About the Rabab

The afghani or kabuli rabab is a plucked lute-like musical instrument common to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Northwestern India, including Kashmir. Its body and neck is carved from a single piece of wood, typically mulberry wood. The hollowed-out body is covered by a stretched goatskin membrane and the instrument has a wooden fingerboard with three or four tied-on frets of gut or nylon.

The melody is played with a plectrum on three or four strings of gut or nylon. The instrument also has a number of metal strings, some of which are plucked (including the two or three drone strings and the high-pitched chikari strings) while the remainder (between 11 and 15) are sympathetic strings.

The afghani rabab is one of the national instruments of Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, it is commonly used not only as a folk instrument but also in Afghan classical music, which is closely related to, and has been heavily influenced by, Hindustani classical music. Ustad Mohammad Omar (1905—1980) and Homayun Sakhi are some of the notable rabab players from Afghanistan.

Outside Afghanistan, the rabab is a common folk instrument in the Pashtun/Pakhtun and Baloch-dominated areas of Pakistan as well as in the Kashmir valley in India. The rabab has become common in Pakistani popular music, featuring regularly in the Pakistani TV series Coke Studio Pakistan and in the music of bands such as the Peshawar-based Khumariyaan.

The use of the rabab is also common in Sikh religious music. The rabab was the instrument of the musician Bhai Mardana, who was the faithful companion of the first Sikh guru, Guru Nanak.

In India, Ustad Gulfam Ahmed and his son Imran Khan have been working for several years to popularize the use of the rabab in Hindustani classical music and have introduced to the rabab repertoire many of the compositions of their gharana that were originally developed for the sarod.

Through their long experience of teaching in Afghanistan, they have not only developed an understanding of traditional Afghan rabab techniques, but have also introduced Afghan musicians to ragas, compositions and techniques that were previously uncommon in Afghan classical music.