Maddale: India musical instrument

The maddale is a percussion musical instrument from Karnataka, India. The musical instrument is the main rhythmic accompaniment in a Yakshagana ensemble together with Chande. The musical instrument used in the yakshagana is analogous to Mridangam, though the structure of the instrument is markedly different, as well as the acoustics, the playing pattern and the rhythm system of the instrument. Unlike the mridangam or tabla, the maddale manufactures tonic when performed either on the rim or the ink. The traditional variety of the musical instrument was 30 cm long, and the head of the instrument had 8 inches and manufactures loud sound. the musical instrument is available in more than three various versions.

source of picture: indianetzone.com

This musical instrument belongs to the mridangam family of musical drums and thus shares the history of analogous drum. The drum head of the musical instrument is analogous to that of the tabla and the drum itself is analogous to the pakhavaj. So it is likely that this musical instrument is a kind of pakhavaj and mridangam. Over the years, the musical instrument evolved to be manufactured of various types of wood and for higher octave, and presently, the body of the maddale is carved from wood of the jackfruit tree among other kinds of wood like the kakke, baine, hunaalu. The use of the instrument started with the development of Yakshagana fingering and hand style have been fabricated. The use of palm manufactures a sound that slightly a mixture of the mridangam and the pakhavaj

The musical instrument is a double-sided musical drum whose body is often produced using hollowed pieces of jackfruit wood about half an inch thick. The body of the instrument is called Goodu. The two open ends of the musical instrument are shielded with the skin of goat leather and fastened to each other with leather belts around the circumference of the musical instrument. These belts spread to tightly hold the musical instrument’s head on either side of the instrument’s body, permitting them to resonate when struck. The drum head on the left is somewhat larger. One side manufactures bass another treble. The drum head is called ‘muchchige’.

The bass drum head is called ‘eda muchchige’ and the drum head is called ‘bala muchchige’. The drum head of the right is analogous to the drum head of a tabla, but varies somewhat creating a major tonal difference. Maddale unlike mridangam and tabla manufactures tonic when playing on the rim or the ink. The drum head of the left manufactures lower pitched bass sound. The right drum head of the instrument has a circular disk in the center known as ‘karne’ causing the musical instrument to manufacture harmonic tones. The left drum is smeared with a tuning paste manufactured from ash and rice known as ‘bona’, before playing the instrument to dampen the tone and to manufacture bass sound from the musical instrument.

The musical instrument is tuned to the tonic of the Yakshagana singer before playing the instrument. A wooden peg is occasionally used to tighten the leather belts. To major strokes are called Gumpu and Chapu. Playing on the rim of the instrument is known as chapu this is used for tuning. Playing on the ink of the instrument to manufacture a more resonating sound is known as Gumpu.