Sitar

A sitar is a long-necked lute with a gourd body, movable curved frets, and a set of sympathetic strings running beneath the playing strings.

The curved frets let a player pull a string sideways and bend one note into another. Players call that bend the meend, and the sympathetic strings keep ringing behind it.

Read about the tabla and the santoor.

You can learn the sitar with KalaSudha online and in workshops, and beginners start at Foundation level. That first stage covers posture and the mizrab, the wire plectrum worn on the right index finger. We teach children as well as adults, so ask us about a starting age and a sitar sized for a younger learner.

If you are going back to the sitar after a long break, our courses run in levels. You start again where you left off, once your teacher has reviewed where you stand.

A sitar's resonator is a gourd with its top cut away, closed by a wooden soundboard, the tabli. The long, hollow neck and the body are usually tun (toon) or teak. Two bone bridges sit on wooden bases, the arched frets are brass or German silver, and wooden friction pegs hold the metal strings.

Documented sitars carry 18 to 21 metal strings. Six or seven run over the main bridge: melody strings that the player stops on the frets, and chikari strings struck for rhythm. Another 11 to 13 sympathetic strings, the taraf, run beneath the frets over a smaller bridge, are tuned to the notes of the raga and ring in response to the played strings.

A sitar has no fixed pitch for Sa, the tonic, so the player sets it; Grinnell's example sets Sa at C4. The main playing string (baaj) is tuned to Ma, a fourth above Sa, and the second string (jod) to Sa. The sympathetic strings run beneath the frets and are tuned to the notes of the raga.

A sitar buzzes because its main bridge has a broad, gently curved top. As the string vibrates, it grazes that surface, and the length of string that vibrates keeps changing. The physicist C. V. Raman identified the effect in 1921. Makers set the tone through jawari, the shaping and re-filing of the bridge surface.

On a sitar, open (khula) jawari gives a brighter, louder and buzzier tone. Closed (band) jawari gives a warmer, plainer tone with more sustain, and round (ghol) jawari sits between them. Ravi Shankar's sitar is the usual open example; Nikhil Banerjee's and Vilayat Khan's are cited as closed. Open jawari also wears faster and needs re-filing sooner.

When buying a sitar, inspect it in daylight. Squeeze the gourd gently to reveal cracks, check the seven main pegs and their holes for cracks, and check the joint between neck and soundboard by the last fret. Expect even a new sitar to need a setup. Hairline gourd cracks can often be left alone, but visible cracks that buzz need repair. Ask us: we repair any sitar, wherever you bought it.

A student sitar and a professional sitar differ in the gourd and the hand work on the bridge and frets. A 2001 article on a Delhi workshop in the journal American Lutherie calls for a smooth, symmetrical gourd, neither flimsy nor heavy. Finer sitars carry a jawari, the buzzing bridge, of antler where most use camel bone. Makers place the frets to suit each soundboard, and the article reports bad results from necks pre-drilled for mass production.

KalaSudha sells student sitars and concert-grade sitars by master makers. We voice each jawari by hand to your gharana. Ask us for a quote, or for a sitar made to order.

You can buy a sitar from KalaSudha wherever you live: we sell it by quote or made to order, and we deliver worldwide. We pack every instrument for international shipping; ask us about cases and insurance.

We also service and repair any sitar, wherever you bought it, anywhere in the world, and we supply strings and spare parts. For help with your sitar after it arrives, use the chat on any page or email [email protected]. Ask us, too, about gift vouchers, class sets for schools or a flight case for travel.

KalaSudha services and repairs any sitar or tabla outside India, wherever you bought it and wherever you live: ask us. On a sitar, that includes the setup and the jawari, the buzzing bridge. On a tabla, we re-face worn heads and renew the syahi, the black paste on each head.

We pack every instrument for international shipping, so ask us about a case and insurance for the trip. For help with your instrument, use the chat on any page or email [email protected].

High humidity swells a sitar's wooden parts and weakens the sound, while hot, dry conditions shrink materials and cause cracks and loose parts. Strings and frets can corrode too. Always keep the sitar in a case and never leave it standing on its gourd. Termites can damage gourds, so check an instrument that has been in storage.

To fly with a sitar or another large Indian instrument, ask your airline before you book. Find out whether it can fly in the cabin on its own seat, or must go in the hold. A cabin seat keeps the instrument beside you.

Either way, pack it so nothing moves inside its case, and pad fragile parts such as a sitar's gourd and bridge. If it goes in the hold, pack it for rough handling. KalaSudha reinforces the neck joint of each sitar it sells outside India, for travel. Ask us about a flight case and help with your trip.

Sources treat tun (toon) and teak as the usual woods for a sitar's body, neck and soundboard. Teak appears on prominent modern concert sitars, including the Met's 1997 Murari Adhikari sitar and the 1961 Nodu Mullick sitar made for Ravi Shankar. Current Miraj makers use wood from Karnataka forests, reported as red cedar, for the neck and frame.

You can book a sitar player through KalaSudha for a concert, an event or a recording session. Ask us through our booking service for Indian classical musicians. To hear our artists before you decide, listen to KalaSudha's recordings and watch our concert videos.