What is the difference between the sitar and the santoor?

The sitar is plucked and slides between notes. The santoor is struck and cannot slide, so it moves in runs and repeated strokes.

The sitar is a long-necked lute with a gourd body, movable curved frets and sympathetic strings beneath the playing strings. The santoor is the hundred-stringed instrument of Kashmir: a flat wooden box strung with metal strings, struck with a pair of light wooden mallets.

On the sitar you hear a phrase held and bent, the way a singer does. On the santoor each note rings on after the hand has moved. See what is a sitar and what is a santoor.