Tabla

Percussion system used in the North Indian classical music tradition. The instruments is the tabla; an adaptation on the pakhavaj, split into two separate hand drums. The system is of the acoustic-iconic mnemonic variety, with nonsense syllables (bols) representing various drum stroke techniques and timbres; the extent of the iconicity between speech and drumming is contested but evidence suggests systematic sound symbolism (Patel & Iversen, 2003).

Arnold, A. (Ed.). (1999). Hindustani Tala. In Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Volume 5 - South Asia: The Indian Subcontinent (pp. 136-163). Routledge (Publisher). Retrieved from Music Online: The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music database. Patel, A., & Iversen, J. (2003). Acoustical and perceptual comparison of speech and drum sounds in the North India tabla tradition: An empirical study of sound symbolism. Proceedings of the 15th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences.