Tanpura
The stringed drone that sits beneath every raag. Pick your Sa, dial in pitch and timbre, and let it sustain in the background while you practice.
Tanpura overview
The Tanpura tab is your home for drone practice. Tap the first-string pill at the top to set your Sa — pick any note from C to B and every other string retunes to it automatically.
The large pitch display in the center is your active Sa, glanceable from across the room and updating the instant you change it. Around it sit the dials: per-tanpura volume, a cents slider for cent-precise fine-tuning against another instrument or singer, and tempo controls to speed up or slow the cycle.
The string settings modal
Tap a tanpura to open its settings. Choose a 4-, 5-, or 6-string layout, then swap any individual string for a different scale degree — handy for raags that want Pa, Ma, or Ni in the drone instead of the default tuning. A live pattern preview shows the full string sequence as you edit.
An Upper Octave tab adds a second tanpura playing an octave above, with its own volume. Only one tanpura carries it at a time, so you can move it between them.
Because the app runs two independent tanpuras, Tanpura 2 has its own Tuning tab — give it a different Sa from Tanpura 1 for creative tuning and harmony between the two drones.
Looking for Surpeti?
The continuous drone (surpeti) lives alongside the tanpura. To configure it, head to the Settings guide.
Read the Surpeti guide →