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How to Install a Tabla Skin

The hand drum is one of the oldest musical instruments and the tabla drum is among the most classic and traditional of the Indian hand drums. A tabla set consists of two hand drums of different size and timbre. From the Arabic word for drum, the tabla produces a wide range of different sounds created by a combination of finger and palm drumming. A tabla drum skin, or puddi, is composed of three layers consisting of the syahi, bharti and kinnar.

Instructions

- 1
  Measure the diameter of the drum from the outermost lips of the drum's edge. If you need to round, round up a quarter inch. Buy your tabla skin according to your measurements.
- 2
  Apply small amounts of water to the underside of the skin, known as the bharti. Do not apply water to the top of the skin, or syahi side. The syahi is the black circle on the drum and the tonal center of the head skin.
- 3
  Mount the skin on the drum shell. With tasma rope, weave the head through the holes on the drum shell, known as tasma holes. Pass the rope over the collar, or gajara, of the drum, through the slit in the skin and down along the drum. Don't worry about tightness during the weaving process; just get the skin on the drum. This can take anywhere between one and two hours.
- 4
  Tighten the skin on the drum by pulling the rope taut, beginning where you started the weave. Tighten the skin all the way around the drum head at every tasma hole with the gatta dowel tool. Tie a knot at the end of the tasma rope length.

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