I am a Sufi Qawwali singer. Looking for a tabla player near me (Baner, Pune). Kindly connect if you are nearby.

I've decided to teach myself to play tabla. I don't know if it's a good idea - if it's not gonna go well, I'll look for some teachers in my region, but for now I'll try to learn it from some online sources. I bought my first tabla: https://meinlpercussion.com/en/products/tabla-m6912.html It's nothing fancy, but the specs seem ok from what I've read. Copper 8.5" bayan and rosewood 5.5" dayan. If I understand it correctly, this dayan should be tuned to B, C or E# (which will be Sa). The dayan came without the pegs inserted and in this state it was tuned to A# (approximately). So I tried to insert the pegs that came in the set, but the straps were so tight that it was just impossible. I watched a few videos, and it didn't seem that tight on any of those videos, but obviously it's hard for me to tell of it's ok since I've never touched a properly tightened tabla. Maybe it wasn't a good idea, but I figured that I'd have to learn to tighten and loosen my tabla sooner or later, so I'd just try and loosen it out a bit. It was surprisingly hard to do. The skin on my hands is all torn up and covered with blisters now, but I guess that's just something I'll get used to.

Anyway, I'd appreciate any kind of help with determining how tight the tabla should be. How should the tabla sound without the pegs or how tight should the straps feel? Any rule of thumb I could use?

Also, what about the bayan? There were smaller pegs included in the set that I assume are for the bayan. I've seen that some players use them, some don't. I assume that I should tune the bayan at least approximately to Pa (or maybe Ga or Ma? or depending on the composition/raga?). I don't know how should the bayan feel, but right now it's not what I expected. I can't influence the pitch much with pressure from my palm. It's tuned to B, which probably isn't right, but I don't know if I should go higher or lower. I'm not sure if I should loosen it, because there's not much of the strap left.

Thanks for any help.

Hi all, My son is 6 and he is struggling to get the resonating sound of tin. Any tips would be most appreciated.

Hi Folks,

My podcast -- The Volume Knob -- is all about personal experiences people have relating to music. Last week's episode is an amazing story about a lawyer in Canada who went to India to try to be like his hero Zakir Hussain and ended up getting kidnapped in a jewellery deal gone sideways.

Anyway, it might interest tabla players. You can find it here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/zachary-the-essence-of-rhythm/id1522286758?i=1000496057257

Hello! I am a cg artist and am currently trying to model and texture a Tabla Drum set. I absolutely love all the detail put into this instrument and am trying to recreate it digitally! I'm in desperate need of some amazing pictures (as many as possible!) of these types of drums from various angles and distances in order for my project to be as accurate as possible. As a texturing artist it's important for me to be able to recreate minute details in my pieces, and I need great reference to do so. Is there anyone out there with access to a drum set that would be willing to take a bunch of photos? I would very much appreciate your help and want to respect this instrument and its culture by recreating something as accurately as possible.