Tabla Maker at Work

Photo from AFP/ Getty Images

Silver Tabla

Beautiful.  A great gift for a tabla fan or tabla player.

Tabla Tarang

The concept is similar to jal tarang – where water bowls filled to different levels (and consequently produce different pitches).  Tabla tarang uses tablas turns to differents notes.  Tabla tarang is played by a single tabla player and uses the the dayan part of a tabla set, unlike a tabla ensemble, which has multiple pairs of tablas and tabla players.

Tabla Mural at Tabla Restaurant Hyderabad

Parts of a Tabla

I found this picture while surfing the net on Bruce David’s site. It was accompanied by this note:
Many, many years ago, when the internet was just a twinkle in the VIC 20’s eye, I took a course in tabla playing. The tutor was of Caucasian origin, but had studied with some great tabla players and clearly knew his Tin Taal from his Keherva Taal. For years since I’ve had the often hand-written sheets he gave me to learn from and felt they were a fantastic resource that anyone at my stage of interest in tabla playing (ie just starting out) would find invaluable.

Ustad Allarakha – Doyen of Punjab Gharana

Ustad Allarakha, affectionately known as Abbaji, was the khalifa of the Punjab Gharana of tabla.   Hailing from Jammu, he ran away from home at the age of 12 to become a disciple of Ustad Mian Qadar Baksh.  He was an accomplished soloist and accompanying artist, in addition to being a music composer for several Hindi films in the 1940’s (under the name of A R Qureshi).   The main accompanying artist for Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Allarakha played a large role in globalizing the art of tabla.  He is also the father of the tabla maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain, tabla player Fazal Qureshi and multi-percussionist Taufiq Qureshi.

Multiple Tabla Players

Picture of the hands of tabla players and their tablas during a performance by a tabla ensemble.  As far as I know, the presentation style of an ensemble is considered to be more of a facet of contemporary tabla and is seen more frequently today than it was for example 30 years ago.   The sound of the tabla music that is created from multiple tabla players is thunderous.

Panda playing Tabla =)

Tabla and Dilruba

Uploaded to Flickr by Solarider.

Accompanying Kathak

Photography by Jigar Shah.

Tabla player Nishant Mehta (an well-established Kathak accompanying artist) and harmonium player Rahul enjoy playing as they and the Kathak dancer all land on the sum.