SITAR

The Sitar has been India's most favored indian classical string instrument for more than a century. Pandit Ravi Shankar and Ustad Vilayat Khan has made them famous in the West for the last 50 years. The sitar is a plucked string instrument, the fusion between the tambur, an instrument close to the tambura but of smaller size, and the been having frets on its neck. Its body is carved out of tun, (Cedrela tuna) or teak wood and its main resonator is made out of a pumkin. Many modifications have been brought to the instrument, such as rhythm strings (cikari) from the been or sympathetic strings at the end of the 19th century. Ratna Rahimat Khan has changed the general shape of the sitar, adding a bigger resonator and thicker strings, so as to be able to play alaps in much the same color as he would have done on a bin. Ustad Imdad khan, on the contrary, has developed a smaller, faster sitar. The first type of sitar has 13 sympathetic strings tuned on the notes of the raga, 3 playing strings to cover three octaves tuned MA SA PA, and a fourth one reaching a bass octave tuned SA (kharaj). At last 3 rhythm strings (cikari) are tuned SA SA GA. The second type of sitar is smaller, designed for a greater playing speed. It does not reach the bass octave (kharaj) and has 11 sympathetic strings. Its playing strings are tuned MA SA GA PA and its two cikari are tuned in SA.

return to liner noteseturn to fusion notes