An online tanpura in C♯

Ask a male khyal singer for his scale and the likeliest answer is kali ek — C♯. It is the default Sa of the male voice in Hindustani music, the key most green-room tanpuras are already tuned to, and the neighbourhood most sitars are strung for. If you learned from a harmonium, odds are it was folded around this note.

Set Sa to C♯ in Sangat and everything moves together: the tanpura and the tabla retune with it, so nothing beats against the drone. Choose from 18 tunings — from the deep Kharaj Sa that dhrupad favours up to a high Ma — with three plucking styles and a deeper or brighter voice.

It runs in the browser you are reading this in, on a phone or at a desk, and the full tanpura costs nothing. Press play, sing.