Bulbul tarang: Fiji musical instrument

The bulbul tarang is a stringed musical instrument from India and Indian and Pakistani Punjab that came from the taishogoto of the Japanese that assumingly arrived in the southern part of Asia in the 1930s.

source: ebay.com

The musical instrument has two set of strings, one set for the drone and one set for the melody. The strings of the instrument run over a plate or fret board, while above keys are analogous to the typewriter keys that when depressed fret or shorten the strings of the instrument to raise the pitch of the strings.

The melody strings of the musical instrument are generally tuned to the same not or in the same octaves, while the drone strings of the musical are tuned to the first and the fifth of the melody strings. Tuned in the same way, the musical instrument is uni-tonic, or unable to adapt to new keys. The melody strings of the instrument may be tuned to various pitches if the player desires, meanwhile, rendering the instrument multi-tonic, but more difficult to perform. The bulbul tarang is most commonly performed as an accompaniment instrument to singing. Analogous musical instrument that is known as Autoharp, a chord can be selected when a key is depressed and the strings of the musical instrument is usually strummed or bowed with the use of a pick. The Indian version of the musical instrument is sometimes referred to as the ‘Indian banjo’ or ‘Japan banjo’, because of its descent from the taishokoto; analogous musical instruments in Germany and Austria are referred to as ‘akkordolia’ and in ‘benju’ in Pakistan. In the Maldives, the musical instrument is called ‘kottafoshi’ and called ‘medolin’ in the Fijian Indian diaspora. A more complicated and electrified version of the musical instrument is known as the ‘shahi baaja’.