Salaams and salutations dear guppies and guppans.
As some of you may know I have a passion for classical music and last night I was presented with a most beautifull gift from my friends and thought I would share the interesting story of this peculiar instrument with you guys.
We might all be fammiliar with classical instruments such as the Tabla, Dholak, Dhol, Sitar, Sarangi, Shehnai, Suranal etc but never had I had the pleasure to see or even play an instrument as amazing as the Bulbul Tarang.
The name means Nightingale waves, and its a very unique instrument to the sub-continent. It is often incorrectly labbeled the “Indian Banjo” by Westerners… however it looks and plays nothing like a Banjo.
It features five strings and is often made up of an integral case, its not normally very decorative, being more a funtional and portable instrument rather than a concert item.
You play the bulbul tarang by plucking or strumming the strings on the right hand sector of the instrument… Most instruments are played right handed. On the frame itself one will find several keys sometimes like Piano keys but more often than not the originals actually used keys that resemble old fashioned typewriter keys.
The keys depress the strings to create alternating tones, although the instrument itself has a small sond box and would be classed as A-tonal the keys give it a more varied spectrum of sound almost like a pre-historic synthesiser of sorts and it really does produce some amazing sounds…
If you simply strum the keys they sound like a banjo, if you pluck them it will make a sound like a Chinese harp or Gu-zeng. If you depress the keys you can achieve further sounds that can replicate the sort of sounds a Sarangi or Dulcimer would make… this gives it a very broad sound spectrum which means the Bulbul tarang can make one hell of a lot of sound…
What I find remarkable is that the instrument is so small, little more than 60cm or two feet long and about 15cm or 6 inches wide. It makes it so portable you can literally take it anywhere.
How this instrument has come about I am not that sure… some suggest it was brought to the Sub continet from Japan in the form of a copy of the famous Japanese Taishigoto. This seems to be the most obvious source for the instrument however I have seen simmilar ones in China where they are called Fenghuan Chin… the Chinese versions are even older than the Japanese instruments… some dating back hundreds of years.
Exactly how it came to the Subcontinet is obviously less well known, however about 100 years ago it reached its peak, almost like a craze overnight they were in big demand from as North as Nepal to Hyderabad in the far south. In fact for a while it was one of the most popular instuments in Quwali music and classical Indian folk songs.
Then it seems to have almost all but disapeared from the mainstream, now it has become a very rare instument and there are even electric versions of it available but few people know of them. I personally rate this instrument very highly and its also very easy to learn, tuning it is the difficuilt bit as in Indian music you tune it to the specific song style rather than fit a song over the fixed tune.
Sadly few original examples have survived to this day… I will post some pics of mine later when I get home. 
So does anyone else know of simmilar unusual instruments that seem to be dying out of our cultures but which deserve to be preserved?