The zurla looks a bit like a large oboe or a small horn — it is a wooden tube that widens at the bottom, and the player blows through a double reed at the top. Playing it requires a special breathing technique called circular breathing, where the musician breathes in through their nose while still pushing air out through the instrument with their cheeks. This means the sound never stops! Skilled zurla players can go on for a very long time without a break.
The tapan is a large cylindrical drum with a different skin on each side. The player beats one side with a heavy wooden beater to make a deep booming sound, and the other side with a thin flexible stick to create a sharper, higher crack. The two sounds together — boom and crack — give the tapan its exciting, driving rhythm. A good tapan player can produce dozens of different rhythms by changing how hard they hit and which stick they use.
You will often hear the zurla and tapan in a group of two or three musicians, walking through the streets at a festival or leading a wedding procession. Because they are so loud they can fill an entire square without any microphone or speakers. The tradition of playing these instruments goes back many centuries, and learning to play them is something passed from generation to generation, often within the same family.