Music of India

The music of India includes multiple varieties of folk, popular, pop, classical music and R&B. India's classical music tradition, including Carnatic and Hindustani music, has a history spanning millennia and developed over several eras. Music in India began as an integral part of socio-religious life and that Indian music is essentially melodic: sounds follow one another expressing an emotional state in an aesthetic unity.[1]

Music of Thailand
The music of Thailand reflects its geographic position at the intersection of China and India, and reflects trade routes that have historically included Persia, Africa, Greece and Rome. Thai musical instruments are varied and reflect ancient influence from far afield - including the klong thap and khim (Persian origin), the jakhe (Indian origin), the klong jin (Chinese origin), and the klong kaek (Indonesian origin). Though Thailand was never colonized by colonial powers, pop music and other forms of modern Asian, European and American music have become extremely influential. The two most popular styles of traditional Thai music are luk thung and mor lam; the latter in particular has close affinities with the Music of Laos. Aside from the Thai, ethnic minorities such as the Lao, Lawa, Hmong, Akha, Khmer, Lisu, Karen and Lahu peoples have retained traditional musical forms.

Music of Indonesia
The music of Indonesia demonstrates its cultural diversity, the local musical creativity, as well as subsequent foreign musical influences that shaped contemporary music scenes of Indonesia. Nearly thousands of Indonesian islands having its own cultural and artistic history and character.[1] This results in hundreds of different forms of music, which often accompanies dance and theatre. The musics of Java, Sumatra, Bali, Flores and other islands have been documented and recorded, and research by Indonesian and international scholars is ongoing. The music in Indonesia predates historical records, various Native Indonesian tribes often incorporate chants and songs accompanied with musics instruments in their rituals. Today the contemporary music of Indonesia is popular in the region, including neighboring countries; Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei.[2]

Musical Instruments of India

Harmonium
Harmonium belongs to the family of free-reed aerophones. It is a small, tabletop size, organ with bellows at the back that is pumped by one hand while the other hand plays the keyboard. A standard Harmonium has a wooden box known as body, handles to move the instrument, bellows, keys, stops (main and drone), reeds, reed board, coupler and scale changer. Today it is widely used in all forms of Indian music be it classical, Hindustani, devotional or film music.

Tabla Pair's
Tabla is basically a set of two drums known as Dayan (right) or the Tabla and the Bayan (left) or the Duggi. Dayan or tabla is a cylindrical, wooden drum made of black wood and played with the right hand and Bayan or duggi- the left hand drum is made of metal, wood, or ceramic has slightly conical and bowl shape. There is a black spot on both the drums near the centre of the head. Known as siyahi, this black raised area is usually made of rice, glue, graphite, and iron fillings. The siyahi is essential to the sound of the tabla. The sound is generated by beating the upper most surface of drums with hands.

Dholak
Dholak also known as dholki is a barrel shaped hand drum that is widely used in folk and popular music in India. It is a double-headed drum (hollow inside) with the bass head on one side and the treble head on the other. The larger side provides the bass and the smaller side the tenor.We are providing you both the Traditional Dholak with simple thread lacing that is tuned with the help of metal rings around the head and the Modern dholak with metal turnbuckles that are easily adjusted for desired tone.

Sarod
Sarod The modern sarod is made of wood with one end being rounded and covered with parchment. Its overall shape is like a pendulum- pointed and thin on top, at the peg box, and full and round at the bottom, the resonator. The body or shell of the sarod is carved from a single block of wood, preferably teak, but tun and sagwan are also used. It has three parts; peg box, fingerboard and resonator. This fretless instrument played with a triangular plectrum cut out of coconut shell and laminated with shellac.

Sitar
Sitar is one of the most popular classical instruments comes under the category of a chordophone in the lute family. Sitar has neck crafted from toon or teakwood and a resonator carved from a large seasoned gourd. The modern sitar has seven strings and sixteen to twenty two frets that are adjusted to alter the pitch. A normal Sitar usually has Kunti, Drone Strings, Tumba, Tar, Dandi, Parda, Gulu, Tuning beads, Kaddu. It is played with a wire plectrum, known as mizrab, that is usually worn on the index finger of the right hand.

Thanpura
Tanpura or Tambura, a long-necked drone lute is a chordophones from the lute family of instruments. It is a four or six stringed fretless instrument with a long hollow neck and rounded body. In Hindustani classical music tanpura come in different sizes, the bigger one is known as "males" and smaller one as "females". There are three main styles of designing a Tanpura: Miraj Style, Tanjore Style and Tamburi. It is played with fingers by plunking the strings in successive manner. Click here to buy Thanpura

Flute
The Indian Bamboo Flute also known as bansuri or murali is one of the oldest musical instruments of India, developed independently of the Western flute. This wind instrument is a simple cylindrical tube made of bamboo of uniform bore with number of holes. The flutes made in India are of different kinds and their lengths and number of holes varies. The flute is handled in oblique position and air is blown with upper lip into the main hole. Thumbs are used to hold the flute in position while the fingers are used to manipulate the finger holes. Different octaves are produced by covering the holes with the fingers. Click here to buy Flute

Ghungroo
Ghungroos are small brass bells. It is a musical accessory used by dancers of all classical dances. Number of bells are attatched to a srting or tied to cotton cord, velvet pad or leather strap to form a ghungroo. These bells are made of brass and have small iron balls inside which add quite a lot of weight to them. When tied to the feet Ghungroos emphasize the rhythmic aspects of the dance and allow complex footwork to be heard by the audience. Click here to buy Ghungroo

Khartaals
Khartal or Kartal is an ancient instrument mainly used in devotional songs in India. It falls under the class of idiophones of self-sounding instruments that combine properties of vibrator and resonator. Kartal comprises two similar shaped wooden pieces that are approximately eight to twelve inches long and two to three inches wide. Small metal jingles or pieces are mounted to the wooden frames that produce rhythmic sound when struck together. Click here to buy Khartaals

Musical Instruments of Thailand

JAKHE
The jakhe (Thai: , pronounced [ta.k], RTGS: chakhe, deriving from the word chorakhe, , meaning "crocodile") is a plucked zither used in Thai music. It is made of wood in a stylized crocodile shape and is approximately 20 cm high and 140 cm long. Its highest two strings are made of silk yarn or nylon and lowest is made of brass. It has raised frets made of bamboo, which are affixed to the fretboard with wax or glue. The player uses his or her left hand on the fretboard while plucking the string by his right hand with a tapered plectrum made from ivory or water buffalo horn, which is tied to the player's index finger. The instrument has a buzzing sound due to the fact that the strings are raised just off the flat bridge by a sliver of bamboo or other thin material such as plastic. The jakhe is similar to the Cambodian krapeu (takhe), the Burmese mi gyaung. and the Mon kyam.

SAW U
The saw u (Thai: , pronounced [s ], RTGS: so u, also spelled saw ou) is a Thai bowed string instrument. It has a lower pitch than the saw duang. Its soundbox is made from a coconut shell that is covered on the front by cowskin. It is held vertically and has two silk strings that are played with a bow. The bow is between the strings so a player has to tilt the bow to play each string. The bridge is usually made up of rolled up cardboard paper. The saw u is a very fragile instrument. The saw u is similar to the Cambodian tro u and the Chinese yehu.

KHIM
The khim (Thai: , Thai pronunciation: [km]; Khmer:) is a hammered dulcimer from Thailand and Cambodia. It is made of wood and trapezoidal in shape, with brass strings that are laid across the instrument. There are 14 groups of strings on the khim, and each group has 3 strings. Overall, the khim has a total of 42 strings. It is played with two flexible bamboo sticks with soft leather at the tips to produce the soft tone. It is used as both a solo and ensemble instrument. The instrument was introduced to Thailand and Cambodia from China, where a similar (though, since the late 20th century, usually larger) instrument is called yangqin; the khimproduces a significantly softer sound. Traditional khims have two bridges, though in the late 20th century some players began using larger instruments with more bridges. The Australian-born musician and vocal artist Lisa Gerrard specialises in the use of a khim hammered dulcimer, featuring its music on several albums and performing with the instrument live on tour.

GLONG KHAEK
Glong khaek (Thai: , pronounced [kl kk], RTGS: klong khaek) is a type of doubleheaded barrel drumused in Thai music. The instrument's name comes from glong (meaning "drum") and khaek (meaning "Indian" or "Malay"). There are two types of glong khaek: glong khaek tua phu (which is considered to be male) (Thai: ) and glong khaek tua mia (female) (Thai: ). They are always played in a pair, usually by two players, although if two players are not available a single player may play both drums. The two drums fit their beats together in hocket, or interlocking form. Both drumheads are played with the hands, like the glong songna. The glong khaek tua phu has a higher pitch and the glong khaek tua mia has a lower pitch.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS OF INDONESIA

Gamelan

The most popular and famous form of Indonesian music is probably gamelan, an ensemble of tuned percussion instruments that include metallophones, drums, gongs and spike fiddles along with bamboo flutes. Similar ensembles are prevalent throughout Indonesia and Malaysia, however gamelan is originated from Java, Bali, and Lombok. In Central Java, gamelan is intricate and meticulously laid out. The central melody is played on a metallophone in the center of the orchestra, while the front elaboration and ornamentation on the melody, and, at the back, the gongs slowly punctuate the music. There are two tuning systems. Each Gamelan is tuned to itself, and the intervals between notes on the scale vary between ensembles. The metallophones cover four octaves, and include types like the slenthem, demung, saron panerus and balungan. The soul of the gamelan is believed to reside in the large gong, or gong ageng. Other gongs are tuned to each note of the scale and include ketuk, kenong and kempul. The front section of the orchestra is diverse, and includes rebab, suling, siter, bonang and gambang. Male choruses (gerong) and female (pesindhen) solo vocalists are common. With the arrival of the Dutch colonizers, a number system called kepatihan was developed to record the music. Music and dance at the time was divided into several styles based on the main courts in the area Surakarta, Yogyakarta, Pakualaman and Mangkunegaran. Gamelan from eastern Java is less well-known than central or western parts of the island. Perhaps most distinctive of the area is the extremely large gamyak drum. In West Java, formerly Sunda, has several type of gamelan. Gamelan Degung, gamelan salendro and tembang sunda are three primary types. The Osing Javanese minority in eastern Java are known for social music for weddings and other celebrations, called gandrung, as well as angklung, played by young amateur boys, which is very similar to Balinese gamelan. Kacapi suling Kecapi suling is a type of instrumental music that is highly improvisational and popular in parts of West Java that employs two instruments, kecapi (zither) and suling (bamboo flute). It is related to tembang sunda.

Angklung Angklung is a bamboo musical instrument native to Sundanese people of West Java. It is made out of bamboo tubes attached to a bamboo frame. The tubes are carved so that they have a distinctive resonant pitch when being vibrated. Each angklung only plays one note.

Kolintang Kolintang or kulintang is a bronze and wooden percussion instrument native to eastern Indonesia and also The Philippines. In Indonesia it is particularly associated with Minahasa people of North Sulawesi, however it also popular in Maluku and Timor.

Sasando Sasando is a plucked string instrument native of Rote island of East Nusa Tenggara. The parts of sasando are a bamboo cylinder surrounded by several wedges where the strings are stretched, surrounded by a bag-like fan of dried lontar or palmyra leafs (Borassus flabellifer), functioned as the resonator of the instrument.