Our Indian Classical Instrument Sitar

By Author: Ebba Maria
Total Articles: 2
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An introduction on Sitar :

Sitar is a plucked stringed instrument of Indian Music. It belongs to the lute family and derived from Veena, the ancient Stringed instrument of India. Sitar means three strings. Later through evolution of this instrument now modern sitar has more or less 20 strings. The tonal quality of Sitar is royal and now Sitar is a very popular instrument of Indian music over the world. Master like Vilayet Khan, Ravi Shanka, Nikhil Banerjee introduced and established this instrument in the ocean of world music. Now Sitar is using both in Classical and in commercial music.
If you just begun Sitar playing or want to learn how to play Sitar, Divya Music offers you online class lessons on Skype or Google hangouts. Learn how to play Sitar with our individual, live, one-on-one, real time online class lessons or regular classes at Divya Music Center. (www.musiclessonsonline.in)

Structure of Sitar :

The five main strings are main melody strings and five or six drone strings are common in modern sitar. Also 9 to 13 sympathetic strings will lie beneath the convex frets in the sitar for resonate ...
... harmonically when the particular note played. A tumba or tumba is present at the bottom of the sitar made for natural gourds. It is used as a resonating chamber and amplified sound. The frets made of metal are movable and allows tuning in specific notes.

Sitar tuning:

The five main melody strings are tuned to Ma (F), Sa (C), Pa (G), Sa (C), and Pa (G). Sitars are usually tuned to C, C#, or D. We used a reference scale (usually Taanpura)to tune the Sitar. The taraf strings (the ones below the frets) are tuned to the "major" scale when we play on major notes only.

Divya Music offers regular training classes for learning Sitar on Divya Music center or Sitar playing online music lessons on Skype or Google hangouts for all Sitar lovers over the world. To know more visit: www.musicinstrumental.in