This article is all about various different types of Musical Instruments and players, with names and pictures, musical instruments and their sounds, musical instruments and their players, musical instruments and their exponents.
Music and musical instruments have a great relationship and deep impact on India and Indian culture. Their are a number of classical musical instruments being played from ancient times either for recreation or in the courts of kings, or for devotional purpose. Following is the list of famous and important Indian musical instruments and their exponents with picture.
Types and Classification of Musical Instruments
There are basically 5 types of musical instruments. These are – Membranophone type, plucked String type, Aerophone type, Pipe or Pump Organ type, Percussion type
Membranophone type Musical Instruments
In these type of instruments the sound wave is produced by vibrating membranes. Common examples are Drum, Dhol, Tabla, Mridand, Pakhawaj, Congo Bongo etc.
Plucked String type Musical Instruments
In this type of musical instruments the sound wave is created by vibrating strings. The common examples are Violin, Sitar, Guitar, Mandolin, Banjo, Veena etc.
Aerophone type Musical Instruments
In aerophone type instruments air is passed from tubular structures and various sound notes are created by opening or closing various holes on the the tubular structure. Flutes, Saxophones, Oboe, Shehnai, clarinet, duduk, bassoon etc are common examples of this type.
Pipe Organ or Pump Organ type Musical Instruments
Pumping action of air results due to moving the bellows and various notes are created by pressing the keys which opens or restricts the air passage. Harmonium, Reed organ, Melodeon, Pedal organ, Harmoniflute are the best examples of Pump organ type instruments.
Percussion type Musical Instruments
In these type of instruments various sound notes are created as a effect of striking motion of some mallet type structure on different sources. The common examples are Jal Tarang, Xylophones, Vibraphone, handbells etc.
Famous Musical Instruments and their Players
Musical Instruments and their players :Dhol
Rani Taj, Garib Das, Lal Singh Bhatti, Johny Kalsi
Musical Instruments and their players : Flute (Bansuri)
Famous Indian Flute Players
K. Bhaskaran, Pannalal Ghosh, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Rakesh Chaurasia, Chetan Joshi, G. S. Sachdev, Dobopriya Chatterjee, Nityanand Haldipur, T.S. Sankaran, Raghunath Seth, Thiagarajan Ramani
 Chetan Joshi |  H. Chaurasia |  K. Bhaskaran |  P. Ghosh |  R. Chaurasia |
Famous western Flute Players
Samuel Baron, Adrian Brett, Gerald Jackson, Timothy Hutchins, Karl Doppler, Julius Baker, Marina Piccinni, James Poke, Ardal Powell, Adam Walker, Jim Walker, Ransom Wilson, James Stra
Musical Instruments and their Players : Harmonium
Famous Players (exponents) of Harmonium – Aditya Oke, Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Govindrao Tembe, Adil Hussaini, Krishna Das, Sudhir Nayak, Vidydhar Oke, Sabri brothers, Shankar Jaikishan, Arvind Thatte, Jai Uttal
 Aditya Oke |  Farukh F. A. Khan |  Govindrao Tembe |  Krishna Das |  Sudhir Nayak |
Famous Players of Jal Tarang
Milind Tulankar, Seetha Doraiswamy, Manish Sharma, Jagdish Mohan, Jayantibhai Sharma, Ghasiram Nirmal
 Milind Tulankar |  Seetha D. |  Manish Sharma |  Jagdish Mohan |  Jayantibhai S. |
Famous Mandolin Players
Uppalapu Srinivas, Snehasish Mozumdar, Mandolin Prasad (N.S Prasad), Amarnath Patasar, U.P Raju, P Nagamani
 U Srinivas |  Snehasish M. |  Mandolin Prasad |  Amarnath P. |  P Nagamani |
Musical Instruments and their Players : Mridang
A.V. Anand, Ramnad Raghvan, Erode Nagraj, Trichy Sankaran, Ghatam Udupa, Guruvayur Dorai, Robert E Brown, Mannargudi Easwaran, K.P. Parmeswaran, Karaikudi Mani, M. Velukkutti Nair, T.K. Murthy
List of Famous Pakhawaj Players
Pt. Ravishankar Upadhyay, Pt. Bhawani Shankar, Pratap Patil, Ustad Talib Hussain, Mohan Shyam Sharma, Ayodhya Prasad, Taranath Rao, Manik Munde, Gopal Das, Chatrpati Singh, Arun Shejwal, Phalguni Acharya
Famous Piano Players
Gurbani Bhatia, Santosh Mulekar, Brian Silas, Stephan Devassy (from Kerala), Ashley William Joseph (from Bangalore), Neecia Majolly, Abraham Mazumdar, V Balsara, Adnan Sami
Famous Santoor Player
Pt. Shivkumar Sharma, Rahul Sharma, Shruti Adhikari, Sandip chatterjee, Habib Samai, Tarun Bhattacharya, Bhajan Sopori, Abhay Sapori, Satish Vyas, R Visweswaran
 Shivkumar Sharma |  Shruti Adhikari |  Sandeep Chatterje |  Bhajan Sopori |  Satish Vyas |
Famous Sarod Players
Allauddin Khan, Ali Akbar Khan, Amjad Ali khan, Ayaan Ali Khan, Amman Ali Khan, Arnab Chakrabarty, Buddhadev Das Gupta, Vikash Maharaj, Brij Narayan, Hafiz Ali Khan, Bahadur Khan, Vasant Rai, Rajeev Taranath, Satyaki Banerjee, Pradeep Barot, Anupam Shobhakar
 Allauddin Khan |  Ali Akbar Khan |  Amjad Ali Khan |  Buddhadev D. |  Vikash Maharaj |
 Brij Narayan |  Hafiz Ali Khan |  Bahadur Khan |  Vasant Rai |  Rajeev Taranath |
Famous Sarangi Players
Ustad Sultan Khan, Hafizullah Khan, Sabir Khan, Ram Narayan, Rekha Sharma, Abdul Latif Khan, Alla Rakha Khan, Bade Gulam Ali Khan, Surinder Sandhu, Bundu Khan, Moinuddin Khan, Suhail Yusuf Khan, Sultan Khan.
Famous Shehnai (Oboe) Players
Bismillah Khan, S Ballesh, Anant Lal, Raghunath Prasanna, Rajendra Prasanna, Bhaskar Nath, Ali Ahmad Hussain Khan
 Bismillah Khan |  S Ballesh |  Raghunath Prasanna |  Rajendra Prasanna |  Ali A. H. Khan |
Famous Sitar Players
Indian Sitar Players – Allauddin Khan, Pt. Ravi Shankar, Pt. Nikhil Banerjee, Annapurna Devi, Anoushka Shankar, Reenat Fauzia, Kushal Das, Rajeev Janardan, Krishna Bhatt, Bimalendu Mukherjee, Budhaditya Mukherjee, Kashinath Mukherjee, Bhaskar Chandavarkar, Debu Chaudhary, Ragini Trivedi, Jyoti Hegde
Famous Khans (Family) Sitar Players :- Imdad Khan (1848-1920), Enayat Khan (1882-1927), Vilayat Khan (1928-2004), Imrat Khan (born 1935), Kirit Khan (1955-2006), Chhote Rahimat Khan (born 1959), Shujjat Khan (born 1960), Hidayat Khan, Nishat Khan etc.
Western Sitar Players – George Harrison (Beatle group), Justin Hayword, Brian Jones and Ronnie Wood (Rolling Stones band), Prem Joshua, Emily Robinson, Shama Rahman, Sheema Mukherjee
 Allauddin Khan (Father of Annapurna Devi) |  Pt. Ravi Shankar (Disciple of Allauddin Khan) |  Pt. Nikhil Banerjee |  Annapurna Devi (W/o Pt. Ravi Shankar, D/o of Allauddin Khan) |  Anoushka Shankar (D/o of Pt. Ravi Shankar) |
 Reenat Fauzia |  Rajeev Janardan |  Krishna Bhatt |  Bimalendu M. |  B. Mukherjee |
 Kashinath M. |  Enayat Khan |  Vilayat Khan |  Chhote Rahimat K. |  George Harrison |
Famous Tabla Players
Alla Rakha Khan, Zakir Hussain, Pt. Kishan Maharaj, Anindo Chatterjee, Shrikant Shukla, Shafaat Ahmad Khan, Kuldeep Joshi, Balraj Shukla, Sukhwinder Singh Namdhari (Pinky), Kuldeep Joshi, Suvir Misra, Chandrakant Kamat, Shafaaullah Khan, Ritesh Das, Tanmoy Bose, Rajat Kumar Mishra
 Alla Rakha Khan |  Zakir Hussain |  Pt. Kishan Maharaj |  Annindo Chatterjee |  Shafaat A. Khan |
Famous Veena Players
Wazir Khan, Dabir Khan, Raja Kazim, Allauddin Khan, Gita Swaminathan, Kannan Balkrishnan, Kalpakam Swaminathan
Mohan Veena
Pandit Viswva Mohan Bhatt, Ajay Pandit Jha,
Rudra Veena
Asad Ali Khan, Suvir Misra, Jyoti Hegde, Bindu Madhav Pathak, Sharif Khan Poonchwaley, Hindraj Divekar, Asit Kumar Banerjee, Bahauddin Dagar,
Saraswati Veena
Suvir Misra, Doraiswamy Iyengar, Prasanth Iyengar, Punya Srinivas, Aswathi Thirunal Rama Varma, D Balakrishna, K. S. Narayanaswamy
Vichitra Veena
Gopal Shankar Misra, Shrikrishan Sharma, Sharif Khan Poonchwaley, Gopal Krishan, Ragini Trivedi
Misr Veena
Suvir Misra
Violin
Dwaram V Naidu, Balabhaskar, B Sasikumar, Akkrai Subbalakshmi, Rabin Ghosh, Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi, L Subramanyam, Johar Ali Khan, A Kanyakumari
really nice
keep the pictures of players. i know its takes very much time to make a web page, but insert the pics too.
its helpful keep the pictures of the musicians which we can understand it more……!!!
but also I liked it….!!!
Really nice and good
I think in the list of piano players Anil Srinivasan is a must. He was first to get the coveted Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar for creative and experimental music category in 2010.
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