Dholak
Encyclopedia
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
i and Nepalese double-headed hand-drum Madal
Madal
The Madal , double-headed drum of Nepalese origin , used mainly for rhythm-keeping in Nepalese folk music, is the most popular and widely used hand drum in Nepal.The Madal consists of a cylindrical body with a slight bulge at its center, closed on both ends .The madal has a...
. The name dholki may also refer to a slightly different instrument that uses high-pitch tabla style syahi
Syahi
Syahi is the tuning paste applied to the head of many South Asian percussion instruments like the dholki, tabla, mridangam, and pakhavaj.-Overview:...
masala on its treble skin. This instrument is also known as Naal or Dholki. (Hindi/Urdu: pipe or tube). It is basically also a dholak that is often a bit narrower in diameter. Its treble skin is stitched with thread on an iron ring, similar to East Asian Janggu
Janggu
The janggu or sometimes called seyogo is the most widely used drum used in the traditional music of Korea. It is available in most kinds, and consists of an hourglass-shaped body with two heads made from animal skin...
or Shime-daiko
Shime-Daiko
]The shime-daiko is a small Japanese drum. The word "shime-daiko" comes from a larger word "tsukeshime-daiko" often shortened to simply, "shime-daiko" or "shime." It has a short but wide body with animal skin drumheads on both its upper and bottom sides. The hide is first stretched on metal...
drums. This puts the skin into high tension before it is strung. The (Naal) skins are then fitted with a tabla style high-pitch syahi
Syahi
Syahi is the tuning paste applied to the head of many South Asian percussion instruments like the dholki, tabla, mridangam, and pakhavaj.-Overview:...
. The bass (Naal) skin often has the same made up as in ordinary dholak (i.e. being fitted on to a a bamboo ring, but sometimes they may have a Kinar and pleated Gajra
Gajra
A Gajra is a flower garland which women in India and Bangladesh wear during traditional festivals. It is made usually of jasmine. It can be worn both on the bun and with the braid coiling...
as seen in tabla
Tabla
The tabla is a popular Indian percussion instrument used in Hindustani classical music and in popular and devotional music of the Indian subcontinent. The instrument consists of a pair of hand drums of contrasting sizes and timbres...
to withstand the extra tension while "sarsoon tel masala" is used from the inside (Dholak masala). Naal requires tabla-style fingering (Bol
Bol (music)
A bol is a mnemonic syllable. It is used in Indian music to define the tala, or rhythmic pattern, and is one of the most important parts of Indian rhythm. Bol is derived from the Hindi word bolna, which means "to speak."...
). Both styles may have traditional cotton rope lacing or a screw system turnbuckle tensioning or even both combined: in the first case steel rings are used for tuning or pegs a twisted inside the laces. Though the dholak is mainly a folk instrument, lacking the exact tuning necessity and playing techniques Bol of the tabla
Tabla
The tabla is a popular Indian percussion instrument used in Hindustani classical music and in popular and devotional music of the Indian subcontinent. The instrument consists of a pair of hand drums of contrasting sizes and timbres...
or the pakhawaj, it is widely used in qawwali
Qawwali
Qawwali is a form of Sufi devotional music popular in South Asia, particularly in the Punjab and Sindh regions of Pakistan, Hyderabad, Delhi, and other parts of northern India...
, kirtan
Kirtan
Kirtan or Kirtana is call-and-response chanting or "responsory" performed in India's devotional traditions. A person performing kirtan is known as a kirtankar. Kirtan practice involves chanting hymns or mantras to the accompaniment of instruments such as the harmonium, tablas, the two-headed...
and Bhangra and various styles of North Indian folk and (also South Indian) film music. It was formerly used in classical dances.
The drum is either played on the player's lap or, while standing, slung from the shoulder or waist or pressed down with one knee while sitting on the floor. The shell is sometimes made from sheesham wood(Dalbergia sissoo
Dalbergia sissoo
Dalbergia sissoo, known as Shisham, is an erect deciduous tree, native to the Indian Subcontinent. It is also called sissoo, sisu, sheesham, tahli and sometimes referred to as Indian Rosewood. It is state tree of Punjab state and provincial tree of Punjab province...
) but cheaper dholaks may be made from any wood (mango
Mango
The mango is a fleshy stone fruit belonging to the genus Mangifera, consisting of numerous tropical fruiting trees in the flowering plant family Anacardiaceae. The mango is native to India from where it spread all over the world. It is also the most cultivated fruit of the tropical world. While...
).S ri Lankan dholak and dholkis are made from hollowed coconut palm stems.The ordinary dholak in Sri Lanka also differ, in that they do not use Dholak masala, but a large fixed tabla style syahi
Syahi
Syahi is the tuning paste applied to the head of many South Asian percussion instruments like the dholki, tabla, mridangam, and pakhavaj.-Overview:...
on the middle of bass skin. Sri Lankan dholkis are carved of coconut stems and have high quality skins with syahi
Syahi
Syahi is the tuning paste applied to the head of many South Asian percussion instruments like the dholki, tabla, mridangam, and pakhavaj.-Overview:...
on both sides. It produces a sound like a very high-pitched tabla and requires a simplified tabla fingering (Bol). Steel tuning rings are not used - instead wooden pegs are twisted to create a very high tension. The heads a created with triple stitching to withstand this sort of tension. Similar dholkis are in use in Maharashtra
Maharashtra
Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...
and elsewhere.
Heavy hardwood dholaks are said to produce better sound than those carved of cheap unseasoned sapwood
Sapwood
Sapwood may refer to:* Sapwood, the part of living wood where sap flows, as distinct from the heartwood, where it doesn't* SS-6 Sapwood, the NATO reporting name for the R-7 Semyorka intercontinental ballistic missile...
. In some styles of playing (i.e. Punjab
Punjab region
The Punjab , also spelled Panjab |water]]s"), is a geographical region straddling the border between Pakistan and India which includes Punjab province in Pakistan and the states of the Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and some northern parts of the National Capital Territory of Delhi...
an iron thumb ring is used to produced a distinctive "chak" sound when it intermediately hits the wooden frame next to the high-pitch membrane (which is hit by the remaining four fingers). In other styles (i.e. Rajasthan
Rajasthan
Rājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...
), all fingers are generally used as in tabla fingering style using tabla bols.
The dholak's high pitch skin is a simple membrane, while the left-hand bass head is of a greater diameter and has a special weightening masala
Masala
Masala or massala is a term used in South Asian cuisines to mostly describe a mixture of spices. A masala can either be a combination of dried spices, or a paste made from a mixture of spices and other ingredients—often garlic, ginger, onions and chilli paste...
(syahi
Syahi
Syahi is the tuning paste applied to the head of many South Asian percussion instruments like the dholki, tabla, mridangam, and pakhavaj.-Overview:...
) from the inside of the skin (from underneath), a mixture of tar, clay/sand (dholak masala) or more often the residue cake of mustard oil
Mustard oil
The term mustard oil is used for three different oils that are made from mustard seeds:*A fatty vegetable oil resulting from pressing the seeds,...
pressing process, to which some sand and oil or tar may be added. It lowers the pitch
Pitch (music)
Pitch is an auditory perceptual property that allows the ordering of sounds on a frequency-related scale.Pitches are compared as "higher" and "lower" in the sense associated with musical melodies,...
and enables the typical Dholak sliding sound (Giss/Gissa). With passing of time, the oil runs out and stains the bass skin, eventually the masala dries out and pieces may fall off inside the barrel. At this time the skins have to be removed and new Dholak masala is applied to the underside of the skin.If the skin becomes too oily, it is replaced by a new one. In large dholaks, more common known as (Dhol
Dhol
Dhol can refer to any one of a number of similar types of double-headed drum widely used, with regional variations, throughout the Indian subcontinent and nearby regions. Its range of distribution in India and Pakistan primarily includes northern areas such as the Assam Valley, Bengal, Gujarat,...
), the high-pitched drum head may also be played using a thin (1/4"/6 mm or less) long (over 14"/30 cm) stick of solid rattan or bamboo slice (rattan is preferred for its flexibility), and the low-pitched drum head is played either by hand or using a somewhat thicker, semi-angled stick, roughly the shape of a small ((hockey bat shaped) stick. The drum is pitched depending on size, with an interval of perhaps a perfect fourth or perfect fifth between the two heads. It is related to the larger Punjabi dhol
Dhol
Dhol can refer to any one of a number of similar types of double-headed drum widely used, with regional variations, throughout the Indian subcontinent and nearby regions. Its range of distribution in India and Pakistan primarily includes northern areas such as the Assam Valley, Bengal, Gujarat,...
and the smaller dholki. Similar drums with similar names are found elsewhere in western Asia (Dhaul).
Indian children sing and dance to the beat of the dholak during pre-wedding festivities (also known as "Dholki" in many Indian and Pakistani communities. It is often used in Filmi
Filmi
Filmi is Indian popular music as written and performed for Indian cinema. Music directors make up the main body of composers; the songs are performed by playback singers and it makes up 72% of the music sales in India....
Sangeet - Indian film music, in chutney music
Chutney music
Chutney music is a form indigenous to the southern Caribbean, originating in Trinidad. It derives elements from traditional Indian music and popular Trinidadian Soca music.-History:...
, baithak gana, and tan singing, the local Indian music of the Caribbean. It was brought by indentured immigrants to Suriname
Suriname
Suriname , officially the Republic of Suriname , is a country in northern South America. It borders French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west, Brazil to the south, and on the north by the Atlantic Ocean. Suriname was a former colony of the British and of the Dutch, and was previously known as...
, Guyana
Guyana
Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...
, Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles...
, and Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
. In the Fiji Islands the dholak is widely used for bhajans and kirtans.
Dholak masters are often also adept at singing or chanting and may often provide a primary entertainment or lead drumming for a dance troupe. Perhaps the most characteristic rhythm played on the "dhol" is a quick double-dotted figure that may be counted in rhythmic solfege as "ONE -tah and -tah TWO -tah and -tah THREE-E (rest on 'and') -TAH, FOUR AND" or simply a long string of double-dotted notes, over which the bass side is used for improvisation.