morsing

The basic pitch of the instrument can be varied very little. Significantly, the pitch of the instrument can only be reduced and not increased. To reduce the pitch a little, beeswax can be applied on the plucking end. To increase the pitch, it can be filed, although this may damage the instrument.

In Carnatic music, the morsing is usually played along with the mridangam or dhol, so it is necessary to know the syllables or aural interpretation of what is played on mridangam. It is important to know the aural representation of the ferns (pattern of syllables played on percussion instruments) played on mridangam as it is being silently recited while playing the morsing. This vocal art of reciting the syllables played on the mridangam is called konnakol. But while playing on morsing you don't actually make sound of reciting the syllable but just move your tongue that way so that the air passages gets blocked and cleared in a pattern so as to produce the sound of the ferns. It is essential to follow the mridangam and play the same ferns as far as possible, though it is difficult owing to the limitations of the instrument. Glimpses of uniqueness and versatility of the morsing can be shown when accompanying singly for the song or during neraval or swara prastara (stages of song rendition in Carnatic music). The morsing is played as a shadow of the mridangam throughout the concert and the instrument's capabilities should be exhibited when playing or accompanying alone or during Thani (percussion round in a concert) or talavadyas (percussion ensembles). Though working on completely different principles, the music of the Morchang sounds similar to that emanating from the Australian didgeridoo.

The Morchang exists, in nearly the same form and design all over the world, and is called by different names (estimated to be around 900) in different languages. For example: Morchang / morsing (India), Kou-Xian (China), Vargan (Russia), Munnharpe (Norway), Zanboorak (Iran), Maultrommel (Germany), Guimbarde (France), Marranzano (Italy), Doromb (Hungary), Dambrelis (Lithuania) and Drymba (Ukraine). It may have spread and been shared between countries through the ancient trade routes between Asia and Europe, including the Silk route. There is a theory according to which the popular name Jew's harp is a corruption of the name jaw harp. This theory is described by the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) as "baseless and inept". The OED says that, "More or less satisfactory reasons may be conjectured: e.g. that the instrument was actually made, sold, or imported to England by Jews, or purported to be so; or that it was attributed to them, as a good commercial name, suggesting the trumps and harps mentioned in the Bible."

Players of the instrument are sometimes called Morsingists. Current day players include Bhagyalakshmi M. Krishna, Sundar N, Minjur M Yagnaraman, Bejjanki V Ravi Kiran, Ortal Pelleg, Valentinas, Viaceslavas, the Barmer Boys, T. S. Nandakumar and a number of Rajasthani folk music players from the traditional entertainer tribe of Laggas. Morsingists from earlier eras include Abraham Lincoln, the Russian Tsar Peter the Great and Mannargudi Natesa Pillai, Hariharasharma (father of Vikku Vinayagaram), Pudukkottai Mahadevan, and Kalaimamani A S Krishnan, Mysore M Gururaj, Bharadwaj R Sathavalli and the great late L. Bhimachar from South India.