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The Sitar

THE SITAR is a classical instrument of northern INDIA which has 18 to 20 strings, 20 frets and has an intriguing sound which soothes melodic ears and expands the thinking mind. Basically a hollowed out pumpkin with a neck, it is a medieval instrument which was popularized in the 60s by George Harrison (Beatles) and others.

Adapted from the VEENA, an instrument described in the ancient Indian Vedas, the Sitar itself is only 600 years old. It is made using a dried out pumpkin for the body, Tun or Rosewood for the neck, and a dried out gourd for the resonator at the top of the neck. The Sitar has 7 strings on the upper part of the body and eleven or thirteen sympathetic strings under the frets which create, acoustically, electronic effects like echo, reverb, chorus & sustain. To allow the sympathetic strings below the frets to freely resonate, the frets are arch shaped. The curved frets also allow more versatility in bending a note than on a guitar. Bending a note involves pulling the sting into a different position on the fret, thus tightening the string and raising the pitch. All the frets on a Sitar are moveable, being tied to the neck with string. The characteristic fuzz-sustain sound of the sitar is produced by the bridge, which is wide and touches the strings as they vibrate.

TRADITIONALLY, the instrument is taught using the old indian gurukul system, where a student lives with his teacher or guru for the duration of their training. There is no written classical Indian music. The ragas are passed down aurally and the artist improvises upon them. There is a proverb that says a student of the sitar must spend 20 years learning, twenty years performing, and twenty years teaching the instrument to truly appreciate it. With modern technology, and westerner's fascination with the instrument, RAVI SHANKAR (pictured below) has created a breed of "self-teaching" sitarists who purchase books and videos about the instrument.

TO PLAY THE SITAR
is similar to playing the guitar, although there are quite a few differences in the method of playing:
(1) Instead of using a pick, a Sitar player uses a MIZRAB which is a metal finger pick. One mizrab is placed on the index finger and another on the pinky. If the player does not want to use a mizrab on his/her pinky, it is also common for them to grow their fingernail and use that instead.
(2) The sitting position of the Sitar is quite different from a guitar.
(3) The tuning of the Sitar is quite different. The standard tuning is: #1-F 1 octave below middle C, #2-C 1 octave below middle C, #3-C 1 octave below middle C, #4-G 2 octaves below middle C, #5-G 1 octave below middle C, and the chikari #6 & #7 are middle C & C 1 octave higher than middle C. The sympathetic strings are tuned to the raga to be played, eg: a C major scale starting with a low G up to a high C or D.
(4) The Indian Music System can be complicated and confusing to western students. It is based on RAGAS, which are like riffs, melody forms or scales that evoke definite moods and are related to different seasons or times of the day, and TALAS, rhythmic patterns of beats-per-cycle that are divided and subdivided with great variety. Indian music notation has been adapted from the western system. However, there are more notes. Each western major note has 4 different SHRUTIS, minute sharps or flats of the note, which most people would not be able to notice (as in a very small string pull on a guitar), creating 32 microtones in the octave.

History
From studying ancient sculptures, paintings, and manuscripts, we can understand that the first Indian percussion instruments were skinned earthen pots, similar to those used for cooking and storing grains. Examples include the PUSKARA, GAGRA (north India) and GHATAM (south India). The ancient Vedic literatures (3000 BC) describe singers using the DHUNDUBHI, a drum formed out of hollow tree trunks. The dhundubhi became a prototype for the classical drums; the BHANDA VADYA, the MRDANGM, the KHOLE and the PAKHAWAJ . Played horizontally, these barrel shaped (almost cylindrical) drums, feature tuned multi-layered composite membranes covering both ends (connected by leather straps).

The TABLA developed as a hybridized drum, influenced by all of these varieties, in particular, the mrdangm and the puskara. The cave temples of Badari in Bombay (6th century) contain depictions of the puskara. Musicians often placed the puskara's smaller verticle drum (called 'alinga'), on their lap and played more than one drum at a time. Numerious features of the tabla are found in the design and technology of these earlier drums. The name 'tabla' is probably derived from the Arabic word meaning 'drum' the 'tabl'. These invaders undoubtedly influenced the culture and structure of the tabla, indeed, a popular notion is that AMIR KHURSURO (13th century) invented the tabla by splitting the Pakawaj into two drums. However, the earliest depictions and literature describing the tabla as we recognize it today come from the 18th century.

Of the six styles of tabla presently played in India, world-famous tablists USTAD ALLA RAKHA and his son ZAKIR HUSSAIN, introduced to the west by Pandit Ravi Shankar, represent the Punjab tradition.

Description
The 'right hand' drum, called the DAYAN (also called the dahina, or the tabla) is a conical (almost cylindrical) drum shell carved out of a solid piece of hard wood. The dayan's shell has one 'open' end, covered by a composite membrane. The base of the drum has a slightly larger diameter than the top. The 'left hand' drum, called the BAYAN (also called the duggi) is a hemispherical bowl shaped drum made of polished copper, brass, bronze, or clay. Like the dayan, a composite membranecovers the bayan's open end.

The tabla skin's main feature, the black patch or SHIYAHI, gives the tabla a perfect tunable pitch. A skilled tabla maker assures the harmonics become properly adjusted during the process of applying concentric layers of black paste (sticky rice with powdered iron and carbon ) to the membrane, by monitoring the tone of the drum at each stage, and adjusting the weight of each layer accordingly. When complete, the shiyahi (or gob) gives the drum a true harmonic series and a unique surface on which to create sounds, unavailable to drums with an unmodified membrane.

Named by the sounds they make, the different strokes (BOL)s and their placement on the membrane emphasize different harmonic modes. There are six major bols produced on the dayan : NA (the fundamental), TIN (the harmonic overtone), TAK (damped stroke), TET, TE and TE-RE. The bayan has four bols: GE and GA (which change pitch as pressure is applied by the palm), and KA and KAT (damped stroke). Played together, bols such as DHA, DHI & DHIN are created.

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