How to Use tabla in a Sentence

tabla

noun
  • Shaidayi starts singing as the man to his left plays the tabla and the one to his right a clarinet.
    Maija Liuhto, Longreads, 28 June 2018
  • Some of the instruments being used in the track, there's dhols and tablas.
    Kat Bein, Billboard, 3 Dec. 2019
  • In the foreground is Zakir Hussain playing the tabla in a Taj Mahal tea ad.
    Sudhir Sitapati, Quartz India, 6 Jan. 2020
  • The boy drummed his empty canister, producing booms and gulps like a tabla.
    James Stewart, Robb Report, 16 Apr. 2023
  • Kamala’s fandom adds just enough context to connect her with the Avenger timeline, even as the series marches to the beat of its own tabla.
    Lorraine Alitelevision Critic, Los Angeles Times, 8 June 2022
  • Fans could be watching a sitar and tabla performance one moment, then taking in searing black metal the next.
    Chris Payne, Billboard, 26 June 2019
  • Indian tabla has been my percussion instrument of choice for the last decade.
    Cindy Atoji Keene, BostonGlobe.com, 29 June 2018
  • Ghosh was a talented player of tabla, the Indian bongo-like drums, and sometimes performed with his wife.
    Author: John Branch, Anchorage Daily News, 19 Dec. 2017
  • India had an ambassador in the tabla master Zakir Hussain.
    Nate Chinen, New York Times, 30 Apr. 2016
  • Like the masters of another hand drum, the tabla of India, Cándido dazzled his audiences.
    John Edward Hasse, WSJ, 20 Apr. 2021
  • Parimal Shukla, who played the tabla drum during the livestream at the temple, is from Dallas but has been attending graduate school in Tennessee.
    Dallas News, 19 May 2020
  • Of course, there were several moments when his jaw-dropping mastery of the tabla dominated the group’s performance.
    David Wiegand, San Francisco Chronicle, 22 Oct. 2017
  • To play tablas as well as Hussain does requires both enormous talent and ceaseless dedication.
    George Varga, San Diego Union-Tribune, 14 Mar. 2023
  • The music features flute, violin, viola, upright bass, piano, drums, tabla, and dhol.
    oregonlive, 15 Mar. 2023
  • Intended especially for children 3 to 8, the concert will introduce a variety of instruments from around the globe, like the djembe, the vibraphone and the tabla.
    Laurel Graeber, New York Times, 27 Feb. 2020
  • There was no difference between the rhythmic expressions of someone doing a taal that goes with Khattak [a style of dance] or with the tabla or someone translating that into English.
    Sowmya Krishnamurthy, Billboard, 15 June 2018
  • Recorded with live instruments and vocals, Venba’s soundtrack bursts with energy by way of tabla, harpsichord, and synth.
    Nina Corcoran, Pitchfork, 18 Dec. 2023
  • The expressive tabla player Sharma never speaks a word in the play, but his contribution is significant.
    Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 Sep. 2023
  • Blake Mills' deft production gives the introspective songs a shapeless, open-spaced aural clarity that gives every celeste, tabla and synth room to flourish.
    Billboard Staff, Billboard, 12 Dec. 2017
  • Serene waves of sound underpin Mr. Mahadevan’s gentle, keening vocals, and then the duo is joined by Mr. Hussain, whose tablas gently complement the vocals and guitar.
    Martin Johnson, WSJ, 24 Jan. 2020
  • Wedding guests traditionally perform the attan, a celebratory dance that follows the rhythmic beats of the tabla drum and allows the traditional dress to open up as the dancer twirls.
    Liana Satenstein, Vogue, 5 Oct. 2021
  • Accompanied on tabla by Avirodh Sharma, Ullah riffs for many of the 90 minutes on the immigrant experience: his parents’ and his own.
    David L. Coddon, San Diego Union-Tribune, 12 Oct. 2023
  • His mother, Gagan Kishori, was a member of Nepal’s royal family and sometimes accompanied her husband and sons as a vocalist and tabla player.
    New York Times, 29 Apr. 2021
  • Ghungroo bells worn on dancers’ feet, mridangam and tabla drums, ektara single-string instruments, Bharatanatyam dance movements and tala clapping and tapping allow people across the country to express themselves.
    Laura Latzko, azcentral, 29 Aug. 2019
  • That’s all in English but with influences of hip-hop and electronic music and arrangements of tabla with Indian instrumentation.
    Nicole Pajer, Billboard, 18 Aug. 2017
  • Rapping punctuated by Indian-flavored melodies and tabla drumming.
    Jon Pareles, New York Times, 15 Jan. 2018
  • Imaginative and hygienic, Dillon’s digital rhythms are punctuated by acoustic instruments — cello, tabla, steel guitar — that pop up and vanish, playing peekaboo with the void.
    Chris Richards, Washington Post, 26 Feb. 2020
  • Monday’s in-person concert will feature a chamber orchestra as well as musicians playing traditional Afghan instruments: the tabla, harmonium, and the rubâb, the majestic 18-string national instrument of Afghanistan.
    Noah Schaffer, BostonGlobe.com, 15 Mar. 2023
  • His performance innovations include a unique method of creating melodies on the tabla, originally regarded as a rhythmic instrument of accompaniment.
    San Diego Union-Tribune, 20 Apr. 2023
  • Bhargava eventually became an accomplished player, even studying tabla with the legendary Zakir Hussain in California.
    Quanta Magazine, 12 Aug. 2014

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'tabla.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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