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for the Perfect Tabla
I have been playing tabla for about seven years,
taught informally for about five years, and I am currently teaching formally
for about three months. In my own experience in either playing tabla or
teaching tabla, I have seen a wide variety of tabla with interesting ironies,
surprises, and experiences. Sometimes, I would meet other tabla players or
tabla students who have superb sounding tabla. I also get tabla students who
purchased tabla sets which needed extensive repair or were just plain pathetic,
despite the words “artist quality” or “professional pair” rubber stamped on it.
It becomes frustrating for the student as poor sounds from the tabla is a
difficult and poor way to see if the student is learning something or not.
Financially, tablas are not cheap, especially if you consider purchasing a
superb quality set. Hopefully, this article can help you judge and see which
tabla sets are a winner, second place, and dishonorable mention.
THE SHELL
The shell of the drum is very important in the life
as well as the sounds produced on the drums. Not only the puri (the head of the
drum) vibrates when struck, but the whole body vibrates also. Each material has
some degree of resonating factor. For instance, plastic and glass have poor
resonating factors, while clay, wood, and metal has good resonating factors.
For the dayan, or the small treble drum, rare sheesham wood is typically the
most preferred material. Other acceptable woods are rosewood and teak. Any
mango wood or wood with fault-like cracks are definitely not worth it. The wood
should look nicely finished without any unusual cracks or gouges. With the
baya, or the bigger bass drum, look for nickel or copper with a good weight to
it. A poorly weighted baya will result in loud volume without any real bass,
while an extremely heavy baya will absorb all of the sound result in a deep
thunderous sound without volume. Aluminum bayas or dented bayas are definitely
no good. Although dented bayas rarely ever affect the sound, the tabla
purchased should be virtually good as new. Aluminum bayas are too light weight
and they dent very easily.
THE HEADS
The heads, or the puris, is pretty much the life and
the vital force behind the sounds of the tabla. In fact, the tabla head is
indeed the most difficult head to produce as it is the most complicated and
complex head design in the world. The world can produce bongo, conga, drum set,
African drums, Mid-east drums, and even dholak heads easily, however producing
a tabla head is only done in
Another subtle point worth mentioning is the tasma
to insertion ratio. Between two consecutive tasmas, the head should have three
cuts or insertions where the gajara weaves through. Since there are sixteen
tasma insertions, there should be forty-eight insertion points. Anything more
or less means that it will be difficult to fine tune. Three to one insertion
between tasma ratio is the best. My bolt tuned tabla set has four to one, which
is not bad, but three to one is most preferable.
STRAPS
The straps should be flexible, but not too flexible.
Overly flexible means the high potential of the drum slacking through time.
Keep in mind, the straps are made of raw leather. Even though they will hold
the heads stronger than rope, straps will eventually wear out. I usually do not
like to be picky on the look, but here, see if the tasma at least “looks” good
and strong. My very first tabla pair’s tasma is incredibly flexible and weak,
which is why even when I had the finest skins installed, the drum would still
sound not too high, and if I ever got in it tune, that would just be a very
temporary thing.
Another thing worth checking out is the kundal
(bottom leather ring). From experience, I have seen weak kundals
(characteristic of their oval shape, rather than the intended pure circle
shape) and they are very difficult to tune. Even when you get it to tune, this
also becomes a temporary deal. Strong kundals are easier to find tune as their
tension would not change, while the head does.
FINAL
REMARKS
Tabla searching can either make or break somebody’s
desire to play tabla. If you have a pair that produces inferior sounds or no
sound at all, the person might feel that he or she is not playing correctly and
getting the correct sound is impossible. For this reason, I do not recommend
student’s purchasing low grade or student grade quality tabla sets. At the same
token, do not buy a very expensive set either. Buy a medium to a high grade
quality. Tabla, in the grand scheme of Indian musical instruments sold in the