Sitar
 |
Premla Shahane playing a sitar, 1927 |
The
sitar is probably the best-known Indian instrument in the West. It is a
Hindustani classical stringed instrument which utilizes
sympathetic strings along with regular strings and a
gourd resonating chamber to produce a very distinctive sound. The sitar has been ubiquitous in Hindustani classical music since the
Middle Ages and became popular in the West when
The Beatles used it in many songs, including "
Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)", "
Tomorrow Never Knows", and "
Within You Without You". Beatles guitarist,
George Harrison, was inspired by, and later taught by, world-famous sitar player
Ravi Shankar.
The name sitar comes from the
Persian sehtar;
seh meaning three and
tar means string. A similar instrument is used to this day in
Afghanistan, and the original Persian name is still used. Both instruments are most likely derived from the Kurdish
tembûr, which is a long,
lute-like instrument with no gourd resonating chamber. Both the tembûr and sehtar were used in pre-Islamic Persia and are used in
Iran today. Alternatively, an older Indian instrument called the
rudra veena resembles the sitar in some important respects, most notably in the use of gourd resonators. It is possible that the sitar is actually derived from this instrument, or that the modern sitar is an amalgamation of the two. Dr.
Lalmani Misra in his book,
Bharatiya Sangeet Vadya traced Sitar to
ancient Tri-tantri Veena which came to be popularly known as Jantra during the medieval period.
Sitar Mechanics
A distinctive feature of the sitar are the curved
frets, which are movable (allowing fine variation in tuning) and raised (so that
resonant, or
sympathetic, strings can run underneath the frets, giving a very lush sound). A typical sitar has 18, 19 or 20 strings (depending on the style) â€" there are 6 (in the
Vilayat Khan style) or 7 (in the
Ravi Shankar style) playable strings on top. Two of these strings (called
chikari) provide the
drone and the rest are used to play the
melody, though most of the notes of the melody are played on the first string (called the
baj tar). The sitar also has 11, 12 or 13 sympathetic strings or
tarbs running underneath the frets.
The instrument has four
bridges; the main bridge (the
bada goraj) for the playing and drone strings and a smaller, secondary bridge (the
chota goraj or
jawari) for the sympathetic strings are located on the faceplate. Two neck bridges (
patri) are located at the top of the neck. The sitar may or may not have a secondary
resonator, the
tumba, near the top of its hollow neck.
Tuning the Sitar
The strings are tuned by turning the
pegs that hold the strings. The main playing strings are fine tuned by sliding a bead fit around each string.
It may be rather difficult to tune a sitar. Not only because of the numerous strings (a typical rock and roll
electric guitar only has six strings) or the lack of geared mechanical metal tuners (sitar tuning pegs are wood cylinders that are chalked and tightened into a hole like tradional western classical music instruments such as the
cello), but also because there are at least 72 common but different tunings, each based on the cadre of traditional and emerging tonal patterns or on the music of emminently influential sitar players.
The variety of sitar tunings can be explained by the idea that a sitar is tuned to the music to be played. Not all musical patterns or expressions can be represented by a sitar in a single tuning, due to both the number of fret components and their spacing. Hence, a sitar player tunes their instrument to what they are gong to play.
The upper level of strings (those that are usually struck directly) are usually tuned to one of a few standard patterns. These patterns typically support a chord or group of notes that sound good together and with the instrument. The sympathetic strings underneath are tuned to the music to be played. For a
raga, this might be each normal note that comprises the raga, achieving during play a tone from at least one sympathetic string for most any note played.
In one of the more common tunings (used by
Ravi Shankar among others) the strings are tuned in this fashion: The Chikari, Sa (high) Sa (middle) Pa. The Kharaj strings (bass strings) Sa (low) Pa. Then, Sa and Ma. When playing a
Vilayat Khan Sitar (or "Gayaki" Sitar), the bass strings are removed and in their place is a 4th Chikari which is tuned to Ga, when playing the chikari you produce a chord (Sa,Sa,Pa,Ga). The sympathetic strings (tarif) are tuned depending on the
raga, although for most purposes, they are tuned: Sa, Ni, Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni, Sa, Re, Ga, Ma (last four in the upper range). If you were to tune it to rag Kafi for example you use tune as follows: Sa, ni (lower case denoutes flat or, more properly, "komal") Sa, Re, ga, Ga (Shuddh, considering that in Kafi you will come to Shuddh Ga when decending or "Avarohi"), ma, Pa, Dha, ni, Sa, Re, ga. Whereas, in ragini Yaman Kaylan you will tune the Tarifs to Sa, Ni, Sa, Re, Ga, ma (Yaman Kaylan asks for a sharp, or more properly, "tivra" Ma, but often will touch shuddh ma on the decent or "Avarohi"), Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni, Sa, Re, Ga.
Learning to Play
Traditional approaches to learning the sitar involve a long period of apprenticeship under the tutelage of a master during which the apprentice would accompany the master with a
tambura, providing a droning chord
harmony for the sitar's
melody. Nowadays it is possible to purchase books and videos to assist home learning.
Learning to play the sitar is a difficult process. The entire 3-
octave range of the instrument is achieved by sliding the index finger of the left hand up and down the neck of the sitar over a single melody string, while the mezrab on the index finger of the right hand strikes the string. Thus it demands a very high degree of technical mastery to play even simple melodies with clarity and accuracy. It is also a rather painful process for the beginner until the hard
calluses and black grooves on the tips of the index and middle finger, which typify the sitar player, begin to develop. A specialised technique called "Meend" involves pulling the main melody string down over the bottom portion of the sitar's curved frets, with which the sitarist can achieve a 7
semitone range of
microtonal notes. Meend gives the sitar its characteristic fluid sound, but requires practice to achieve fluency and precision.
Playing the Sitar
The dominant hand is used to pluck the string using a metallic
plectrum called the
mezrab. When playing sitar, the thumb of the plucking hand should stay on the side of the fretboard just above the main bowl, the plucking arm should carry all of the weight of the sitar by applying pressure to the main bowl with the elbow and other arm muscles, the fingering hand should move freely without having to carry any of the weight. Generally the index and middle fingers are used for fingering.
Beginning in the 1960's, various
pop artists began experimenting with the using the sitar in their music. Its first known use in a western pop song was in 1965, when
The Yardbirds hired a sitar player to provide the main riff of their "Heart Full Of Soul" single. That version and the band's original take of "
Shapes Of Things" also featuring the sitar, were however not released at the time.
The Rolling Stones' guitarist
Brian Jones used the sitar in "
Paint It Black", "
Street Fighting Man", and "Mother's Little Helper". It was used by
The Beatles in "
Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)", "
Love You To", "
Within You Without You", and "
Across The Universe" (with Ravi Shankar). Prior to this however, the sitar did appear on the American release of
Help!, on an instrumental track called "Another Hard Day's Night" (a medley of "A Hard Day's Night", "Can't Buy Me Love", and "I Should Have Known Better"). This track has not been included on modern releases of the album.
A fad for sitars in pop songs soon developed. The late 1960's saw the release of
The Monkees' "This Just Doesn't Seem To Be My Day", The
Box Tops' "Cry Like A Baby" (electric sitar),
The Lemon Pipers' "Green Tambourine",
Traffic's "Paper Sun" and
The Kinks' "Fancy". Though the craze had died down by 1970, the sound of the sitar had become an indelible part of pop music.
The Dutch band
Shocking Blue used the sitar in many of their songs, most prominently in "Love Buzz", "Acka Raga", "Water Boy", "Hot Sand", and "I'm A Woman".
More recently, the sitar has started to regain some of its prominence in western mainstream music. The late sixties Indian inflected jazz funk track "Mathar" by the
Dave Pike Set featuring sitarist Volker Kriegel latterly became a massive club hit when rediscovered in the early 90's. The metal band
Metallica used the sitar on "
Wherever I May Roam" as well as the Christian hard rock band
Blindside on their song Shekina. The Scottish band
Belle & Sebastian uses the sitar most notably in their song "Legal Man."
Cornershop's album
When I Was Born for the 7th Time uses it extensively. The avant-garde rock band
Polvo, psychedelic rock bands
Kula Shaker,
The High Dials, and
The Brian Jonestown Massacre, and the
electronica group
Morcheeba all use the sitar in many of their songs.
Green Day has also used the sitar on the song "
Extraordinary Girl" on
American Idiot.
System of a Down has also been noted for sometimes using the sitar in their songs, as well as the band
Dream Theater in the song Home on Scenes from A Memory. The band
Ra uses the sitar in some if their songs.
Jack's Mannequin used a sitar in the choruses and outtro of their song 'Kill The Messenger.' Also, metal band
Disturbed uses a sitar in the beginning parts of Ten Thousand Fists.
Sitarist
Anoushka Shankar, daughter of sitar maestro Ravi Shankar, composes music in a
worldbeat vein.
Also, on a smaller scale, it is also used as a backing synth in "
Right Here, Right Now", by
Fat Boy Slim.
*
Ravi Shankar*
Vilayat Khan*
Habib Khan*
Nikhil Banerjee*
Imdad Khan*
Enayat Khan*
Mushtaq Ali Khan*
Imrat Khan*
Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan*
Rais Khan*
Shahid Parvez*
Budhaditya Mukherjee*
Manilal Nag*
Sanjoy Bandopadhyay*
Dr. Chandrakant Sardeshmukh*
Anjan Chattopadhyay*
Partha Bose*
Kushal Kumar Das*
Purbayan Chatterjee*
Debu Chowdhuri*
Anoushka Shankar*
Anton Newcombe*
Rishi Dhir*
Amelia Maciszewski*
George Harrison*
Brian Jones*
Richie Havens*
Shujaat Khan*
Gabby La La*
Kirk Hammett*
Demyx (fictional character)*
sitar*
Nay-Nava the encyclopedia of Persian music instruments*
Hindustani Music Resources*
Information on the Sitar*
Online sitar lessons for students of any level*
An on-line tutorial on Sitar for beginners*
Maintaining and repairing a sitar*
History and Origins of the Sitar*
Pictures and films of an electric sitar*
Online and off-line sitar lessons for students of any level*
Online Music Education*
All levels of Sitar, sales and repairs.*
Ramu & Goswami Web site for Rabindra Narayan Goswami (sitar) and A. Ramchandra Pandit (tabla).
*
ExpertVillage.com Amelia Maciszewski explains sitar basics, technique, history, and cultural context in free videos.
