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DHOLAK

by David Courtney working tools


traditional dholak
Traditional Rope Lacing
turnbuckle dholak
Turnbuckle Tuning


Dholak is a very pop­ular folk drum of nor­thern India.  It is barrel shaped with a simple membrane on the right hand side; ba­si­cally it is just a smaller version of the dhol.  The left hand is also a sin­gle membrane with a special application on the inner surface.  This application is a mix­ture of tar, clay and sand (dholak masala) which lowers the pitch and provides a well de­fined tone.  There are two ways of tigh­ten­ing the dholak.  Sometimes they are laced with rope, in which case, a series of metal rings are pulled to tighten the instrument.  Sometimes metal turnbuckles are employed.  It is said that this instrument used to occupy a posi­tion of con­si­der­able prestige.  Today it is merely re­le­ga­ted to filmi and folk music.

 

Musical Styles That Use Dholak

 

Photo Gallery

Dholak (Rope style)
Dholak (Rope style)
Right face
Right face
Left side
Left side
Knots for tigh­ten­ing
Knots for tigh­ten­ing
Right head closeup
Right head closeup
Dholak (Turnbuckle style)
Dholak (Turnbuckle style)
Right face
Right face
Left face
Left face
Turnbuckles
Turnbuckles

 

 

Selected Video

 

 

 

 

 

 

© 1998 - 2020 David and Chandrakantha Courtney

For comments, cor­rections, and sug­gestions, kindly contact David Courtney at [email protected]