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Pungi or Bin

by David Courtney working tools

Pungi

Pungi or Bin is the snake charmer’s instrument.

The word “Bin” has al­ways been somewhat problematic.  The term “bin” is a very com­mon cor­rup­tion of the Sanskrit word “Vina”.  How­ever the term bin/vina implies a stringed instrument.  It is more likely that the term “Bin” is a cor­rup­tion of the Sanskrit “Venu” (i.e., bamboo) which would clearly place this instrument in the class shared by flutes.

The pungi is typically one to two feet in length.  It consists of two reeds or bamboo tubes.  One of which is for the melody and the other is for the drone.  These are at­ta­ched to a larger cavity made of gourd or coconut.  Inside of which are two reeds.  These reeds vibrate when air is passed over them.

THESE BOOKS MAY NOT BE FOR YOU
A superficial exposure to music is acceptable to most people; but there is an elite for whom this is not enough. If you have attained certain social and intellectual level, Elementary North Indian Vocal (Vol 1-2) may be for you.

This has compositions, theory, history, and other topics. All exercises and compositions have audio material which may be streamed over the internet for free.
Are you really ready to step up to the next level? Check your local Amazon.

Photo Gallery

pungi, snake charmers instrument

Pungi (Bin)

pungi, snake charmers instrument

Hole on underside

pungi, snake charmers instrument

Opening for blowing

pungi, snake charmers instrument

Joint bet­ween reeds and gourd

pungi, snake charmers instrument

Open end


Selected Video

https://youtu.be/oMbNBLuc0RM

Other Sites of Interest

India : North Indian folk music

Indian folk music

Indian Folk-Music

Bharatiya Sangeet Vadya (Review)

Catalogue of Indian Musical Instruments

Fractal dimension analysis of audio signals for Indian musical instrument recognition

Natural synthesis of North Indian musical instruments

Recognition of Indian Musical Instruments with Multi-Classifier Fusion

The Tagore collection of Indian musical instruments

Improvement of Audio Feature Extraction Techniques in Traditional Indian Musical Instrument

East Indians musical instruments

Yantra kosha; or, A Treasury of the Musical Instruments of Ancient and of Modern India, and of Various Other Countries