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The flute

This cylindrical tube-shaped instrument may come in many sizes and is played by blowing air into one end of the tube. The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening. According to the instrument classification of Hornbostel-Sachs, flutes are categorized as edge-blown aerophones. A musician who plays the flute can be referred to as a flute player

The sitar
This is believed to be the ancestor of the modern, western guitar. It has a long neck and may have six or seven main cords. Sitar is one of the common stringed instrument of Northern India. The invention of the Sitar is commonly credited to Amir Khusrau, the great musician and statesman at the court of the Khilji. The name Sitar is derived from the Persian expression 'Seh-tar' meaning 'three strings'. In appearance Sitar is very much similar to Tambura. The body of Sitar is more or less spherical gourd at the lower end. The gourd is almost flat, like the back of a tortoise. Such a Sitar is called 'Kachchawa'. The finger-board of the Sitar is about three feet long and three inches wide, hollow and deeply concave, covered with a thin piece of wood. There are sixteen to twenty-two slightly curved frets of brass or silver which are secured to the finger-board by pieces of gut. The Sitar originally had only three strings, but the modern one's has a total number of seven strings which are fastened to pegs on the neck and the sides. These include the side strings (Chikari). Side strings are used both for the drone and rhythmic accompaniment. There are eleven or twelve sympathetic strings (Tarab) which runs almost parallel to the main strings under the frets. These tarabs are secured to small pegs fixed at the side of the finger-board. These strings are tuned to produce the scale of the melody. The Sitar is played by means of wire plectrum (Mizrab) worn on the forefinger of the right hand. All the styles peculiar to instrumental music namely; alap, jod, meend etc. can be played on this instrument with marked effect. Artists such as Ravi Shankar have made this instrument well known around the world.

The tabla
This is the name for Indian drums which are usually made from wood with animal-skin covers on top. Tabla is one of the most famous instruments of India. It is said that drums appeared early as 6-7th century AD. Drums are seen in the Pushkaras Tabla performance by Pandit Rajendra Nakode depictions in the Ajanta sculptures. Tabla performance by Pandit Rajendra Nakode The most interesting part of Indian drum is the loading of the leather surfaces, the right face carries a permanent loading. The tabla consists of two drums the 'bayan' played with the left hand and the 'dayan' played with the right hand. Bayan is made either of clay or copper while dayan is usually hollowed out of a block of wood. Both are covered with the skin fastened to leather hoops which are stretched over the body of the drum by means of leather braces. Cylindrical block of wood are wedged between the braces and the wall of the tabla. Wedges can be pushed up or

down to lower or raise the pitch. The application of a mixture of flour and water to the left head of the dayan lowers the pitch and gives the dull bass sound. This plaster is always scraped off after use. In bayan, the plaster is mixed with iron fillings and it is applied once for all.

VIOLIN
Violin is an integral part of Karnatic music. It is one of the foreign instruments adopted by Indian music. Watch violin performance by Dr.M.Narmada Though it is a Western instrument, in Southern India it is tuned in the Indian style. The violin is remarkable for its smooth sweeps from one end of the string to the other. It is held in a position between the right heel and chest. The left hand moves freely and the fingers of the player have a range of two and a half octaves. Tone of the strings and the facility to play the embellishments peculiar to Indian music have made violin irrevocably Indian. In recent times, north Indian musicians have also started using violin.

santoor
Santoor is a stringed instrument which is popular in the middle East. It is of great importance in Kashmir. Santoor is used there for accompanying a type of classical music called 'Soofiana Kalam', along with other instruments. Santoor is made of a box of wood, trapezoid in shape. Over this there are thirty bridges, arranged in fifteen rows, two in each row. A set of four strings of metal tuned to the same note is stretched over each pair of bridges, thus the total number of wires is sixty. The length and thickness of strings vary according to the octave, the strings are thickest in the lower octave. It is played with a pair of flat wooden pieces curved at the striking end.

A harmonium is a free-standing keyboard instrument similar to a reed organ. Sound is produced


by air being blown through sets of free reeds, resulting in a sound similar to that of an accordion. The air is usually supplied by bellows operated by foot, hand, or knees. In North America, the most common pedal-pumped free-reed keyboard instrument is known as the American Reed Organ, (or parlor organ, pump organ, cabinet organ, cottage organ, etc.) and along with the earlier melodeon, is operated by a suction bellows where air is sucked through the reeds to produce the sound. A reed organ with a pressure bellows, that pushes the air through the reeds, is referred to as a harmonium. A traditional wooden portable harmonium In much of Europe, the term "harmonium" is used to describe all pedal-pumped keyboard free-reed instruments, making no distinction whether it has a pressure or suction bellows.

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