Bulbul Tarang

(a.k.a. Banjo)

by David Courtney

Bulbul tarang, also known as the “banjo”, is a com­mon instru­ment in India.  The name bulbul tarang literally trans­lates to “waves of nightin­gales”.  It is made of a num­ber of strings pas­sing over what resembles a finger board.  How­ever, instead of di­rec­tly finger­ing the keys, they are pressed with a series of keys like a piano.  Sometimes the keys are si­mi­lar to a piano keyboard, but more often they resemble type­writer keys.  The instru­ment is com­mon for folk music­ians and chil­dren be­cause of its very low price.

The origin of the bulbul tarang is inter­est­ing.  It is an In­dian version of the Japan­ese taisho koto.  The first taisho koto was built by Goro Morita in 1912 in Nogoya Japan. The term taisho refers to the se­cond former Japan­ese emperor; while the term koto refers to it be­ing a stringed instrument.  The taisho koto be­came a very pop­ular instru­ment in Japan; by 1929 it is es­ti­ma­ted that over quar­ter of a million units were sold.  Although it is es­tab­lished that the bulbul tarang is der­ived from the taisho koto, the ob­vious ques­tion is “what was the si­tua­tion before that?”  There is great rea­son to believe that the taisho koto is a technical ex­ten­sion of the var­ious pianolins, pianettes, and hurdy gurdies, that were pop­ular in the 19th cen­tury.

Playing the bulbul tarang (photo courtesy of Abe Thomas)

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Tuning the Bulbul Tarang

Tuning the bulbul tarang is very easy, how­ever we must not forget that there are innumer­able variations in size, num­ber of strings, gauge of strings, etc.  There­fore, we will just go over the ge­ne­ral prin­ciples and you can work out the de­tails.

The first step is to fami­liarise yourself with the strings.  There are two types of strings; there are the drone strings and the melody strings.  The melody strings run di­rec­tly under the key-plate and are fretted by the keys.  The drone strings run beside the key plate and are not fretted.  This is il­lus­tra­ted below.

Parts of the Bulbul Tarang

Tune the melody strings to anything that is con­venient.  The strings them­sel­ves will tell you what this should be.  If they are too tight, you may break the strings.  If they are too loose, they will sound dull.  Through experimentation you will find what the useful range of your instru­ment is.

The gauge of the strings is chosen ac­cor­ding to ones con­venience.  In India, most peo­ple would use the bulbul tarang to accompany their sing­ing.  There­fore, the strings are chosen such that the pitch of the instru­ment matches the key that one sings in.

You will prob­ably wish to tune all the strings to the same note.  In most cases the strings will be the same gauge, so this is a natu­ral thing to do. If they are all the same, you can perform an inter­est­ing trick.  Try tuning some of them to the same note, but others you can slightly detune, so they are a wee bit high or a wee bit low.  The should not be too high or low, or the instru­ment will sim­ply sound out of tune; how­ever if you keep them within about 5 to 10 cents, every­thing will be just fine.  This range of tunings will produce a very rich tone.

Next, you orient yourself to the key­board.  It is im­me­di­ately apparent that the bulbul tarang’s keyboard is reminis­cent of the harmonium key­board.  The arrange­ment (i.e., whole-step; whole step; half step; etc.) is the same, but the whole will prob­ably be trans­posed up or down to some arbitrary key.  Decide which key is going to be your tonic.  In India it will us­ually be either the “C” posi­tion or the “B” posi­tion.  When you have de­cided what your tonic is going to be, you then tune the drone strings to the first (Sa) or the fifth (Pa).  Ideally you will wish to tune to both of them. (for more infor­mation on the In­dian scales go to Swara)

Now it is quite likely that at some point in this pro­cess things are not quite working out.  When in­stru­ments are sold in India, there is a random­ness in the choice of strings.  It is under­stood that the user will replace cer­tain strings with either higher or lower gauges.  Many times bronze or brass will be added, es­pec­ially to the drone strings.  This opens up a bass quality to the instrument.  It is also pos­sible to take some of the melody strings and change the gauge / material, to set them an octave apart. Do not feel afraid to experi­ment with dif­fer­ent strings.  This ab­ility to customise the instrument is one of the strengths of the bulbul tarang.

Now your bulbul tarang is in tune.  Play away to your heart’s content.

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Photo Gallery

Bulbul Tarang (Click on image)

Right side of Bulbul Tarang

Left side of Bulbul Tarang

Clasp

Tuning pegs

Keys

Keys and embossed metal plate

Embossed metal plate

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Musical Forms That Use Bulbul Tarang

• Folk Music
• Film Music
• Qawwali

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Selected Video

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