Tabla is the main percussion instrument for north indian music. It consists of two drums played with the hands.

Tabla can be played solo or in group performance, usually accompanied by harmonium or sarangi (a stringed instrument played with a bow, a bit like a cello). Tabla also accompanies sitar, vocalist or other instrument, complementing the soloist and keeping the tal or timecycle.

Every stroke played on the tabla has a 'word' that students recite to learn compositions or in performance. Tabla players can make thirty or forty different sounds and combinations of sounds.

Skilled tabla players are capable of astonishing rhythmic complexity, and inventive improvisations, combining the basic strokes into endless patterns.

The drums are made of timber, metal or sometimes clay, with goatskin heads.

The deeper toned drum, called the bayan, plays the bass notes. Skilled tabla players press on the skin whilst playing to change the pitch making the tabla 'speak' with a range of glissando effects in their performances. The higher pitched drum is tuned to the keynote of the raag being played.

Tabla students start off by learning all the basic strokes, and then combine these into longer compositions, which they learn by heart. Traditionally indian music is not written down, but nowadays we help ourselves remember compositions by noting them down.

Our classes are taken by Vijay Kangutkar, a fantastic tabla teacher, who plays the Farukhabad and Dehli styles.

Sitar is the main melody instrument played in north indian music.

It is played solo with accompaniment of tabla. Sitar can also be used to accompany dance forms such as Kathak.

Through the Beatles and particularly George Harrison, western audiences discovered the sitar ... and Ravi Shankar, its most famous exponent in the West.

The basis of north indian music is the raag. This music is entirely melodic - harmonic forms are alien to indian music. Different raags express different moods and are played at different times of day or seasons.

Each raag has a particular scale pattern, often has different ascending and descending patterns, has characteristic phrases or ornamentation, and, in performance is explored through improvisation.

The sitar consists of a resonator made out of a pumpkin gourd; a finger board made out of wood; a set of 'front strings' which you play with a plectrum called a 'mizrab'; and a dozen or so sympathetic strings which add richness to the sound.

The special sound of the sitar comes from the curved metal frets which enable you to 'bend' the note and add all kinds of decorations to the main notes.

Sitar students first learn how to hold the instrument and how to strike the string with the mizrab. The basis of indian music is improvisation, so once students are confident with the instrument they learn short compositions and how to develop improvisations based on them.

Our sitar project is under the guidance of Ustad Mehboob Nadeem, who is based in London and plays in the Viliyat Khan tradition.