I was wondering, since there seemes to be a broad sampling of people who play a broad spectrum of instruments here on C&F, if there were any Chiffers who play the Sitar…If so, what is your experience with it?
Last night a friend and I went to a local Indian restaurant that I frequent (I love Indian food), and they have started inviting a few local Indian classical musicians on different nights. I’ve always enjoyed Indian classical music, but I had never before experienced it live.
Wow…talk about an experience.
The sitarist was amazing! I could have watched that dude all night if I didn’t have to get to work at 4am!
When I get the new house paid down a bit, and when I have a bit more free time, I think I’d like to learn the sitar…
Talasiga usually frequents the flute forum. He is big on Eastern music, and might be able to give you direction. There are lots of places that sell sitars on the web, but since they are the same places that sell garbage quality ITM instruments, I would guess the same goes for their Indian instruments. If there was a local musician playing, and you know where he plays, you have at least one potential teacher in your area.
Yeah, I have to work up the guts to ask this guy to teach me a few things, couse he’s great.
I did a google search on the Sitar to learn more about it, and came across one site that looks reputable, at least to my semi-veteran-instrument-buyer eyes.
My wife and I saw Ravi and Anoushka Shankar perform this past weekend. Wonderful show with a full complement of instruments for the first half and just them for the second.
I hope when I’m 85 I still have enough air to play the flute. Or at least enough air to breathe.
That must have been an awesome show…!
I think, if I’m not mistaken, Anoushka has a new album coming out…supposed to be more of a world music fusion type of deal, i heard something about it this morning on NPR.
I took sitar lessons when I lived in India. Has to be the most painful instrument I ever tried. You have this little wire cage thingie for your right hand index finger which is what you pick with. Maybe they have decided to start using insulated wire but at the time (1972) it just cut into my finger painfully. Then, on your left hand, the string, of steel, has to be depressed so much that it wears a groove in one spot on your finger pad, much moreso than st string guitar. My sitar teacher, in Hyderabad, would put an ointment of Novocaine or something similar, eat some hashish and begin practicing. The groove in the finger often goes bloody so you have to take a break.
Sitars can be bought for not a lot of money but its likely that most of them are not very good. I wouldn’t know how to get a good one but with so many more Indians in the US these days, perhaps there is an online resource with something near you.
If you’re looking for a sitar-like instrument, you might want to consider the harp. Not just any harp, but so-called “Gothic” harps from the renaissance. They have these little gadgets called “bray pins” that interfere with the strings’ vibrations. In other words, they buzz like a sitar. Or a bagpipe
One of the strangest things that I heard was at the Fox’s Lair in Augusta. The guy that played there had a HUGE request list and in the middle of one act re tuned his guitar to sound like a sitar and played “Dueling Sitars”. The brain was in pain.
I Always thought that the instrument was huge (even though I think the name translates to the “three string”) I wonder if they have smaller versions, may be a baby sitar.
Interesting interview, some astonishingly good music. On this page, you can hear the interview, and a little down the page are audio links of three complete tracks from her new CD:
It’s been a while but I think it was some kinda tuning like a banjo or dobro or something, maybe a triad like GBD… Getting the little sympathetic strings in tune at first might be hard, but, being steel, they would hang on pretty good once broke in. I remember thinking that really, it was straightforward to learn the scales (they teach you Indian solfege which is sa ri ga ma pa da ni sa, instead of do re mi, etc.. The structure of the music ran in cycles, sorta like flamenco as I recall and they had ragas for different times of day and such. Like I said before, I just remember a lot of pain trying to play the damn thing.
And, being built like many of my Western Euro compatriots, another pain dimension was sitting yoga-like just to hold the instrument. Even when I was skinny it hurt. I remember looking around and wondering if I shouldn’t have taken up the Veena. It’s sort of a South Indian sitar and is dinkier and the music is very cool…
Or even tabla. Hey, its a drum that has a melodic scale on the head. How cool is that??
Let me just EMPHASISE that I am not a LUTEY type (physically that is) and I know little about such instruments from a PLAYER perspective. I play mostly flutes, whistles, Indian harmonium and percussion including Indian tablas.
I have played WITH sitar players (mostly westerners who had started off with guitars) for the last twenty five years or so, initially as percussion accompanist and lately with as a woodwind accompanist (as well as composing for).
I do not think that a sitar need take very long to learn UNLESS one learns it ACCORDING to the tradition of its origin. In this it is similar to the Spanish guitar and many other lutey instruments. But please note: despite its great complexity it is really, fundamentally a very simple instrument because, at the end of the day, it is mostly one string only that carries the song line. Yes, one string mostly. Hence it is a strictly modal (in the sense of melodic) instrument and provides little scope for chordal development - its harmonic capacity only evinced by the many drone strings and set sympathetic strings (which are rarely plucked). So the sitar is not, despite its size and complexity, a particularly versatile instrument and that is why learning the tradition which produced it is important because that is what will bring out its forte.
Personally speaking, if I were wanting to be a lutey type playing in an “indian” style WITHOUT HAVING TO SIGN MY HEART AND SOUL OVER TO SOME GURU BY THE GANGA, I would go for the much less complex and yet more versatile lutes of the Middle East such as thye SAZ or the Persian Setar which many consider the forerunners of the Indian Sitar. Even the bouzouki can achieve a lot of the effects that most players would want from a sitar without having to go full on into the indo trad. Its also amazing what open string tuned guitars are capable of.
Don’t get me wrong - I love the sitar especially in the style as played by Nikhil Bannerjee. I am even composing some pieces for flute, sitar, harp, voice etc. I am just saying that in the heart of the Mahal we may hear the most exotic music played on an Appalachian dulcimer. Yes, the mountain dulcimer, another zither traceable to the Persian Setar!
I am sorry if this be a round about post. I hope you get my drift and that the link is useful …
I like sitar music to an extent, but there’s another Indian instrument I’d like to learn the name of that is about the size of a violin but has more strings. Its played with a bow vertically in a sitting position. The sound is way cool, and runs rings around sitar. Anyone familiar?
The most complex indo fiddle is the sarangi.
Then there is the dilruba and her cousin sister the esraj.
There is also folksy fiddle called sarinda which is to indo fiddles what the cretan rebec is to the euro fiddles.
You can find info on these fiddles in the website I linked in my above post.
But I am afraid, my dear djm, we are now fiddling with the thread which is really about lutey things.
Two weeks ago, I attended concert of Indian music that held outside small farmhouse part of the way up Mt. Fuji.
The audience was limited to 40 people, but my wife and I were lucky enough to get tickets.
I have to say it was one of the best musical experiences of my life.
The sitar player was Japanese and had graduated from an Indian University. The tabla player was an Indian guy currently living in Holland.
You may ask how did these people happen to be playing a concert in the middle of a forest on a volcano?
Well, the farmhouse owner was an artist friend of the sitar player, and he had the good sense to realise that his front garden would make an excellent concert venue.
The performance was lit by a single light, and night insects performed the background music.
It is a shame there aren’t more concerts played like this. I realised how much ‘place’ matters.
Playing in well-lit community halls or noisy pubs will never be the same again.
Here are a couple of pictures of the venue (slighty modified to cover the blurred night settings)
