaSudha at Foundation level, online or in a workshop. The first stage covers hand placement and the basic bols, the spoken syllables for each stroke. Children learn with us as well as adults: ask us what age suits a child starting the tabla, and about a size for a younger learner.

Returning learners pick up where they left off after a long break. Our courses run in levels, and your teacher reviews where you stand first.

In a Hindustani concert, the tabla player keeps the tala, the rhythmic cycle, by playing its theka, the pattern of strokes that marks each cycle. The tabla player and scholar Aneesh Pradhan asks for a clear, balanced theka at a steady pace, shaded in answer to the melody. The tabla stays silent through the opening alap and enters with the composition.

A khayal singer gets the theka with short diversions; an instrumental recital gives the tabla longer solo passages. In a sawal-jawab, a question-and-answer passage, the tabla echoes the soloist's ever shorter phrases. The passage closes with a tihai, a phrase played three times to land on the first beat. The tabla has its own solo repertoire too.

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: ask us to replace it, as we service and repair any tabla, wherever you bought it. 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 us 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.

You can buy a tabla set from KalaSudha outside India: we sell each pair by quote or made to order, and we deliver worldwide. We pack every instrument for international shipping, and you can ask us about cases and insurance.

We service and repair any tabla worldwide, wherever you bought it, and you can ask us for spare parts. For help later, use the chat on any page or write to [email protected]. We can also arrange gift vouchers, class sets for schools or a flight case for travel; ask us.

KalaSudha services and repairs any sitar or tabla outside India, wherever you bought it and wherever you live: ask us. On a sitar, that includes the setup and the jawari, the buzzing bridge. On a tabla, we re-face worn heads and renew the syahi, the black paste on each head.

We pack every instrument for international shipping, so ask us about a case and insurance for the trip. For help with your instrument, use the chat on any page or email [email protected].

A good gift for someone learning an Indian classical instrument suits the instrument they play and the stage they have reached, so ask their teacher if you are unsure. An instrument of their own, or a better one, also makes a gift: KalaSudha sells every instrument by quote or made to order. For something smaller, ask us for a case, or for strings and spare parts to suit their instrument.

Lessons make a gift as well. KalaSudha teaches online and in workshops, and beginners start at Foundation level: see our courses.

Ask us about gift vouchers.

You can ask KalaSudha to book a tabla player for a concert, event or recording. A tabla player can accompany a singer, an instrumentalist or a Kathak dancer, or play solo. Tell us which you need through our booking service for Indian classical musicians. Before you book, hear KalaSudha's recordings and concert videos.