Swarmandal
The vocalist's halo.
A small Indian zither, tuned to the notes of the raga being sung and swept behind a phrase to make it shimmer. You have heard it behind the great khayal singers and, famously, on Beatles recordings. Light enough to hold on the lap mid-concert and retuned fresh for each raga.
How is it tuned? To the notes of your raga, across two octaves and more, with a tuning key on the pins. We ship it tuned to a standard scale so you can play it immediately.
Do I need raga theory? To retune per raga, a little helps. Many buyers keep one fixed scale for bhajan and general accompaniment and never touch theory.
Like an autoharp? Same family, but no chord bars. Open strings only, tuned to a scale rather than to chords.
