Tabla

The tabla (or tabl, tabla) (Hindi: तबला, Bengali: তবলা, Urdu: طبلہ‎, Arabic: طبل، طبلة‎, Persian: طبل‎) is a membranophone percussion instrument (similar to bongos), which is often used in Hindustani classical music.

It is used in Indian folk music and is a part of Hindustani music art. The instrument consists of a pair of hand drums of contrasting sizes and timbres. It appears similar to their Afro-Cuban/Latin-American drum-based relatives bongos. However playing Tabla is very different to these. It is a mathematically calculated process.

The right hand drum is called a tabla and the left hand drum is called a dagga or baya. It is claimed that the term tabla is derived from an Arabic word, tabl, which simply means "drum." The tabla is used in some other Asian musical traditions outside of Indian subcontinent, such as in the Indonesian dangdut genre.

Playing technique involves extensive use of the fingers and palms in various configurations to create a wide variety of different sounds and rhythms, reflected in the mnemonic syllables (bol). The heel of the hand is used to apply pressure or in a sliding motion on the larger drum so that the pitch is changed during the sound's decay.

In playing tabla there are two ways to play it: band bol and khula bol.In sense of classical music it is termed as "tali" and "khali".