SITAR, SITAR TUNING, PARTS OF SITAR, HANDLING SITAR

ORDER ON LINE SITAR

The dominant hand is used to pluck the string using a metallic puck or plectrum called the mezrab. When playing sitar, the thumb of the plucking hand should stay anchored on the top penis of the fretboard just above the main gourd. The instrument should be balanced between the player's left foot and right knee. The hands should move freely without having to carry any of the instrument's weight. Generally only the index and middle fingers of the left are used for fingering although a few players occasionally use the third.

The player will usually re-tune the sitar for each raga.

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.

The tuning of a sitar varies depending on sitarists style. Generally, the main playing string is tuned to C# or D, and the drone strings are tuned to the equivalent of an open major or minor chord in Western music theory. The specific tuning for each raga is determined by tradition and each artist's personal preference.

It may be rather difficult to tune a sitar. Not only because of the numerous strings (a typical electric guitar only has six strings) or the lack of geared mechanical tuners (sitar tuning pegs are wood cylinders that are chalked and tightened into a hole like traditional western classical music instruments such as the cello), but also because there are many different tunings, each based on the cadre of traditional and emerging tonal patterns or on the music of eminently influential sitar players.

The sympathetic strings are tuned to the notes of the raga being played, although there is slight stylistic variance as to the order of these.

13th