---
url: 'https://kalasudha.com/en-int/faq/instruments-artforms/can-you-play-indian-classical-music-on-the-guitar'
title: 'Can you play Indian classical music on the guitar?'
author:
  name: rajeevk
  url: 'https://kalasudha.com/en-int/user/fce96177fd193d3a'
date: '2026-10-19T14:55:19+00:00'
updated: '2026-11-02T00:14:14+00:00'
type: website
summary: 'Yes: Hindustani guitarists mostly play lap slide guitar after Brij Bhushan Kabra, and in Carnatic music Prasanna plays a fretted electric guitar.'
tags:
  - 'Instruments & artforms'
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 FAQ · Instruments & artforms

# Can you play Indian classical music on the guitar?

 Updated 2 November 2026

 

Yes, Indian classical music is played on the **[guitar](/en-int/instrument/guitar)**. Hindustani guitarists mostly play lap-slide instruments that grew out of the Hawaiian guitar, following Pandit Brij Bhushan Kabra, who laid a modified Gibson archtop flat and played it with a slide; Barun Kumar Pal also plays Hindustani slide guitar. In Carnatic music, R. Prasanna plays a fretted electric guitar in his own Carnatic tuning, B E B E B E, and renders gamaka through slides, hammer-ons and pull-offs. Other guitarists use open tunings for some Indian classical work.



 

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