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Explore / Instruments / Tabla

Tabla

A pair of hand drums: a small wooden one with a ringing voice and a wider metal one with a deep bass. A black spot on each head gives each drum a clear, tuned pitch.

Recordings of a real tabla, not synthesized.

Inside the tabla

Tap a part

Dayan (also called dahina, daya, siddha or chattu, or simply tabla) · The smaller, higher drum, carved from wood and played with the dominant hand. It is usually tuned to the tonic (Sa) of the raga the soloist is playing.

How the sound is made

From the hand to the room

Questions about the tabla

What is the black spot on a tabla?

It is the syahi, a paste that includes iron filings, built up on the drumhead. Its weight makes the head ring with overtones in tune with each other, so the tabla has a clear pitch. In 1920 the physicist C. V. Raman showed that this loading gives the drum harmonic overtones, which most drums lack.

Why are the two tabla drums different?

The dayan, played with the dominant hand, is a smaller wooden drum with a higher, ringing voice, usually tuned to the tonic of the raga. The bayan, played with the other hand, is a larger metal bowl with a deep voice that the player bends by pressing the heel of the hand into the skin.

How is a tabla tuned?

Wooden blocks under the leather strap on the dayan are moved to change the tension, and a small hammer tapped on the braided hoop around the head makes fine adjustments. The player listens to the edge stroke while tuning.

Is tabla a Hindustani or Carnatic instrument?

Tabla is the main drum of Hindustani (North Indian) classical music. Carnatic (South Indian) concerts usually use the mridangam instead.

Hear it live

1 upcoming tabla concertTabla gharanas and styles

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A black spot on each head makes the drum ring in tune instead of thudding.

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Sources

  1. Britannica, "Tabla": Tuning to the tonic of the raga; heel pressure changing the bayan's tone colour and pitch; the pair of drums and their materials.
  2. Raman and Kumar (1920), "Musical drums with harmonic overtones," Nature 104:500: A loaded drumhead gives harmonic overtones, unlike ordinary drums.
  3. DigiTabla, tabla drum terms: Gajra, baddhi, gatte, chanti (kinar), the open area between spot and edge, syahi, dayan and bayan; the Na stroke on the chanti; hammer tuning on the gajra; other names: daya, tabla, baya, duggi, dagga, gab, sur, lav, chanti, chant, tasma, gidri.
  4. Britannica, "Mridanga": The mridangam as the principal drum of South Indian (Carnatic) music.
  5. Wikipedia, "Tabla": Dha as Na combined with Ga or Ghe on the bayan; resonant and non-resonant strokes; heel pressure changing the pitch and tone of each drum; tension adjusted by the gatta blocks and fine-tuned with a hammer on the braided hoop; wooden gatta blocks set between the strap and the shell; the chutta cushion rings; other names for the two drums (dahina, siddha, chattu; duggi, dhama), the syahi (shai, gab) and the cushion (guddi); the reference photo the drawing follows.
  6. Wikiversity, "Tabla": The bayan's offset syahi.
  7. Marius Miron, "na-open.wav", Freesound (CC0): The Na recording: the ringing stroke on the dayan.
  8. Marius Miron, "ghe_3.wav", Freesound (CC0): The Ge recording: the bass stroke on the bayan, played with Na for Dha.

The strokes on this page are recordings of a real tabla (CC0, credited above). Drawings made with Anatomy.

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