Manufacturing and acoustics of chenda an indian percussion instrument

Abstract

Chenda is a high pitched percussion instrument that originated in Kerala a state situated in South India Chenda is widely used in festivals dance drama and also represents the cultural identity of Kerala Despite the popularity of Chenda the traditional way of making the drum by instrument builders working in small scale operation is labour intensive and is very much dependent on the skill of the craftsman Further the fabrication of drum is time consuming and hence not able to meet the burgeoning demand Traditionally the material of construction of drum shell for Chenda is jack fruit wood Artocarpus hetrophylus This wood possess long grains ease of workability and has excellent aesthetics However the availability of wood for making instruments is decreasing less acceptability due to environmental changes and is of high cost Dimensional stability cracking and warpage are other problems with the wooden drum shells Hence the need for wood alternatives for drum shells applications is both desirable and necessary This thesis presents new methods in order to improve the production of the Chenda Hence the research project has focused on the possibility of sandwich composites for traditional drum shells