Tanpura

Tanpura

The tanpura is a long-necked string instrument that provides a drone, a continuous pitch reference beneath the music. Its sound fixes Sa, the home note the singer tunes to. You hear it behind almost every performance of Indian classical music.

It has four strings, sometimes five or six, plucked in a slow, repeating cycle. The strings pass over a curved bridge, which gives the sound its buzzing tone. That steady sound stays beneath the voice rather than following each sung phrase.

Where you hear the tanpura

The tanpura, a long-necked instrument supplying a drone, or continuous pitch reference, sounds behind almost every Indian classical performance. Its four, sometimes five or six, strings are plucked in a slow, repeating cycle. A curved bridge beneath the strings gives the sound its buzzing tone.

In studios, an electronic shruti box often replaces the tanpura as the drone source. You may therefore hear a pitch reference beneath the voice without hearing the plucked strings of the instrument itself.

When a tanpura is used in a mix, its tuning follows the singer’s shruti, their chosen Sa or home note. That choice comes after checking the song’s lowest and highest phrases, and the drone stays beneath the voice throughout.