Dholak

An ordinary desi style dholak (computerized image)

The Dholak (Punjabi: ਢੋਲਕ, Devnagari: ढोलक in Suriname and Holland dhool) is a North Indian, Pakistani and Nepalese double-headed hand-drum Madal. The name dholki may also refer to a slightly different instrument that uses high-pitch tabla style syahi masala on its treble skin. This instrument is also known as Naal or Dholki. (Hindi/Urdu: pipe or tube). It is basically also a dholak that is often a bit narrower in diameter. Its treble skin is stitched with thread on an iron ring, similar to East Asian Janggu or Shime-daiko drums. This puts the skin into high tension before it is strung. The (Naal) skins are then fitted with a tabla style high-pitch syahi. The bass (Naal) skin often has the same made up as in ordinary dholak (i.e. being fitted on to a a bamboo ring, but sometimes they may have a Kinar and pleated Gajra as seen in tabla to withstand the extra tension while "sarsoon tel masala" is used from the inside (Dholak masala). Naal requires tabla-style fingering (Bol). Both styles may have traditional cotton rope lacing or a screw system turnbuckle tensioning or even both combined: in the first case steel rings are used for tuning or pegs a twisted inside the laces. Though the dholak is mainly a folk instrument, lacking the exact tuning necessity and playing techniques Bol of the tabla or the pakhawaj, it is widely used in qawwali, kirtan and Bhangra and various styles of North Indian folk and (also South Indian) film music. It was formerly used in classical dances.

The drum is either played on the player's lap or, while standing, slung from the shoulder or waist or pressed down with one knee while sitting on the floor. The shell is sometimes made from sheesham wood(Dalbergia sissoo) but cheaper dholaks may be made from any wood (mango).S ri Lankan dholak and dholkis are made from hollowed coconut palm stems.The ordinary dholak in Sri Lanka also differ, in that they do not use Dholak masala, but a large fixed tabla style syahi on the middle of bass skin.

A Sri Lankan Dholki (Naal) from a maker in Matara.

Sri Lankan dholkis are carved of coconut stems and have high quality skins with syahi on both sides. It produces a sound like a very high-pitched tabla and requires a simplified tabla fingering (Bol). Steel tuning rings are not used - instead wooden pegs are twisted to create a very high tension. The heads a created with triple stitching to withstand this sort of tension. Similar dholkis are in use in Maharashtra and elsewhere.

Heavy hardwood dholaks are said^{[by whom?]} to produce better sound than those carved of cheap unseasoned sapwood. In some styles of playing (i.e. Punjab an iron thumb ring is used to produced a distinctive "chak" sound when it intermediately hits the wooden frame next to the high-pitch membrane (which is hit by the remaining four fingers). In other styles (i.e. Rajasthan), all fingers are generally used as in tabla fingering style using tabla bols. The dholak's high pitch skin is a simple membrane, while the left-hand bass head is of a greater diameter and has a special weightening masala (syahi) from the inside of the skin (from underneath), a mixture of tar, clay/sand (dholak masala) or more often the residue cake of mustard oil pressing process, to which some sand and oil or tar may be added. It lowers the pitch and enables the typical Dholak sliding sound (Giss/Gissa). With passing of time, the oil runs out and stains the bass skin, eventually the masala dries out and pieces may fall off inside the barrel. At this time the skins have to be removed and new Dholak masala is applied to the underside of the skin.If the skin becomes too oily, it is replaced by a new one. In large dholaks, more common known as (Dhol), the high-pitched drum head may also be played using a thin (1/4"/6 mm or less) long (over 14"/30 cm) stick of solid rattan or bamboo slice (rattan is preferred for its flexibility), and the low-pitched drum head is played either by hand or using a somewhat thicker, semi-angled stick, roughly the shape of a small ((hockey bat shaped) stick. The drum is pitched depending on size, with an interval of perhaps a perfect fourth or perfect fifth between the two heads. It is related to the larger Punjabi dhol and the smaller dholki. Similar drums with similar names are found elsewhere in western Asia (Dhaul).

Indian children sing and dance to the beat of the dholak during pre-wedding festivities (also known as "Dholki" in many Indian and Pakistani communities. It is often used in Filmi Sangeet - Indian film music, in chutney music, baithak gana, and tan singing, the local Indian music of the Caribbean. It was brought by indentured immigrants to Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and Jamaica. In the Fiji Islands the dholak is widely used for bhajans and kirtans.

Dholak masters are often also adept at singing or chanting and may often provide a primary entertainment or lead drumming for a dance troupe. Perhaps the most characteristic rhythm played on the "dhol" is a quick double-dotted figure that may be counted in rhythmic solfege as "ONE -tah and -tah TWO -tah and -tah THREE-E (rest on 'and') -TAH, FOUR AND" or simply a long string of double-dotted notes, over which the bass side is used for improvisation.