T is for Tanpura not Sitar; it’s Good to Know the Difference
Today I’m going to write about Tanpuras (or Tamburas), and in subsequent posts, about Sitars and Veenas because these instruments are often confused with each other. In my highly prejudiced opinion, every Indian who is able, i.e. has access to this knowledge, should know the difference between these instruments. The Tanpura is the backbone of Indian music, Sitars have brought it fame, and the Veena is one of the most ancient instruments in the world. After all we can recognise pianos, and will probably be able to tell that an organ is not a piano, though it may look similar and though we may not be able to name it.
I know that for those not interested in music this may be boring. On the other hand it is likely to be boring even for those who are interested in music, because this is very basic. But I hope those who are not interested, or vaguely interested, do read this post and forgive me for being a little obsessive about wanting us to at least recognise the different instruments if not to hear them. There may be concepts that are difficult to understand, if you want, you can explore them further by clicking on the hyperlinks, or just ignore them for the time being and simply get used to what the instruments look like and sound like so you can tell the difference. There are many video clips (hurrah for youtube!) and it’s not necessary to play them for their full length or to play them at all-they are for the purposes of illustration only.
It’s probably not your fault if you don’t know the difference between these instruments-all three look similar, they have many variations (particularly Veenas), and Indian classical music has often been inaccessible to various groups of people; Gender, caste, social status, language, religion, class and education have all acted in complicated ways to exclude people from learning it or knowing about it. Or it may simply be that one just doesn’t know about it, so let me evangelise (imperfectly).
Tanpura or Tambura:
All Indian classical vocalists, of the well-known styles of Indian classical music i.e. the North Indian style of Hindustani music (further subdivided into the quite distinct Dhrupad and Khayal styles) and the South Indian Carnatic style of music are accompanied by a Tanpura or Tambura (there are other less well-known forms of Indian art music that I shall not refer to here). The instrument is called Tanpura in the North and Tambura in the South. Instrumentalists are accompanied by Tanpuras too, though they often use a smaller version called a tanpuri or tamburi.
There are “male” and “female” Tanpuras-female ones can be smaller and they can be tuned to suit male and female voices (the tuning depends on the strings-so a female can use a “male” Tanpura, with strings suitable for her pitch)
Here is a picture of a North Indian Tanpura:
Picture credit: binaswar.com
And here is a picture of a South Indian Tambura:
Picture credit: chandrakantha.com
Though they might look big and heavy, they are actually quite light and quite fragile.
The North (Miraj) and South Indian (Tanjore) versions are constructed slightly differently and produce a slightly different sound though they perform the same function, that is to provide a “drone” to help the musician sing in pitch (sruti). Maintaining sruti, or singing in pitch is very important and therefore the Tanpura is absolutely essential in Indian classical music. Essentially, the Tanpura sings a recurring melody.
Everyone has a natural pitch. When learning Indian classical music, one chooses one’s “Sa,” called adhara shadja, the basic tonic note-every other note is sung relative to this note. Thus maintaining the basic “Sa,” the fixed reference point is very important, and that is what the Tanpura does (this is different to Western music).
Tanpuras usually have four or five strings. The first string is tuned to Pa (the natural fifth from the adhara shadja), the two middle ones are tuned to the higher Sa and the last, which is the bass string, to the tonic, Sa, an octave lower. The tuning of the first string may change, depending on the raga/ragam (e.g. there may be a raga/ragam without Pa) or an extra string that plays the seventh, i.e. Ni, is added, but we will not get into that here.
Nowadays one gets electronic sruti boxes and electronic tamburas that are much easier to carry around, that look like small radios. Though these are very good and have reached high standards, some people (including yours truly) feel that the traditional Tanpuras and Tamburas provide a richer sound and should not be done away with. Learning to tune a Tanpura is also considered essential in training one’s ear. For a technical view on why traditional Tanpuras sound better see this article.
Here is a link to a podcast by the Carnatic musician Vidya Subramaninan and Devesh Satyavolu that explains, very simply, the functions of the shruti box, the electronic tambura and the traditional Tambura. Vidya sings out the notes of the Tambura-this will help in understanding what’s been said above about how it is tuned.
Here is a video where you can see how Tanpuras are played and hear the rich sound of well tuned (North Indian) Tanpuras clearly. The singer is Ustad H. Sayeeduddin Dagar who sings in the Dhrupad style. He starts off here with a Sanskrit chant:
Here is a video of the Khayal singer Ashwini Bhide Deshpande. I’ve chosen this video because you can see her fingers on the Tanpura strings:
And finally, here is a link to a video of a South Indian Tambura being played, that I couldn’t embed here.
A Tanpura is usually held straight up in front of the singer or tanpura accompanist (people can tend to lean it towards their bodies or put it in their laps) or flat down on the floor, whereas a Sitar is usually held diagonally across the body. More on the sitar in the next post.
Updated to add: Here is a video I just found with an explanation of the function of the Tanpura:
Continued: S is for Sitar and Surbahar
V is for Veena
Very interesting. Knew the phonetic difference between the tanpura and the sitar, but always assumed that the accompanist was playing a sitar.
Your explanations were very easy to understand and to the point – made it easy even for someone whose exposure to classical music is severly limited. Bookmarking for progeny.
Poor progeny, there are far better resources on the web, and more importantly, people, who can teach him better! But thanks!
interesting..
This post made me smile! Just listening to my electronic tambura brings me peace
Tell me, you seem to be interested not only in the actual music but also the theory..and that is rare..how did you develope it?
It’s fun and interesting! Also I think theory and practice should go side by side. An approach my parents always took and now my teacher who insists that I do some theory. Once one learns never to make divisions, they don’t happen
Wonderful. May one request more posts on music?
I am extremely partial to the Veena. But the tanpura has a hypnotic quality about it.
Well they are coming, given that I can’t help talking about music
but am not really the most qualified source!
Suki here(WordPress Avatar). Am I delurking? Dunno.
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Love your music posts – I’ve received some training in Hindustani Classical, but know really nothing about Carnatic. And I’m loving how you talk about it
Just one little nitpick about this post – the picture is of a six-string tanpura, which isn’t what most people use. Could be a wee bit confusing if someone is observant AND ignorant at the same time!
!
Oh, and I totally second the tanpura-hypnosis. If people had tanpuras they wouldn’t need anti-depressants or anti-anxiety drugs
Thanks for pointing that out, I hadn’t noticed! I’ve changed the picture.
Good one! Something so many people are unaware of! (a local quiz show here in the US even had a video quiz question asking to identify the “eastern instrument” – the answer was wrongly given as a sitar – it was, of course, a Tanpura).
We used to have manual Shruti boxes when I started learning music…operated by bellows, like a harmonium, but no keyboard – all they did was produce the drone. I see they are still made, and selling at hundreds of dollars! (google…)
M
Yes, I know, amazing! Apparently some non-Indian musicians are using them too, heard about an Irish singer who uses one. Am not too fond of them myself!
I must stay away from this post.
why? have i been too overbearing?
Though the information in the post was not new to me, I liked the way you explained the basics. Very nicely done.
Came here via DesiPundit.
no Ra. I cannot differentiate between a guitar and a violin (there was an incident. one of those (guitar/violin) was there and I asked whether it was the other(violin/guitar) ). people might get offended if I start talking
Your pictures of Tanpura look like violin to me.
Veena I know. it has a big kudam like thing at the back of the top side. Hope no other similar looking instrument has got similar thing. otherwise I might go confused between them too.
Oh..beautiful post. my mother plays both the veena and the tambura and my brother is learning the veena using traditional sruthi petti’s. I used to have friends who used to mistake the one for the other. They seemed to be desperately trying to look cool by not being able to identify the instruments. It came off as stupid and ignorant. I am used to the south indian words and names, but good music and musical instruments can transcend this language barrier. Love the post.
I have noticed that while women are very often Veena maestros, there are fewer female sitar maestros (excepting Anoushka dear of course).
The name “veena” seems to crop up a lot more in Sanskritic verse than “sitar.” I suppose because it’s older?
Tampura is soooo much simpler than sitar, I don’t see how one could confuse them. Between Sitar and Veena, Sitar sounds more metallic….bit of a twang, for lack of a better word.
I should write something explaining a similar conflation, between Bharatanatyam and Kathak (believe it or not!!).
That’s because Sitar is a Persian word and a hybrid instrument-see my latest post! Are you a dancer?
My favourite Sitar story is from the early 70s hippy days. There was and still is a famous hippy commune in cental Tennessee (my home state). During the “Concert for Bangladesh” sitar craze a young longhair went to the town music shop to ask for a sitar. “Do you have an instrument called a SIT-tar?” The old man looked him up and down and said, “That’s GIT-tar, boy!” true story….
Heh heh, people have heard of Ravi Shankar at least since then!
ra/mg/pj:
conventional wisdom has commented on the better halves of asha parekh and jennifer lopez. who is the tambura and who is the sitar?
now that i’ve got that off my chest, i need to read your post. music i love, especially desi – north or south.
- s.b.
p.s.: i hope this meets your comments policy/standards!
I’m glad you could lighten your burden!
Just yesterday I had a major discussion with my daughter’s music teacher – she plays the harmonium while singing and we were talking about whether or not to shift to a tanpura. He said we could get an electronic tanpura if at all, as its easier to tune (if a person can tune a tanpura (non-electronic) then he’d have mastered 3/4ths of classical music was his opinion). He has left the decision to me, but said that none of his other students play the harmonium.
Another musician I know strongly feels that at this point she should stick to a harmonium esp’ly as she is able to play it very well and in perfect sync with her singing.
Am a bit confused!
cb, she needn’t give up the harmonium, if she learns to tune the Tanpura. Simply learning to sustain the shadja against the tanpura, for longer and longer intervals of time, is an essential part of shruti training. Even if she doesn’t have a manual Tanpura, an electronic one is a must, imho. The Radel is one of the electronic models available where you are. They require very little tuning. Learning to tune the manual Tanpura helps one perfect one’s shruti and perfect one’s ear. The earlier she starts the better, I think the teacher is right. You might want to read the note on the Tanpura on this page: http://www.tanpura.de/.