What the tanpura is for
The tanpura plays no tune. Its four strings, plucked one after another and left to ring into each other, hold Sa and one other swara under everything else, so that each note you play is heard against them. Played against a drone, a swara a little flat or sharp sounds so at once: practising with one is how the ear learns where each swara sits.
Meend's tanpura is tuned to your flute: choose your Sa above (the note your bansuri plays with its top three holes closed), and its strings follow. They sound an octave or so below the flute, as a tanpura does under a singer.
Its first string: Pa, Ma or Ni
The strings are plucked in the same order every round: the first string, then Sa, Sa, and the low Sa. The first is usually tuned to Pa. Choose:
- Pa for most raags.
- Ma for raags that leave out Pa, like Malkauns, or dwell on Ma.
- Ni for raags like Marwa, which leave out Pa and lean on Ni.
Its pace
A slow tanpura, a round every six seconds or so, suits an aalap and long notes; a quicker one keeps a faster piece moving. Find the pace where the strings never quite fall silent between plucks.
In the app the tanpura plays under your riyaz while Meend listens: it hears your flute through the drone, follows your swaras on the notation and times your practice.