Tuning Tabla is an art. Unfortunately everybody who wants to play it, must learn to tune. Tabla can’t be or should not be played without tuning. Why not?
Firstly, without being in tune all around the circle, it does not have the nice ring. Even If one point is out of tune, the ‘openness’ of the sound is lost.
Secondly, Tabla’s &’ Na’ & and ‘Tin’ (most used sounds) always ring on a certain frequency, and if that frequency is not in tune with your other instruments (or the scale of your song), then just like any other out of tune instrument it will not blend in. So let’s see how to tune it.
When we talk about tuning Tabla, almost all the time we mean tuning Dayan’s (right side’s) ‘Na’ sound. The open sounds (tu, din etc.) of Dayan are tuned in some special situations only. One of them is playing multiple Dayans only to play a melody line on Tablas, also known as ‘Tabla Trung’.
I will discuss how to play ‘Na’ on a Tabla in the ‘tabla sounds’ post (probably next). Every player has his/her own way to tune a Tabla, but in the end it comes down to achieving a perfect tuning all around. If you tune your Tabla the proper way, you can enjoy it for years. If you do not know how to do it right, the life of the head will be reduced to days or sometimes even hours. So please read through this post a couple of times before tempering with yours.

Tabla is tuned with a special hammer. Although any small hammer can be used, but this thing is specially made for this task. It has a blunt head to tune it, a sharp head to fix it and the other side is designed to get the rawhide belt over the wooden blocks. This special hammer is a very cheap tool and it is mostly sold with a new Tabla. A new one can be bought for a buck or two.
A Dahina is mostly tuned to the keynote, which is called ‘Sa’ in Indian music. Tablas don’t have very wide scales, so sometimes it is very hard to tune it to the keynote. The second preference is ‘Pa'(the fifth). If the composition you are playing Tabla with is such a Rāga, which doesn’t use ‘Pa’ (the fifth), then it can also be tune to ‘Ma’ (the fourth). Some folk and popular style players tune it to ‘Ga’ (the third) to accommodate wide range of songs without changing Dayans. A Tabla tuned on ‘Ga’ (the third) does not blend well into the music, but it can be used to create a special sound in non-classical music. Most players keep more than one Dayans with variable head sizes with them.

Let’s go through the process of tuning a Dayan step by step:

1. First, make sure that your heads have warmed up or cooled down to the room temperature. Then play the ‘Na’ sound (instructions coming up) all around the head and establish an approximate note, or as it is said in Indian music, determine that on which note your Dayan approximately ‘speaks’ on.
2. Then create the sound of the desired note on a tuner or keyboard, on which the Dayan is supposed to be tuned on.
3. If the difference between Dayan’s approximate speaking (ringing) note and the desired note is too big, then consider tuning it to the fifth or the fourth depending on the tonic chord. Don’t make your Tabla go higher or lower than two tones unless it was really loose or really tight for some special reasons (new head etc.).
4. If your Dayan is sharper than the desired note then go to point 9.
5. If your Dayan sounds flat than the desired note, then figure out that how flat is it?
6. If the difference is more than a semitone then hit the wooden blocks down and bring the head closer to the desired note. When hitting the blocks, use ‘opposite side approach’. That means that all eight blocks should be tighten in the 1st-5th, 2nd-6th… order.
7. When it is closer to the note then hit the crown with hammer and achieve the right tuning. This should also be done the ‘opposite side’ way. Dayan’s crown has 16 holes. The spaces between two holes are called ‘Ghars’ (houses). So tune all the houses in 1-9, 2-10, 3-11… order.
8. When Dayan needs very little, a few cents adjustment, do it starting from one side tuning it to the exact note in a circular motion. Hit the crown upwards or downwards with the hammer as required with very light strokes. When hitting the crown, make sure that you don’t hit the rawhide belt as it will break right away. All strokes should be made in the middle of the holes.
9. If your Dayan is sharper than the desired note, then there are two ways to bring it down. If the difference is more than a semitone then bring the wooden pieces a little up by hitting them or just sliding them upwards.
10. Then hit the crown upwards while checking the response of the head. Do this using the ‘opposite side’ approach too, going in 1-9, 2-10, 3-11…order.
11. When it is close to the desired note then tune it as shown in point 7 and 8.

Normally a Bayan (the left part) is not tuned to any note. It is just tighten until sounds pleasant by hitting the crown. But some players do tune it to the bass keynote (lower ‘Sa’ or bass fifth (lower ‘Pa’). Some players don’t use an ‘inked’ Bayan. They use wheat dough to get the bass sound. If you have this kind of Bayan, then don’t tighten it before using the dough. It sounds very high without the dough. The other thing to remember about dough Bayans is that the dough should be fully scratch off after every use. Otherwise it is bad for the head. Store your dough Bayan in a mice free zone because if they found it, they will shred it. The dough Bayans are commonly used in the Quwali style playing and are known as ‘Dhamas’.

Khichee (pulling):
A time will come, when all your wooden blocks will be all the way down and the head tuning is still not high enough. That is the time for Khichee (pulling the raw-hide belt). Over time the belt expands and gets loose. If you need to pull the rawhide belt then here is the procedure to do it:

1. Take all the wooden pieces out of the rawhide belt.
2. Locate the starting knot in the bottom.
3. Put your Dayan in your feet and start pulling the belt.
4. In the end you have to untie the end knot and re-tie it.
5. It is good to use gloves especially if you are playing right after.
6. Now use your special Tabla hammer to slide the belt over the wooden pieces.
7. Make sure you do it evenly. Normally taking two strips over a block then leaving two and then taking two over the next block will do it.
8. Make sure you put your blocks evenly otherwise the head will slide to a side.
9. A head slid to a side is not a good thing. If it is new head it might be acceptable to a degree, but if you re-pull an old head and it slides to a side, it will rip from its original groove over the wood. Don’t be afraid though, unless you use a ridiculous amount of force or two people start to pull the belt, it is very hard to slide the head to the side if it was installed properly once,
10. To pull the belt of the left side (Bayan) is a little easier than the right side. If you succeed doing it to the right side, you don’t need any more information to do it to the left side.

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