The Tabla

The ceramic tabla, also called a doumbek or darabukka (and a lot of other things), is a traditional instrument most commonly played in Egypt, Israel and Lebanon. The drums shown here are hand formed out of ceramic stoneware clay. The heads are made of goatskin and are glued to the body of the drum. The doumbek gets its name from the two basic sounds it produces--the deep, low-pitched "doom" and the crisp high-pitched "tek".