Tonbak: Albanian musical instrument

The tonbak which is also known as tombak or dombak is a goblet drum from the ancient Iran, which is the Persia, is known to be the one of the first and most important musical instrument of Persian music. The tonbak is usually postured across the upper body while the player is meant to use one or more fingers and the palm of his hand on the drumhead normally near the drumhead edge. For greater impact, the player sometimes wears a metal finger ring while playing the drum.

            

The tonbak is a single headed drum that has the shape of a cup with about 43cm high and 28cm diameter head. The shell is cut form a single block of wood and probably with a geometric design. The shell’s wall thickness is nearly about 2cm as the bottom shell is somehow thicker than the top for strength. The throat us cylindrical and joins the top to the bass.  The wide top opening which can either be produced from the skin of a sheep or that of a goat permits full bass tone as well as many treble tones. Tonbak has adjustable and the head tension is normally fixed prior to the time of performance paying full attention to the weather condition. The player may decide to heat or cool or even dry the membrane to get his desired pitch.

            

There are many goblet drums that are being played in different region of Africa, eastern Europe, and even Asia, but there are some forms of similarities that exist among all the drums, and the techniques of playing them also is quite different  from the technique of playing the tonbak. The tonbak was not recognized until the pioneering work of Ostad Hossein Tehrani in the early 1950s and today the players of this musical instrument has drastically change virtually every technique of playing this instrument. In Kashmir, the tonbak is called Tombahk Naar and is often played in ceremonies like weddings and theirs id made of red clay instead of the normal wood and animal skin.