India Musical Instruments

• Musical Instruments are objects that produce sound. These objects are a medium through which music is created.
• There are a diverse number of instruments originating from India since ancient times.
• These instruments are referred to as Indian Musical Instruments which have been popular since the beginning of the 16th and 17th century.

These instruments are divided into four main categories –

Musical Instrument	Information
Chordophones	1. A chordophone is a musical instrument that makes sound by way of a vibrating string or strings stretched between two points. 2. E.g. Violins, guitars.
Aerophones	1. An aerophone is any musical instrument that produces sound primarily by causing a body of air to vibrate, without the use of strings and without the vibration of the instrument. 2. E.g. Flutes, Trumpet.
Membranophones	1. Membranophones, which produce sound by a vibrating a stretched membrane; they may be drums which are struck by hand, with a stick, or rubbed. 2. E.g. Kazoos, damaru.
Idiophones	1. Idiophones, which produce sound by vibrating the primary body of the instrument itself; they are sorted into concussion, percussion, shaken, scraped, split, and plucked idiophones. 2. E.g. xylophone, singing block.

Let’s see some of the musical instruments:

Musical Instrument	Description
Sitar	1. Sitar is a string musical instrument with a spherical base and a long wooden bridge/extension. 2. When struck on the strings, it produces a very rich sound and hence it is extensively used in Hindustani Classical Music.
Tabla	1. Tabla is a percussion instrument that uses tightened membrane to produce music when struck rhythmically. 2. Tabla is not a single instrument but two-barrel shaped drums: the left-hand side (the bahina) and the right-hand side (the dahina).
Flute	1. Flute is a long wind instrument made out of bamboo. 2. There are a number of holes on the body of the flute ranging from 5 to more than 8. 3. The sound is produced by blowing wind into one end of the flute and controlling the exposure of the holes by placing fingers on them.
Harmonium	1. Harmonium is an instrument that produces sound by causing a body of air to vibrate. 2. The bellows are used to pump air into the instrument while the typing keyboard produces the sound with required pitch and scale.
Sarod	1. It has twenty-five strings. 2. It has 13 sympathetic strings. 3. A metal gourd to which the strings are attached to resonator is instrumental in creating the musical sounds.
Veena	1. There are 7 strings in a Veena. 2. This musical instrument was usually constructed from the jackfruit tree’s dried wood. 3. While playing this Indian musical instrument you must not inhale or exhale. 4. There are two types of Veena namely Rudra Veena and Saraswathi Veena.
Sarangi	1. The Sarangi is a popular instrument used in folk music. 2. It has a short neck and three strings which are plucked while playing.
Shehnai	1. This is a blown instrument and has two reeds. 2. This is played in auspicious occasions such as marriages. 3. It is also played in the temples.
Jaltarangam	1. Jaltarangam consists of a set of eighteen porcelain cups of varying sizes. 2. The cups are arranged in a semi-circle before the performer, in decreasing order of size. 3. Water is poured into the cups and the pitch is changed by adjusting the amount of water in the cup. 4. The cups are struck with two thin bamboo sticks.
Mridangam	1. The mridangam is one of the most popular classical instruments of South India. 2. The present day mridangam is made of a single block of wood. It is a barrel-shaped double-headed drum, the right head being smaller than the left. 3. The mridangam is played with hands, palms and fingers.

Interesting Facts:

• Bagpipes these days are considered to be a Scottish instrument. However, before the Scottish, bagpipes were played by the Turkish, Asians, Africans, Persians and even some other Europeans.
• Interestingly a flute player can be termed as a flutist or a flautist. They are less commonly known as a ‘fluter’.
• Most people believe that the guitar is very modern, though, the only thing modern about guitars is the electric guitar created in the 1930s.
• A piano has 7500 working parts to be precise. If even one of those parts is not fully functional, the piano could go out of tune.
• Sitar is derived from the Persian words ‘seh’ meaning three and ‘tar’ meaning strings. It was popularised by the Mughals in India.