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Sitar
 

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)" and "Within You Without You". Beatles guitarist, George Harrison, was inspired by, and later taught by, world-famous sitar player Ravi Shankar.

Etymology and History

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.

Playing the Sitar

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) — 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

It is rather difficult to tune the instrument, because there are about 72 different tuning methods. The strings can be tuned using both the pegs on the sides or the 'beads' at the bottom, which are mainly for fine tuning.

In one of the more common tunings (used by Ravi Shankar among others) the strings are tuned C C G C G C F. The sympathetic strings are tuned depending on the raga, although for beginners it is acceptable to tune them according to a C major scale: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C, D, E. This corresponds to the Indian scale Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni Sa Re Ga (all "shuddh" notes).

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.

The Sitar in Popular Music

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 "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. 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.'

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.

Notable sitar players

External links

String instruments | Necked bowl lutes | Hindustani musical instruments | Indian music | Pakistani music | Iranian music

Sitar | Sitar | سی‌تار | Sitar | Sitar | סיטאר | Sitar | Sitar | シタール | Sitar | Sitar | Sitar | சித்தார்

 

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