Musical Instruments Questions and Answers

Answer: C

The shehnai does not belong to the stringed instruments.

The sitar, sarod and sarangi are all tat (stringed) instruments. The shehnai is a reed wind instrument, a sushir vadya.

That is why (C) is the instrument that does not belong with the other three.

The sushir (wind) group has the shehnai, flute and harmonium, the tat (string) group has the sitar, sarod and sarangi, and the sarangi is played with a bow while the sitar and sarod are plucked, but all three are strung instruments.

Answer: A

Lalmani Mishra is the author of 'Bhartiya Sangeet Vadya'.

Pandit Lalmani Mishra, a musician and scholar of Kanpur and Banaras, wrote 'Bhartiya Sangeet Vadya', a study of Indian musical instruments.

Sudhir Mainkar, Girishchandra Shrivastava and Vijayshankar Mishra are authors of other books.

Answer: B

The harmonium is a sushir vadya.

Instruments are classed as tat (strings), sushir (wind), avanaddha (membrane) and ghan (solid). The harmonium sounds by wind passing over reeds, so it is a wind instrument, a sushir vadya.

It has no strings, no stretched skin and is not struck as a solid body, so the other three classes do not apply.

By comparison, the sitar and veena are tat vadya, the tabla and mridangam are avanaddha vadya, and the manjira and ghungroo are ghan vadya, which shows how the four classes divide Indian instruments.

Answer: A

In the ancient texts 'vipanchi' is the name of the nine-string veena. Ancient writers distinguished veenas by the number of their strings, and the vipanchi was the one with nine, in contrast with the seven-string chitra veena that is named in the same lists. The seven, twelve and three string options belong to other instruments or to no standard definition, so they are not what the term vipanchi denotes. The nine-string veena is therefore the correct choice.

Answer: B

The tumba, the resonating body of the tanpura, is made of a red pumpkin, a dried gourd, according to the key. It is the gourd that gives the instrument its deep resonance. Wood is used for the neck and the soundboard of the tanpura but not for the tumba, and white gourd is not the keyed material. 'None of these' is wrong since red pumpkin is offered. The keyed answer is Red Pumpkin. The red pumpkin is dried and hollowed, and its shape gives the deep resonance of the instrument.

Answer: C

The jal-tarang is a ghan vadya, an instrument in the class of solid instruments, because the sound comes from the bowls of china or metal that are struck with sticks. Tat vadya are the stringed instruments, avanaddha vadya the instruments covered with a skin, like the tabla, and sushir vadya the wind instruments. The jal-tarang has none of these as its source of sound, so the keyed answer is ghan vadya.

Answer: D

The key gives both (A) and (R) as correct. Avanaddha vadyas, the instruments covered with a skin such as the tabla, pakhawaj and dholak, play an important role in music, since they supply the rhythm. The reason is also true, as the accompaniment of avanaddha vadyas increases the richness of a concert. The reason explains the assertion, and so the fourth code is the answer. The reason therefore explains why the instruments matter: the richness it speaks of is the added depth of the rhythm in a concert.

Answer: D

Tatta vadya means string instruments (Sarod, 3), Avanaddha vadya means membrane drums (Mridangam, 4), Sushir vadya means wind instruments (Shehnai, 1) and Ghana vadya means solid percussion (Manjeera, 2). The code is therefore (3) (4) (1) (2). Every other code mismatches at least one pair, for example the first code gives Shehnai to the string class and the second gives Manjeera to the string class.

Answer: B

The key states that the mukhda of the Maseetkhani gat begins from the twelfth beat of the tala. The eleventh, thirteenth and fourteenth beats are not given as the start of its mukhda in the key. This explanation follows the official key.

Answer: B

The key gives Upang as the stringed instrument used as a laya vadya, that is, one that keeps the tempo and rhythm. Swar Mandal is used to give the notes, Rabab is a melodic lute and Israj is a bowed melodic instrument, so they are not laya vadya. This explanation follows the key.