Tambura

Tambura is an Indian music instrument, which is known by the name of tanpura in North India. It is unfretted and round-bodied, with a hollow neck and four or five (rarely six) wire strings. The strings of the tambura are plucked one after another in a standard pattern, in order to create a tonic resonance field Hindustani classical music. The instrument comes in different sizes, with the larger ones known as the 'males', while the smaller ones known as 'females'. Read on to get complete information on tambura.

The male tambura has an open string, which is approximately one meter in length. On the other hand, the string of a female tanpura is only three-forth of an inch. The standard tuning of a tanpura is 5881 sol do' do' do. In Indian sargam, it comes out to be PA sa sa SA. In the five stringed tambura, the seventh or NI (natural minor or major 7th) is added. The principle of jivari, which produces rich buzzing sound, is applied in order to attain the overtone-rich sound.

Styles of Tambura
The musical instrument of Tambura is designed in the following three styles:

Miraj Style
The Miraj style is the most popular style of Tambura for the Hindustani music performers. It is three to five feet in length and has a well-rounded resonator plate (tabali). The neck is straight and hollow and it is fixed, along with the tabli, to the round lower chamber, which is made up of gourd (tumba).

Tanjore Style
The Tanjore style of Tanpura is famous in the southern states of India and is preferred by the Carnatic music performers. It is also three to five feet in length. However, its lower chamber is not made of gourd. Rather, it is spherical in shape and is hollowed out of a solid block of wood. The neck is smaller in diameter as compared to that of the Miraj style Tanpura.

Tamburi Style
The Tamburi style has gained popularity in the recent past, owing to its small size and portability. This tambura is two to three feet long and has a shallow resonator. The tabali is slightly curved and there are four to six strings. The small five-string tamburi is tuned to the higher octave and is preferred by artists for solo-performances.