It is a rather bulky drum played mostly as an accompanying instrument to the traditional Punjabi dance of Bhangra. The drum consists of a wooden barrel with patches of animal hide stretched over its open ends and covering them completely. These patches can be stretched or loosened with a tightening mechanism made up of either interwoven ropes, or nuts and bolt. Tightening or loosening this can change the characterstics of the sound of the drum. The steched animal hide on one of the ends is thicker and produces a deep low frequency (higher bass) sound and the other, thinner one produces a higher frequency sound. The drum is played using two wooden sticks, one for each end of the drum. Of the two, stick used to play the bass side of the drum is a bit thicker (roughly about 10 mm in diameter) and is bent in a quarter-circular arc on the end that strikes the drum. The other playing stick is much thinner and flexible and used to play the higher frequency end of the drum. While playing, the drum is slung over the neck of the player with a strap usually made up of ropes or woven cloth. The surface of the wooden barrel is in some case decorated with engraved or painted patterns.
Dhol has been a popular musical instrument for both formal and informal dance performances over decades and dhol players were sought after individuals for occasions of celebration such as weddings in Punjab. But since 1980s the coming of electronic devices such as tape recordes that can reproduce music have led to a decline in the importance of the dhol player. Though formal Bhangra performances still involve traditional dhol, casual revelries are mostly carried out sans-dhol. Nevertheless, dhol music still figures in studio recordings of present day Bhangra music artists and is in fact a much loved sound all over India and even in the UK instead of just the confines of Punjab.
A smaller cousin of the dhol exists called dholak or dholaki.