How does a tabla work?

Most drums just go thud. The tabla sings a note you can tune to a song, thanks to a black spot of iron-filing paste that C. V. Raman explained in 1920. The dayan is a hollowed block of sheesham wood played with the right hand; the bayan is a copper or brass bowl for the left.

Read how it works: How does a tabla work? · The history of the tabla · More boxes on Glassbox

Chapters in this interactive model

1. Two drums, one instrument: A wooden dayan for the right hand, a metal bayan for the left.
2. How a plain drumhead rings: Its overtones follow Bessel functions, not 1, 2, 3.
3. The black spot that makes a note: C. V. Raman showed how the syahi turns a thud into a tone.
4. Where you strike picks the sound: Na, tin, tun, ge, ke and dha: each one wakes different modes.
5. The bayan’s talking boom: Press with the heel of your palm and the pitch slides up.
6. Tune it to Sa, then play teentaal: Hammer the gattas, tap the gajra, and keep the 16-beat cycle.