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Quiz: Music

Test your understanding of Chapter 9. Choose the best answer, then click Show Answer to check.

Question 1

What is sam?

  1. The drone note held under a raga
  2. A five-note raga sung in the evening
  3. The first beat of a tala cycle, where musicians aim to land together
  4. The bass drum of the tabla
Show Answer

The correct answer is C. Sam is the first beat of a tala cycle and its most important arrival point. The drone comes from a tanpura or similar instrument, and the tabla's bass drum is the bayan.

Concept Tested: Tala Bloom's Level: Remember

Question 2

Which instrument is a pair of hand drums, with a smaller tuned drum for the right hand and a larger bass drum for the left?

  1. Tabla
  2. Mridangam
  3. Dhol
  4. Veena
Show Answer

The correct answer is A. The tabla is a pair of drums: the dayan (right) and the bayan (left). The mridangam is a single drum with two heads, used in Carnatic music, and the dhol is a large two-sided drum played with sticks in bhangra.

Concept Tested: Tabla Bloom's Level: Remember

Question 3

Baul songs, placed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008, come mainly from which region?

  1. Punjab, in Pakistan and India
  2. Kerala, in southern India
  3. The Kathmandu Valley of Nepal
  4. Bangladesh and India's West Bengal
Show Answer

The correct answer is D. The Bauls are wandering mystic singers of Bangladesh and West Bengal, and their most famous figure, Lalon, lived near Kushtia in present-day Bangladesh. Punjab is the home of bhangra, not Baul music.

Concept Tested: Baul Music Bloom's Level: Remember

Question 4

Why is a raga not the same thing as a scale?

  1. A raga always uses all twelve notes
  2. A raga also sets how to move up and down, which notes to stress, and signature phrases
  3. A raga is a rhythm, not a melody
  4. A raga can only be played on the sitar
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. A raga includes a set of notes but also rules for ascending and descending, emphasis, ornaments and characteristic phrases. That's why two ragas, like Bhoopali and Deshkar, can share the same notes and still be different. A rhythm cycle is a tala, not a raga.

Concept Tested: Raga Bloom's Level: Understand

Question 5

What does it mean that Hindustani music developed through gharanas?

  1. Musicians learned in lineages, linked by family or teacher and student, each with its own recognizable style
  2. Music was written down in printed books for each city
  3. Every musician belonged to the same national music school
  4. Musicians were only allowed to play in temples
Show Answer

The correct answer is A. A gharana is a "musical household," a lineage of musicians connected by family or apprenticeship who share a style, usually named after a place such as Gwalior or Patiala. The music was traditionally passed on orally, not through printed books.

Concept Tested: Gharana Bloom's Level: Understand

Question 6

Which statement best describes qawwali?

  1. A Punjabi harvest dance with the dhol
  2. Love poetry in rhyming couplets, sung softly by a solo singer
  3. Sufi devotional music sung at shrines, building in energy to bring listeners closer to God
  4. A style of film song recorded by playback singers
Show Answer

The correct answer is C. Qawwali is Sufi Muslim devotional music, traditionally sung at dargahs, with a lead singer, chorus, harmonium and percussion. Option B describes the ghazal, a related but quieter, more intimate form built around the poem.

Concept Tested: Qawwali Bloom's Level: Understand

Question 7

Zara is counting Teentaal with the Tala Clapper. She hears the deep bass go quiet and sees "Wave" on beat 9. How many more beats until sam?

  1. 4
  2. 8
  3. 9
  4. 16
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. The wave (khali) in Teentaal falls on beat 9, so sam comes after beats 9 through 16, eight beats later. Answer C confuses the beat number of khali with the distance to sam.

Concept Tested: Tala Bloom's Level: Apply

Question 8

At a concert, Ben notices a musician playing a long-necked instrument with a round gourd body. Many extra strings ring by themselves under the frets whenever she plays. Which instrument is it most likely to be?

  1. Tabla
  2. Harmonium
  3. Ektara
  4. Sitar
Show Answer

The correct answer is D. The sitar has a gourd body, movable curved frets and sympathetic strings that run under the frets and ring in sympathy with the played strings. The ektara has just one string, and the harmonium is a hand-pumped keyboard.

Concept Tested: Sitar Bloom's Level: Apply

Question 9

Compare Hindustani and Carnatic music. Which pairing is correct?

  1. Hindustani: mridangam and veena; Carnatic: tabla and sitar
  2. Hindustani: composed songs only; Carnatic: no compositions at all
  3. Hindustani: tabla, long raga improvisation, Teentaal; Carnatic: mridangam, composed songs at the center, Adi tala
  4. Hindustani is only from Pakistan; Carnatic is only from Sri Lanka
Show Answer

The correct answer is C. Hindustani music (northern India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal) uses the tabla and gives long time to improvising on the raga, with Teentaal as a famous tala. Carnatic music (southern India and Tamil communities) centers on composed songs, with the mridangam and Adi tala. Option A swaps the two systems' instruments.

Concept Tested: Carnatic Music Bloom's Level: Analyze

Question 10

The violin came from Europe, yet it is now at the heart of Carnatic concerts. What does this best show about South Asian music?

  1. Traditions absorb new instruments and make them their own, as with the harmonium and the sitar's Persian roots
  2. Carnatic music was invented in Europe
  3. South Asian music has never changed over time
  4. Only Western instruments can play ragas
Show Answer

The correct answer is A. Balaswami Dikshitar adapted the violin to Carnatic music, and it is now played seated with the scroll on the foot. The harmonium and the sitar's Persian-derived name show the same pattern of borrowing and adapting. Carnatic music itself grew in southern India, not Europe.

Concept Tested: Carnatic Music Bloom's Level: Analyze