MUSICAL INSTRUMENT OF INDIA

column. Notable flute exponents are Pt Pannalal Ghosh

and Pt Hari Prashad Chaurasia.

Flute
Flute is a simple cylindrical tube of uniform bore and
associated with Indian music since time immemorial. Shehnai
Flutes vary in size. Flute is held horizontally and is
inclined downwards when it is played. To produce sound Shehnai is a traditional musical instrument, associated

or melody one has to cover the finger holes with the with auspicious occasions like marriages and temple

fingers of the left and right hand. Variations in pitch are processions. Shehnai is a double reed instrument with a

produced by altering the effective length of the air tapering bore which progressively increases towards the
lower side. The Shehnai has finger-holes to produce
semi, quarter and micro-tones. Ustad Bismillah Khan is with a small hammer. The Bayan is the bass drum and is
the unrivalled maestro of the Shehnai. usually made of metal with a stretched skin head. Both
drums have a black spot in the center made of
manganese or iron dust.

Tabla

The most popular musical instrument used in North India Pakhawaj

is the Tabla. The Tabla consists of a pair of drums- the
It is believed that the Tabla was derived from Pakhawaj.
Tabla and the Bayan. The Tabla is made of wood and
Pakhawaj usually accompanies Dhrupad style of singing.
whereas its head is made of stretched animal skin. Finer
Pakhawaj is a barrel-shaped drum with two heads which
tuning of Tabla is done by striking the rim of the Tabla
are made of layers of skin.
 Jaltarangam
Harmonium
Jaltarangam consists of a set of eighteen porcelain cups
The harmonium is a traditional and popular musical
of varying sizes. The cups are arranged in a semi-circle
instrument of India. The harmonium has a keyboard of
before the performer, in decreasing order of size. The
over two and one-half octaves and works on a system of
largest cup is to the left of the performer whereas the
bellows. The keyboard is played with the right hand while
smallest to his right. Water is poured into the cups and
the left hand is used to operate the bellows.
the pitch is changed by adjusting the amount of water in
the cup. The cups are struck with two thin bamboo
sticks.

smaller than the left. The two heads are made of layers
of skin. The mridangam is played with hands, palms and
fingers.

Mridangam

The mridangam is one of the most popular classical

instruments of South India. Mridangam accompanies Ghatam
vocal, instrumental and dance performances. The present
day mridangam is made of a single block of wood. It is a The Ghatam is one oldest percussion instruments of

barrel-shaped double-headed drum, the right head being South India. The Ghatam is a mud pan with a narrow
mouth. From its mouth, it slopes outwards to form a Accompanying mridangam.
ridge. Ghatam is made mainly of clay baked with brass or
copper filings with a small amount of iron filings. The
Ghatam produces fast rhythmic patterns. Ghatam is
generally a secondary percussion instrument

MUSICAL INSTRUMENT OF PAKISTAN

isosceles triangular form. The borrindo is made of clay
commonly available in most of the central Indus Valley,
and is thus often used in Sindh.

Borrindo
The borrindo is a hollow clay ball with three to four
holes. The top hole is larger than the others, which
should be of the same size. The holes are arranged in an

Dilo and Ghaghar
The Dilo is a baked earthen jar; there is a special variety
known as Ghaghar, which is larger than the average Dilo
with a shorter mouth of the jar and more protuberance in
the sides. Both are often used in Sindh. The clay for
these instruments must be specially prepared by an
expert potter to produce a consistent thin wall.
Kani / Narr
The Narr is a very common traditional wind instrument of
the Sindh and Baluchistan regions of Pakistan, as well as
Iran and Turkey. In Sindhi, the term 'narr' simply means
a reed plant which has stalks which can hollowed. The
Narr instrument is usually made from a variety of
different types of reeds, pierced with four equi-distant
holes towards the end and left open at both ends.

Naghara
The term 'naghara' is the Sindhi form of the Arabic
naqqarah. The rounded section of the naghara is made
of baked clay, while the flat side consists of treated skin
which is fastened around the rim with string which is
tightened over the back of the bowl.
Chung
The chung is a jaw harp made of iron. The player puts
part of the frame in the mouth, with open jaws, so that
the chamber of the mouth amplifies the sound. The
chung is vibrated with touches of the musician's fingers,
with different tempos producing varying rhythms and
tones (images and information from Baloch 1988).
 The body of the Sharnai is made of wood with an

Kanjhyoon / Talyoon inserted reed sounding device. The instrument has eight

These are a pair of small brass discs, with a ciameter of holes arranged in a straight line and a ninth hole, called

approximately 2 to 3 inches in size. The percussion effect the babiho, positioned below on the back side. There are

is produced by striking the discs together to procudce three varieties of the Sharnai : 1) The Ghazzi is the

different rythems. The Kanjhyoon/Talyoon are often smallest variety, approximately 6 inches long, and is used

played in accompaniment to either instrumental or vocal for playing the mourning tunes for Muharram. 2) Sharnai

music, and are popular in the Sindh region (image and is the medium variety, approximately 8 inches long, and

information from Baloch 1988). the most common form in the Indus Valley. 3)

Sharnai
 Sarod resonance in the sound chamber. It is usually played with

The Sarod is an instrument derived from the Central and a coconut pick. The Sarod is used in many parts of

South Asian instrument the Rubab or Rabab. This string Pakistan including Baluchistan and Azad Kashmir (first

instrument has a metal fingerboard with no frets, and image from Bina, second image and information from

numerous strings. The membrane covering provides Courtney 2004).

MUSICAL INSTRUMENT OF ISRAEL

imagery, particularly the Bar Kochba coins.:440 It has
been referred to as the "national instrument" of the
Jewish people,[2] and modern luthiers have created
reproduction lyres of the "kinnor" based on this imagery.
The word has subsequently come to mean violin in
Modern Hebrew.

Kinnor
Its exact identification is unclear, but in the modern day
it is generally translated as "harp" or "lyre",:440 and
associated with a type of lyre depicted in Israelite

Darbuk
Darbuka, also known as doumbek (or tumbak), or
derbeki, is a Middle Eastern percussion instrument. The
goblet-shaped single headed hand-drum is an ancient
drum. It was originally played in Egypt, Armenia and
Turkey. The darbuka is considered to be the leader of
percussion instruments in the Middle East
Shofar
Like the modern bugle, the shofar lacks pitch-altering
devices, with all pitch control done by varying the
player's embouchure. The shofar is blown in synagogue
services on Rosh Hashanah and at the very end of Yom
Kippur, and is also blown every weekday morning in the
month of Elul running up to Rosh Hashanah. Shofars
come in a variety of sizes and shapes, depending on the
choice of animal and level of finish.
 Drum OUD
(also chalice drum, tarabuka, tarabaki, darbuka, The oud is a short-neck lute-type, pear-shaped stringed
derbake, debuka, doumbek, dumbec, dumbeg, instrument (a chordophone in the Hornbostel-Sachs
dumbelek, tabla, tablah, tableh, toumperleki or classification of instruments) with 11 or 13 strings
zerbaghali, Egyptian Arabic: ‫ دربوكة‬/ ALA-LC: darbūkah) grouped in 5 or 6 courses, commonly used predominantly
is a single head membranophone with a goblet shaped in the music of the ancient arabia, including Iran, Syria,
body used mostly in Egypt, also in parts of the Middle Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine, Kurdistan,
East, North Africa, South Asia, and Eastern Europe.[2] Somalia, Yemen, Sudan, Armenia, Greece, Turkey,
Azerbaijan, Saudi Arabia, North African Chaabi, Classical,
and Andalusian classic music.