The Sitar is a long necked string instrument played in North Indian classical music, film music from India, and Western fusion music. This instrument belongs to the lute class of chordophones. Ravi Shankar has popularized this instrument around the world.

It has three to four playing strings and three to four drone strings. The drone strings are almost never played but they vibrate whenever the corresponding note is sounds. The playing strings are plucked with a wire finger plectrum called mizrab usually with the right hand. 

These melodic playing strings are pulled by the player usually with the left hand to make the pitch slide. The fingers touch these melodic strings between the frets. The frets are metal rods bent into crescents and are movable so that the scale can be altered. There are also a series of sympathetic strings lying under the frets. The total number of melodic playing strings, drone strings, and sympathetic strings is usually 17. The main resonator, located at the bottom of the instrument, is usually made of a gourd, and there is sometimes an additional resonator attached to the top end of the neck.

About the Sarod:

The Sarod is much smaller than the Sitar. It sits comfortably in the player’s lap and is leaner and cleaner in sound, without that predominant jangling of sympathetic strings. The Sarod has resonant sympathetic strings, but they are fewer and far less prominent. Still, it’s no less demanding to play.

The sound of the Sarod as we know it today is distinctly Indian in character, but it links to the sinewy, muscular style of the Afghan Rabab - a wooden Central Asian lute, covered with skin.

For a Sarod player, it’s the tone quality that’s the attraction: the skin makes the sound very human - it’s not wooden. It has flexibility, sensitivity and depth.  The sound of the Sarod is dominated by the singing, vocal tone of its melodic strings.

Many instrumentalists - including Violinists, Clarinettists, Sarangi and Sitar players - like to compare the sound of their instruments to the human voice. And Sarod players are no exception.

One of the principal modifications of the Sarod from the Afghan Rabab is its long metal fingerboard, which allows slides between the melody notes. This is something you can’t do on fretted instruments.  This is a big advantage of the Sarod over the Sitar.  On the Sitar you have to pull the string sideways to create the slides. And you can’t pull that far - not more than 3 or 4 notes. But on the Sarod you can slide over 7 notes or more, skating up the fingerboard

The strings are not plucked with the fingers, but with a java or coconut-shell plectrum. This plectrum can be a hammer or a feather, you can play very loud, or give it just a feather touch, skimming gently across the strings.  The range of colours that a player can get out of the instrument is quite incredible and is certainly why it’s found such an important role in classical Indian instrumental music.

There are two schools of Sarod playing – one in which the strings are stopped by the fingertips and the other in which the strings are stopped by the finger-nails of the left hand.  This is what makes the clear ringing sound and is one of the things that make it rather demanding to play.

About the Tabla

Used in Northern Indian Classical Music. Set of two drums played by hand. The larger drum usually made of copper or clay is called a Bayan, and the smaller drum is called a Tabla. The set is referred to as a Tabla Set. Two of my favorite players are Zakir Hussein and Trilok Gurtu.

The heads on these drums are usually made of goat skin. The heads have three distinct parts and is able to produce a variety of separate tones depending on how and where it is struck. The main head which is stretched across the drum is the Sur or maidan, a ring of skin (on top of the Sur) around the outer edge of the head is called the Kinar or kani, and the round black circle is called the Gab.

The Gab is made of iron filings and rice paste which is constructed of circular layers decreasing in size. In addition, the pitch of the Bayan is typically modulated by pressure from the wrist.One of the most interesting aspects of tabla music is the use of bols (syllables) which represent specific strokes. This enables players of tabla music to recite entire compositions or short excercises to each other.

Consequently, the music has been passed down as an oral tradition and only in this century have written compositions using thes bols become generally available. On the smaller drum (tabla) the stroke "ta" is most often used for a stroke on the outer edge which produces a ringing or open tone. The stroke "Ge" on the larger drum (bayan) is also an open tone. "Dha" is the bol used when "Ta" and "Ge" are played at the same time.

The tabla is tuned by adjusting the tension on the head using leather straps and wooden pegs. They can easily fall out of tune during a performance and it is common to see a performer tune the drum (using a hammer on the tabla or the heel of his hand on the bayan) during a piece.