Bhatkhande Sangit Vidyapith

4-6

http://www.bsvidyapith.org/course-Instrumental-tabla.htm

Visharad Part II

Tabla and mirdang - theory

Art of the Solo Performance in Taal Vadya

M.M.-100

ustad abid hussain life sketch - ok

Gat Paran -
Describe the Taal Notation System of North India
Art of the Solo Performance in Taal Vadya
Different between Garana & Baaj
Percussion Instruments of North India
Methode of Tabla / Pakwaj accompaniment with vocal music
Write down in Taal Notation one Chakradar Paran in Bassant Taal and one Tukada of
Ganesh Taal

(1) A general study of the South Indian Taal System.

(2) The main characteristics of the different Gharanas of Tabla and Mridang and
how to differentiate between them.

(3) Definition and knowledge of the following terms �

Zarab, Wazen, Ati Vilamit, Ati Drut, Jati (five kinds), Yati (five kinds), Grada,
Tipalli, Chaupalli, Lal Kila, Lom, EkhatthiParan, Gat- Quida, Gat- Paran, Navhakka.

(4) Knowledge of and difference between the two prevalent Tal two prevalent Tal
notation systems : Viz. : Bhatkhande and Vishnu Digamber.

(5) A general knowledge of the other North Indian percussion instruments (Taal
Vadya).

(6) Tabla or Mridang as accompaniment to � Vocal Music, Instrumental Music and

Dance.

(7) Tabla or Mridang as Solo accompaniment.

(8) Life Sketch of any of the following �

i. Abid Hussain ii. Bathan Khan

iii. Nana Saheb Panse iv. Kodau Singh
v. Bada Munna Khan

________________________________________________________________

Navara Sangeet Vidyalaya, No.-200 High Level Road Mahargama Sri Lanka Ph.No. 9411-
2840759
Sri K.D. Prasanta
India - Percussion Musical Instruments
by V.A.Ponmelil (All rights reserved by the author)

Percussion Musical Instruments

Tabla
The Tabla is one of the most famous instruments of India. It is a two-piece
percussion instrument, and is the principal rhythmic accompaniment to most of the
North Indian classical and the light music. It is said to have originated from the
two-faced drum called the mridangam and the pakhawaj.

The pictures of drums can be seen in the Pushkaras depictions in the Ajanta
sculptures. It is also referred as the tabla-dugga pair as it consists of two
drums.

The bass drum or the male drum which is played with the left hand is called the
bayan or the dhaga or the duggi. The treble or the female drum which is played with
the right hand is called the Dayan or the tabla.

The bayan has a rounded shell made of metal and the Dayan has a slimmer shell
usually made of wood. Both are covered with the skin fastened to leather hoops
which are stretched over the body of the drum by means of leather braces.

There is a cylindrical block of wood wedged between the braces and the wall of the
tabla. The wedges can be pushed up or down to lower or raise the pitch. The
application of a mixture of flour and water to the left head of the Dayan lowers
the pitch and gives the dull bass sound. This plaster can always be scraped off
after use.

In bayan, the plaster is mixed with iron fillings and it is applied once for all.
The table has a light and sweet sound whereas the bayan has an infinite pitch. The
drums are kept erect on the ground and played with the fingers. This instrument has
the capacity to produce almost all the patterns of rhythms.

The most popular artist of Tabla is Ustad Zakir Hussain.

Dhap

The Dhap is a rhythm instrument. It is in the shape of a Khanjari made up of wood

with one side open and the other side covered with a piece of animal skin. It has a
wooden frame with leather stretched over the frame. There is a dance called Dhap
associated with this instrument.

Mridangam
The Mridangam is the rhythm instrument used to maintain the thala of the recital in
the Carnatic music. The word Mridangam means the body of clay. It is the most
ancient of all percussion instruments. It is similar to Pakhawaj in north India.

The Mridangam is a double sided drum with the body of the instrument made of one
piece of wood. It has the shape of a barrel with the bulge slightly to one side and
the right face is smaller than the left.

The body is hollow with two apertures of different sizes for high and low pitched
sounds. The left face is called the tappi with two layers. The outer layer is a
flat ring of leather attached to a plait known as the pinnal. The inner layer is a
parchment of a circular piece and has a diameter approximating to the outer skin.
The right face has three laminations. The inner and the outer are rings. The middle
circular layer is held by pasting along its periphery the annular rings of leather.
This entire complex called 'valan talai' is stitched on to a pinnal or plait and
mounted onto the right mouth of the barrel.

The two faces are joined and held together tight by leather straps which pass in
and out of the pinnals or braids on both sides. A mixture of flour and water is
applied on the middle of the left side to lower the tone to the desired pitch. This
gives a full, bass sound. This is removed each time after use.

The center of the right side has a permanent coating of a black substance called
siyahi which is a mixture of boiled rice, manganese dust, iron filings and other
substances. This layer gives characteristic tone to the mridangam and facilitates
the tuning to a particular pitch. The most popular artists of the Mridangam are
Palghat Mani Iyer and Umayalapuram Shivaraman.

Chenda
The Chenda is an important percussion instrument used in many dance forms of Kerala
and mainly in the Kathakali, and the Koodiyattam. It is one of the traditional
instruments used in Kerala temples. It is also known as chende in certain areas of
Karnataka and is used in folk dance drama called the Yakshagana. It is a
cylindrical wooden drum which is two feet in length and about a foot in diameter.

The drum is usually made of jackfruit wood. Both sides of the Chenda are covered
with skin. Although the Chenda has two faces, only one surface is used.

The drummer suspends the Chenda from his neck such that it hangs more or less
vertically. Then it is played with specially made sticks from the Champpangu tree.
The sound produced by the Chenda is very loud. Some of the varieties in the Chenda
are the Uruttu Chenda, the Veeku Chenda and the Acchan Chenda.

Dholak
The dholak is a double headed drum with the bass head on one side and the treble
head on the other. It is one of the most widely utilized drums in the folk music of
India. It is also a popular instrument in most of the recording and the broadcast
environments.

The Bass head is designed more like a tabla head with multi layered skins. A paste
on the treble head gives a high pitched tone. The heads are kept in place by metal
hooks that have nuts at the bottom that can be tightened or loosened to adjust the
pitch of the head. It is used mainly in the folk, the light music, the bhajan and
the filmi music.

Pakhawaj
The Pakhawaj is an ancient barrel shaped percussion instrument with two playing
heads. It is essentially a north Indian version of the Mridangam.

Its right head is identical to tabla and the left head is similar to the tabla
bayan except that there is a temporary application of flour and water instead of
the black permanent spot. It is laced with rawhide and has tuning blocks placed
between the straps and shell. Its rhythms are taught by a series of mnemonic
syllables known as bol.

The Pakhawaj is mainly used for the accompaniment of dhrupad and dhammar singers.
It is also very much used in Orissi dances and occasionally for the kathak. It is
also found in a classical form from Rajasthan known as the Haveli Sangeet. Today
this instrument is rare.

Some of the great pakhawaj players include Kudau Singh, Nana Panse, Purushottam
Das, Pagal Das, Amarnath Misra, Bhai Nasira, Talib Hussain Khan, Ambadas Agle, Tota
Ram Sharma, Ayodhya Prasad, Gopal Das, Ramashish Pathak, Laxmi Narayan Pawar, Arjun
Shejwal, Ramji Upadhyaya, Kelucharan Mahapatra, Taranath Rao, Ravi Bellare, Vasant
Rao, Chatrapati Singh, Mohan Shyam Sharma, Manik Munde, Dal Chaand Sharma, Radhey
Shyam Sharma, Ravikant Mahapatra, Fateh Singh, Rishabh Dhar, Durga Prasad Mojumdar,
Chitrangana Agle, Bhavani Shankar, Akilesh Gundecha, Ashutosh Upadhyaya, Shrikant
Misra, and Udhav Shinde.

Nagara

The Nagara is a percussion instrument having two kettle drums which are played with
two sticks. It has been described in ancient puranas as the Dundubhi, the Dundhu,
the Dundhub, the Bheri, and the Adamber. It is often played in pair, known as Joh
Nagara.

The bigger one is made of copper and is covered with buffalo skin to produce a
heavy and deep sound. The smaller one is made of steel and is covered with camel
skin, thus producing a light sound. The Nagara is also played in Panchai Baja as
Damaha. It is too played in Mahakali Dance. It is accompanied with Chhusyah and
Muhali.

The nagara was also used as a war-drum. Its beat heralded the arrival of kings and
princes and meant that the army was marching into battle. Today, it is played on
the festive occasions.

Khol
The khol is a terracotta two-sided percussion instrument used in the accompaniment
of devotional, spiritual and folk music and dances. It is an integral part in the
accompaniment of most folk music of rural Bengal. It is similar to the mridangam,
the dholok and the pakhwaj percussion instruments.

The body of the khol is made of clay and is formed by joining together two
truncated cones. The body is coiled laterally with thin leather straps. The right
end of the khol is smaller than left. The hems are laced into retaining loops which
hold the membrane tightly to the rims of the body. Thin leather straps go back and
forth longitudinally between the loops of both drum heads.

A circle of black tuning paste, made from rice or wheat flour mixed with water and
iron fillings, is applied to the center of the smaller drum head. A long cotton
belt attached to both loops is wound around the player's shoulders to support the
drum during the performance.

Madal

The Madal is a hand drum is popular as folk drum in North India. It has its origin
in Nepal. It is made of wood or clay. Both heads are played, holding the Madal drum
horizontally. It is smaller in size compared with other double skin drums.

The skin is similar to the skin of the tabla. It has two levels on both sides and a
black portion in the center. Similar to the Pakhawaj and the Tabla the skins are
stretched through the tuning wedges in the leather thongs. As it is compact, the
Madal is easy to carry and thus it is called as the mobile drum.

Thavil / Tavil

The Thavil is a powerful double drum percussion instrument used mainly for the
Nagaswaram. It has a hollow barrel made of solid block of wood.

On both sides of the barrel are the hoops fastened by interwoven leather straps.
There are also two skins stretched to form the two heads. The pitch is adjusted by
tightening the skin with the help of a leather band which passes through the middle
of the barrel over the braces.

The right head is played with the fingers of the right hand capped with hardened
rice paste caps whilst the left head is played with a thick stick. Rings made of
the same material as the caps are also worn on the knuckles of the right hand. The
right head is stretched tight but is not tuned to any particular pitch.

Damroo
The Damroo is a two-sided drum also known as the monkey talking drum. It has an
hour-glass shape. The player holds the damroo drum in one hand and gives it a sharp
twist with the wrist, causing the beads to strike the drum heads.

It is made from wood but formerly was made from a human cranium. The Damroo has
been the instrument of shamans and exorcists as well as those who sing the praises
of Guga, Lord of the Snakes.

In Guga Navmi, groups of Guga singers accompanied by Damroo drummers roam from
place to place carrying a tall pole embellished with peacock feathers and dozens of
bright scarves in celebration.

Dhol
The dhol is a two-sided barrel shaped drum held around the neck. It is played with
two sticks, one thin cane stick and a larger bent wooden stick for the bass end.
The left head, dhamma, has a heavier sound. The right head is called purha.

Traditionally both heads would be made from the goat skin laced together over the
shell by one piece of rope which would be threaded through the edge of both skins.
Like many Indian double-ended drums, one head is tuned to generate the bass tones
while the other head is tuned to generate the treble tones.

The shell of a dhol is made from one piece of wood, ideally a hardwood such as
shesham, which is similar to teak. The harder the wood the sharper and clearer is
the sound.

Ghatam
The Ghatam is one of the oldest percussion instruments of South India. It is a
specially designed mud pot with a narrow end, used as a secondary percussion
instrument along with the Mridangam.

The pot is usually made of a mixture of clay baked with brass or copper fillings
and a small amount of iron fillings.

The pitch of the Ghatam varies according to its size. Each Ghatam has an inherent
pitch of its own, but can be altered marginally by the application of plasticine,
clay, and water to the inner layers of the pot. The performer sits cross-legged
with the ghatam on his lap, the mouth of the instrument facing his belly.

At times, the ghatam is turned around, so that the mouth faces the audience, and
the performer plays on the neck of the ghatam. Sometimes, the performer tosses the
pot in the air and catches it, in rhythm, much to the delight of the audience.

155
______________________________________________________________________
ustad abid hussain life sketch
Gat Paran
Describe the Tabla Notation System of North India
Art of the Solo Performance in Tabla Vadya
Different between Garana & Baaj
Percussion Instruments of North India
Methode of Tabla / Pakwaj accompaniment with vocal music

_____________________________________________________________

http://lucknowobserver.com/khaleefa-abid-hussain/
Khaleefa Abid Hussain
https://books.google.lk/books?
id=11E9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA78&lpg=PA78&dq=Life+Sketch+Tabla+of+Khalifa+Abid+Hussain&sourc
e=bl&ots=cwoKuw7KM6&sig=1eG84cZ6ZcsiJZQ8_kcaLLMy6ts&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiu8aKYpY_
fAhUILY8KHewSAvYQ6AEwEXoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=Life%20Sketch%20Tabla%20of%20Khalifa
%20Abid%20Hussain&f=false

https://books.google.lk/books?id=11E9AAAAIAAJ&lpg=PA78&dq=Life%20Sketch%20Tabla
%20of%20Khalifa%20Abid%20Hussain&pg=PA78#v=onepage&q&f=false