Today we had a visit with master tabla maker Haridas Vhatkar and his sons and apprentices, who recently moved into this new shop... twice the size of the old place (you're seeing most of the shop in this picture!) Haridas represents the third generation of tabla makers in his family and makes instruments for many great tabla players including Zakir Hussain. Tablas are the rhythm drums commonly heard in Indian classical music. The high pitched tabla drum is made of a hard wood, turned on a lathe and the head is made of goat skin, stretched tight with goat skin straps. Wooden dowels are inserted between the straps and the drum body and a small hammer is used to tap them into place and adjust the head tension to tune the drum to a specific pitch. The deeper pitched baiya drum (which makes, with the tabla, a set of tabla) is made of copper or brass and has a larger more flexible drum head, which allows the player to change the pitch while playing by pressing with the heel of the palm. The black patch in the center of the drum head, known as the gab, is the secret to a good sounding tabla. Each tabla maker has his own special recipe for the black gab paste, and technique for applying it. It's applied in layers with the thumbs, then polished smoothed with a black granite rock and checked for intonation after each layer. Peter brought a drum that needed repair, so we chatted and watched them perform their magic for a while then took a chai break and discussed the repair. Haridas delighted in hearing a recording of Peter playing one of his instruments.
No comments:
Post a Comment