--- url: 'https://kalasudha.com/en-jp/instrument/indian-slide-guitar' title: 'Indian Slide Guitar' author: name: drupler url: 'https://kalasudha.com/en-jp/user/1' date: '2023-07-03T22:33:31+00:00' updated: '2026-11-06T00:25:31+00:00' type: product summary: 'The Indian slide guitar is a lap-held guitar played with a slide and tuned for raga. Brij Bhushan Kabra brought it into raga music, and sympathetic strings…' tags: - Chordophones - 'Indian Slide Guitar' image: 'https://files.kalasudha.com/styles/d12_standard/public/2025-06/Slide-Guitar-Frets.jpg?h=d1cb525d&itok=boeNh249' published: true og: site_name: KalaSudha 'image:url': 'https://files.kalasudha.com/styles/d12_standard/public/2025-06/Slide-Guitar-Frets.jpg?h=d1cb525d&itok=boeNh249' 'image:secure_url': 'https://files.kalasudha.com/styles/d12_standard/public/2025-06/Slide-Guitar-Frets.jpg?h=d1cb525d&itok=boeNh249' 'image:type': image/jpeg 'image:width': '1200' 'image:height': '675' 'image:alt': Slide-Guitar --- Hindustani instrument · Slide guitar # Indian Slide Guitarभारतीय स्लाइड गिटार The Indian slide guitar lies flat on the lap, and the player stops it with a steel bar. It is an instrument of Hindustani classical music you can learn with KalaSudha. [Ask for a quote](/en-jp/form/custom-instrument-quote?instrument_id=39) [Learn the indian slide guitar ](#learn) ## Buy from KalaSudha £300 to £4,000 - Sold by quote or made to order - Packed for shipping and delivered worldwide - Serviced and repaired by us, wherever you bought it FamilySlide guitar Main stringsUsually 6 (3 to 7) SlideSteel bar Adapted inIndia, early 20th century Buy from us ## Choose your indian slide guitar [Ask about a custom order ](/en-jp/form/custom-instrument-quote?instrument_id=39) - Entry level ### Entry level indian slide guitar £300 to £600 Adapted lap steel or resonator guitars suit Indian slide technique. [Ask for a quote](/en-jp/form/custom-instrument-quote?instrument_id=39) - Specialist ### Specialist indian slide guitar £800 to £2,000 Specialist instruments add sympathetic strings. [Ask for a quote](/en-jp/form/custom-instrument-quote?instrument_id=39) - Custom concert ### Custom concert indian slide guitar £2,000 to £4,000 We commission these, with sympathetic and drone strings, from specialist builders in India. [Ask for a quote](/en-jp/form/custom-instrument-quote?instrument_id=39) ### What to look for A student Indian slide guitar and a professional one differ most in their strings. An entry instrument plays raga on its main strings alone, and a concert instrument adds sympathetic and drone strings. In a 2020 Premier Guitar lesson, Ryan Lee Crosby suggests a raised nut so the slide clears the frets of an ordinary guitar played on the lap. KalaSudha sells adapted lap steel and resonator guitars, and specialist instruments with sympathetic strings. We also commission custom concert instruments with sympathetic and drone strings from specialist builders in India. Ask us for a quote, or for one made to order. ### After you buy Delivered worldwideWe pack every instrument for international shipping; ask us about cases and insurance. Service and repairWe service and repair any indian slide guitar, wherever you bought it, worldwide: ask us. Strings, parts and casesAsk us for strings, spare parts and cases, and about a size for a younger learner. Help with your instrumentAsk us through the chat on any page, or by email, for help with your instrument. Gifts, schools and travelAsk us about gift vouchers, class sets for schools, and flight cases and travel help. Read the indian slide guitar care guide - **Slides:** Check glass slides for rim chips, which cause string noise. Polish metal slides with a dry cloth after each session and keep them in a padded pouch. Many players keep lighter glass for alap and heavier steel for fast jor. - **Sympathetic strings:** Change them once they sound dull, often within two to three weeks in humid weather. Retune them at the start of each session and whenever you change raga. Replace a runner when its groove is deeper than the string, and oil metal contact points lightly. - **Humidity:** Keep 45–55% relative humidity year-round, with a soundhole humidifier in dry months and silica gel in the case in the monsoon. A rise behind the bridge means damp is loosening the braces; a sink below it means the top is drying. Both need repair: bring the instrument to us. - **Storage:** Store the instrument flat on a padded support; standing upright, the string sets pull the headstock forward. KalaSudha Academy ## Learn the indian slide guitar with us [All courses ](/en-jp/courses) Beginners learn Indian slide guitar with KalaSudha online and in workshops, starting at Foundation level. The first stage sets your posture, with the guitar flat across your lap, and teaches the slide in an open tuning. We teach children as well as adults; ask us about a starting age and about a size for a younger learner. Players returning after a long break start again where they left off. Our courses run in levels, and your teacher first checks where you stand. - KalaSudha-designed course [Indian Slide Guitar ](/en-jp/course/indian-slide-guitar) Indian slide guitar course online with Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced levels. Follow a shared core and teacher-set topics across nine modules. - [Foundation](/en-jp/course/indian-slide-guitar/foundation) - [Intermediate](/en-jp/course/indian-slide-guitar/intermediate) - [Advanced](/en-jp/course/indian-slide-guitar/advanced) - KalaSudha-designed course [Indian Slide Guitar ](/en-jp/course/indian-slide-guitar) Indian slide guitar course online with Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced levels. Follow a shared core and teacher-set topics across nine modules. - [Foundation](/en-jp/course/indian-slide-guitar/foundation) - [Intermediate](/en-jp/course/indian-slide-guitar/intermediate) - [Advanced](/en-jp/course/indian-slide-guitar/advanced) [Ask about learning the indian slide guitar](/en-jp/form/learner-enquiry?source_entity_type=node&source_entity_id=39) ### Your route, stage by stage 1. 1 Slide technique, posture and open tuning Beginners start here: Foundation is the first level of KalaSudha's courses. Sit with the instrument flat across your lap. Hold the slide parallel to the frets and set it directly above the fret wire for true intonation, plucking with fingerpicks on three or four fingers. Take an open drone tuning from your teacher, such as open D or open G (Kabra tuned D-A-D-A), and move between scale positions without buzzing. 2. 2 Scale and gamaka practice Map Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni onto your tuning. Practise meend, a sustained glide, across a second, a third and a fourth. Develop andolan, a slow oscillation, by rocking the slide within a narrow range, then add gamak, a forceful oscillation, as your control grows. 3. 3 Raga alap Tune the sympathetic strings to one raga and play a free-time alap, bringing in its notes in order and stressing the vadi and samvadi, its two most important notes. Let the sympathetic strings sustain the atmosphere between phrases, and resolve each phrase cleanly before the next. 4. 4 Compositions in taal Learn at least two gat compositions in teentaal, a 16-beat cycle, and one in ektaal, and play them with tabla. Keep the rhythm exact where the slide covers large intervals fast, and practise the move from alap through jor to gat without losing the raga's character. 5. 5 Concert repertoire Build a concert programme of 45 to 90 minutes with a morning and an evening raga, sustaining alap for 20 minutes before rhythm enters. Study Pandit Brij Bhushan Kabra's Call of the Valley (1967), which reached a wide audience and which Premier Guitar calls perhaps the first studio recording of Hindustani slide guitar. Listen for phrasing and the balance of melody and resonance. The instrument ## About the indian slide guitar ### What makes a indian slide guitar ### What is the Indian slide guitar? The **Indian slide guitar** is a guitar laid flat across the lap and played with a steel or glass slide, built to sing Hindustani raga, and ours suits students and concert players. The slide moves freely along the strings, so the player shapes **meend** (a glide between notes), gamak, andolan (a slow oscillation) and the microtones of raga, as the vichitra veena and sarangi do. Concert instruments add **sympathetic strings** (tarab), tuned to the raga and ringing whenever the player sounds one of their notes, plus plucked drone strings (chikari). Their ring gives alap, a raga's slow, free opening, its meditative air. A deep hollow body of teak or mahogany with a spruce or cedar top sustains the low notes; some add a resonator cone for volume. Built for sustain over portability, they outweigh standard guitars. High action of 5–8 mm and heavy strings (0.013–0.056 or 0.014–0.060) keep the slide clear of the frets. Designs differ in where the chikari sit: at the back, near the body, struck with the thumb, or at the front, played with the fingers. The largest carry about 22 strings in all. Drawing the slide across several strings gives chordal swells for drama. Hollow bodies want 45–55% relative humidity, against top cracks in dry weather and loose braces in the monsoon, and sympathetic strings drift with temperature, so retune them just before you play. ### History The Hawaiian steel guitar reached India through gramophone records by Sol Hoopii and other Hawaiian players in the 1910s and 1920s; urban listeners heard them, and Indian musicians noted its pitch glides. From the 1930s Bombay and Calcutta film composers soon took up lap steel players for background scores, at first only as decoration. Its sighing, bending tone suited the romantic and devotional songs of Hindi film, on hundreds of recordings labelled "Hawaiian guitar". Pandit Brij Bhushan Kabra (1937–2018), a student of Ali Akbar Khan, brought it into Hindustani raga in the 1960s; his 1967 album *Call of the Valley* reached a wide audience. The mohan veena, an archtop with added sympathetic and drone strings, followed. [Pandit Debasis Chakroborty](/en-jp/artist/debasis-chakroborty) is the senior-most disciple of Brij Bhushan Kabra, and his playing reflects Kabra's style. He also trained under Barun Kumar Pal and Jotin Bhattacharya, of the [Senia-Maihar gharana](/en-jp/gharana/senia-maihar-gharana). He teaches on [Indian Slide Guitar](/en-jp/course/indian-slide-guitar/debasis-chakroborty), a course KalaSudha designed in consultation with him. How a indian slide guitar is made An Indian slide guitar has a **hollow or semi-hollow body** built for resonance. Teak or mahogany back and sides pair with a spruce or cedar top, 10–15 cm deep, deeper than a standard guitar. Modified X or ladder bracing is reinforced where the extra string sets bear down, and some bodies add a Dobro-style spun aluminium cone for projection. **High action** is built in: nut and saddle stand 5–8 mm above the fretboard, against 1.5–2.0 mm on a standard guitar, on bone or synthetic nuts and raised saddles. The frets act only as position markers; some necks are fretless, with scribed lines. On the largest designs a reinforced headstock carries 20 or more pegs. The **sympathetic strings** run in their own channel through small runners, which set their height and spacing, to secondary pegs and a separate tailpiece, clear of the slide. On the mohan veena their tuners sit on the side of the neck, with a gourd behind it. Their pull adds load that the bracing must carry. Kolkata luthier Bhaba Sindhu Biswas, of the Concord workshop, built instruments for Barun Kumar Pal and other slide guitarists. ### At a glance ClassificationChordophone: slide guitar String count6 main playing strings (3 to 7 by design); up to 14 sympathetic and drone strings, and about 22 in all on the largest designs Slide materialGlass (borosilicate) or metal (steel, brass, chrome); the steel bar is the usual Hindustani choice, and the material shapes tone and sustain Key figuresPandit Brij Bhushan Kabra (pioneer); Pandit Debasis Chakroborty, Kabra's senior-most disciple; Barun Kumar Pal. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, a renowned player with his own style, plays the mohan veena he designed. Sympathetic stringsUnstruck tarab strings tuned to the raga that ring in resonance, enriching sustain and harmonic colour OriginHawaiian steel guitar, adapted in India from the early 20th century; in raga music from the 1960s, with purpose-built classical designs from the 1970s Full specifications #### Physical dimensions Overall length1000–1100 mm (varies by instrument type) Body length500–540 mm Body depth100–150 mm (deeper than standard guitar) Body width380–420 mm Total weight3–6 kg #### Body and resonator Top plateSpruce or cedar Back & sidesTeak or mahogany Internal bracingModified X or ladder pattern, reinforced at multi-string stress points Resonator typeOptional Dobro-style spun aluminium cone; a gourd behind the neck on the mohan veena Surface finishLacquer or oil #### Slide & fret setup Action height (12th fret)5–8 mm Nut materialBone or dense synthetic Nut heightCustom-raised (5–8 mm string clearance) Fret functionPosition markers only; the slide does not press to the fretboard, and some necks are fretless Slide materialGlass (borosilicate) or metal (steel, brass, chrome); the steel bar is most common #### String configuration Main playing strings6 (heavy gauge); 3 to 7 by instrument Main string gauges0.013–0.056 or 0.014–0.060 Sympathetic string count8–14 (varies by instrument; 12 on the mohan veena) Sympathetic string gauges0.008–0.011 Drone strings2–5 by design (4 to 5 chikari on the mohan veena) #### Acoustic characteristics Frequency range~82 Hz–5 kHz (playing strings) Sustain4–8 seconds with resonator; 6–12 seconds with sympathetic strings Sympathetic resonanceAmbient harmonic shimmer tuned to raga scale Tonal characterWarm, sliding, vocal; open-body construction enriches bass AmplificationAcoustic or piezo pickup (under saddle or through resonator) Explore the music ## Hear the indian slide guitar Hear KalaSudha's [recordings](/en-jp/releases) and [concert videos](/en-jp/videos). ### Recordings to start with - [ Meditative State \| Dhun \| Raag Charukeshi \| Pt. Debasis Chakroborty Debasis Chakroborty 4:38 ](/en-jp/video/meditative-state-dhun-raag-charukeshi-pt-debasis-chakroborty) - [ Raag Miyan ki Malhar \| Jhaptaal \| Slide Guitar & Tabla \| Debasis Chakroborty, Akram Khan \| KalaSudha Debasis Chakroborty, Akram Khan 5:20 ](/en-jp/video/raag-miyan-ki-malhar-jhaptaal-slide-guitar-tabla-debasis-chakroborty-akram-khan-kalasudha) - [ Awakening \| Raag Bhairavi \| Pt. Debasis Chakroborty \| Slide Guitar Live at Hoxton \| KalaSudha Debasis Chakroborty 8:08 ](/en-jp/video/awakening-raag-bhairavi-pt-debasis-chakroborty-slide-guitar-live-at-hoxton-kalasudha) - [ Raag Madhuvanti Alaap \| Debasis Chakroborty & Giuliano Modarelli Debasis Chakroborty, Giuliano Modarelli 13:46 ](/en-jp/video/raag-madhuvanti-alaap-debasis-chakroborty-giuliano-modarelli) - [ Raag Bhairavi \| Trinity Trio \| Live at Kala Festival 2025, Cambridge Debasis Chakroborty, Deepak Shah, Akram Khan 10:24 ](/en-jp/video/raag-bhairavi-trinity-trio-live-at-kala-festival-2025-cambridge) - [ Raga Unison \| Indian Slide Guitar & Guitar \| Debasis Chakroborty & Giuliano Modarelli \| Edinburgh Giuliano Modarelli, Debasis Chakroborty, Shahbaz Hussain 8:50 ](/en-jp/video/raga-unison-indian-slide-guitar-guitar-debasis-chakroborty-giuliano-modarelli-edinburgh) ### Players - [ Debasis Chakroborty Indian slide guitarist, Senia-Maihar gharana ](/en-jp/artist/debasis-chakroborty) Ask us to book a indian slide guitar player for a concert, event or recording. [Book a indian slide guitar player ](/en-jp/book-indian-classical-musicians) Keep exploring ## More around the indian slide guitar - [ Discipline Indian Slide Guitar Coordinate a moving slide with clear pitch arrivals and well-placed plucks. ](/en-jp/instrumental/hindustani-classical/indian-slide-guitar) Questions ## Indian Slide Guitar: common questions Buying, learning, care and the instrument itself. ### What is an Indian slide guitar? The **Indian slide guitar** is a guitar laid flat across the lap and stopped with a steel bar instead of fingers on frets. It is an instrument of **Hindustani classical music**, the classical music of North India. Sympathetic strings ring underneath the melody unstruck, and the player plucks extra drone (chikari) strings. The bar never leaves the string, so one note travels into the next without a break. For its history and players, see the [Indian slide guitar](/en-jp/instrument/indian-slide-guitar) page. You can learn it with KalaSudha in the [online academy](/en-jp/courses). ### How do I start learning Indian slide guitar? Beginners learn [Indian slide guitar](/en-jp/instrumental/hindustani-classical/indian-slide-guitar) with KalaSudha online and in workshops, starting at **Foundation** level. The first stage sets your posture, with the guitar flat across your lap, and teaches the slide in an open tuning. We teach children as well as adults; ask us about a starting age and about a size for a younger learner. Players returning after a long break start again where they left off. Our [courses](/en-jp/courses) run in levels, and your teacher first checks where you stand. ### What are tarab and chikari strings? On an **[Indian slide guitar](/en-jp/instrument/indian-slide-guitar)**, tarab strings are sympathetic strings tuned to the notes of the raga. They ring when the matching note sounds on a played string, so players retune them when the raga changes. Chikari strings are plucked drone and rhythm strings; on traditional plucked raga instruments they sit on the side nearest the player and are struck with the thumb. ### How is an Indian slide guitar tuned? No single standard tuning appears in the sources for the **[Indian slide guitar](/en-jp/instrument/indian-slide-guitar)**; tunings vary by player. Brij Bhushan Kabra tuned his main strings D-A-D-A, while a 2020 Premier Guitar lesson uses open C, C-G-C-E-G-C. The sympathetic tarab strings are tuned to the notes of the raga, and players retune them for each raga. ### Who pioneered the slide guitar in Hindustani music? [Pandit Brij Bhushan Kabra](/en-jp/legendary-masters/brij-bhushan-kabra) (1937 to 2018), a geologist by training who studied with the sarod master Ali Akbar Khan, pioneered the **[Indian slide guitar](/en-jp/instrument/indian-slide-guitar)** in Hindustani music. He played a Gibson Super 400 archtop fitted with a drone string and a high nut, laid flat and played with a bar. His 1967 album Call of the Valley, with Shivkumar Sharma and Hariprasad Chaurasia, brought slide guitar raga playing to a wide audience. ### How should I look after an Indian slide guitar? An **[Indian slide guitar](/en-jp/instrument/indian-slide-guitar)** is an adapted acoustic archtop guitar, so general acoustic guitar care applies. Keep it at 45% to 55% relative humidity. Cracking, a sinking top, a lifting bridge and protruding fret ends are signs of dryness. Many such guitars have their strings raised at the nut and bridge so the bar clears the frets. ### What should I look for when buying a student or professional Indian slide guitar? A student Indian slide guitar and a professional one differ most in their strings. An entry instrument plays raga on its main strings alone, and a concert instrument adds sympathetic and drone strings. In a 2020 Premier Guitar lesson, Ryan Lee Crosby suggests a raised nut so the slide clears the frets of an ordinary guitar played on the lap. KalaSudha sells adapted lap steel and resonator guitars, and specialist instruments with sympathetic strings. We also commission custom concert instruments with sympathetic and drone strings from specialist builders in India. Ask us for a quote, or for one made to order. ### Where can I buy an Indian slide guitar outside India? KalaSudha sells the Indian slide guitar to players outside India, by quote or made to order, and delivers worldwide. Each instrument leaves us packed for international shipping; ask us about cases and insurance. We service and repair any Indian slide guitar, wherever you bought it, anywhere in the world. New strings and spare parts come from us too. For help with your instrument after the sale, ask us through the chat on any page or at . Gift vouchers, class sets for schools and flight cases for travel are also available on request. ### What is a good gift for someone learning an Indian classical instrument? A good gift for someone learning an Indian classical instrument suits the instrument they play and the stage they have reached, so ask their teacher if you are unsure. An instrument of their own, or a better one, also makes a gift: KalaSudha sells every instrument by quote or made to order. For something smaller, ask us for a case, or for strings and spare parts to suit their instrument. Lessons make a gift as well. KalaSudha teaches online and in workshops, and beginners start at Foundation level: see our [courses](/en-jp/courses). Ask us about gift vouchers. ### What is a mohan veena? The mohan veena is a form of **[Indian slide guitar](/en-jp/instrument/indian-slide-guitar)** with drone and sympathetic strings added to a guitar. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, a renowned player with his own style, plays the mohan veena he designed. It carries about 19 to 21 strings: three or four melody strings, four or five chikari and 12 sympathetic strings tuned from the side of the neck, with a gourd behind the neck. Premier Guitar says it began as an archtop brought from West Germany, while programme notes from the Smithsonian's Freer and Sackler Galleries say his first instrument was adapted from a Spanish guitar. ### Can I book an Indian slide guitar player for a concert, event or recording? You can book an Indian slide guitar player through KalaSudha for a concert, event or recording. Send your request through our page to [book Indian classical musicians](/en-jp/book-indian-classical-musicians). Before you decide, listen to KalaSudha's [recordings](/en-jp/releases) and watch our [concert videos](/en-jp/videos). ### Still have questions? Our support team can help you find the right answer. [Contact support](/en-jp/form/learner-enquiry?source_entity_type=node&source_entity_id=39) Talk to us ## Tell us about the indian slide guitar you want Ask for a quote on an instrument made to order, or about learning to play it with our teachers. [Ask for a quote](/en-jp/form/custom-instrument-quote?instrument_id=39) [Ask about learning](/en-jp/form/learner-enquiry?source_entity_type=node&source_entity_id=39) Stay close ## Keep KalaSudha close. Receive news of concerts, learning opportunities, recordings and the work taking shape at KalaSudha. - Concert news - ·Learning opportunities - ·Recordings and stories We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at any time. Buy a indian slide guitar from KalaSudha [Ask for a quote](/en-jp/form/custom-instrument-quote?instrument_id=39)