Music - rotW - India

• What are Talas mainly played by?


  Tablas
• What is the most popular Tala and how many are their?

  TinTal - 16 beats per cycle, Over 300 talas
• What movements are used to mark certain beats?

  Hand claps or Waves
• What are melodies based on?

  Ragas
• What notations are Ragas written down as?

  Sargam
• What are the features of the Alap section?

  Melody and drone, Free tempo, Slow, Soft
• What are the features of the Jhor section?

  Melody and drone, Increase in speed, More rhythmic
• What are the main features of the Jhala section?

  Melody and drone, More speed, More improvisation
• What are the main features of the Gat section?


  Tabla enters, Tempo increases, Dynamics increase
• What are the three basic layers to the texture of Indian Classical Music?

  Melody, Drone, Rhythm
• This is a Sitar, a deep pear-shaped gourd body; a long, wide, hollow wooden neck; both front and side tuning pegs; and 20 arched movable frets that can move.

  
• This is a Tanpura, It performs the drone, a carved, rounded resonator plate (tabli) and a long, hollow straight neck, in section resembling a rounded capital D.

  
• This is a Sarod, long and has a slightly waisted wood body with a skin belly. The broad neck has a wide fretless fingerboard covered in metal to accommodate characteristic sliding pitches.

  
• This is a Sarangi, Like a violin, the Sarangi is played with a bow, but unlike the violin it is held vertically with the sound chamber below. The Sarangi is usually carved out of a single block of wood and its hollowed belly is covered with parchment. It typically has three main strings and sometimes a fourth string is used as a drone. It sounds horrendous.

  
• This is an Esraj, The Esraj has characteristics of both, the Sitar and the Sarangi. The wooden body is covered with goat skin that acts as a resonance cover, with a horn bridge fixed in the middle of the goat skin, over which the four playing strings rest.

  
• This is a Harmonium, free-reed keyboard instrument that produces sound when wind sent by foot-operated bellows through a pressure-equalizing air reservoir causes metal reeds screwed over slots in metal frames to vibrate through the frames with close tolerance. There are no pipes; pitch is determined by the size of the reed.

  
• This is a Bansuri, One end is closed, and few centimeters from the closed end is its blow hole. Longer bansuris feature deeper tones and lower pitches.

  
• This is a Tabla, it consists of two small drums of slightly different sizes and shapes. Each drum is made of hollowed-out wood, clay or metal. The smaller drum (dayan/tabla) is used for creating treble and tonal sounds, while the primary function of the larger drum (baya/dagga) is for producing bass.