SitarPlayer.net
Sitar for sale!
What is a sitar? A sitar is a stringed instrument from Northern India. It is often described as a lute, which has 6 or 7 main strings and up to 13 sympathetic stirngs. The base of the sitar is made from a large gourd, which acts as the sound box. Some sitars have a removable upper gourd attached to the rear of the head stock. This gourd adds extra resonnance. There are two very common types of sitars played today, which are distinguished by the famous players of this and the last century:
1. The Gayaki or Vilayat Khan style sitar is typically played by the Etawa gharana/school. This sitar takes a minimalist approach to decoration and is often dark brown or black in colour. Usually, there is no upper gourd. The sitar depicted here is an Ustad Shahid Parvez style sitar.
2. The Ravi Shankar style sitar, which is typical of the Senia Maihar gharana/school. This sitar is very ornately decorated with a lot of extra carving and penwork. This style of sitar also has an additional upper gourd attached to the rear of the headstock. The sitar depicted here is a traditional Calucutta style.
The music that is typically played on the sitar is called North Indian Classical Music (ICM), or Hindustani Sangeet. There are many definitions of what exactly this kind of music is and as such it is far beyond the scope of this humble web site. Please refer to Google for descriptions of ICM. As far as sitarplayer.net is concerned, ICM is the music which is played by artists such as:
- Ustad Shahid Parvez
- Ustad Vilayat Khan
- Pandit Ravi Shankar
- Pandit Nikil Banerjee
Learning to play the sitar is quite an undertaking and finding a good teacher, especially in North America, can be very difficult. However, I am sure the same can be said for most instruments.
The goal of this site is to act as a portal for all information related to the sitar. I have learned a lot from the bits and pieces of information scattered all over the web. Now, it is my turn to give back a little bit to help others.
My goal is to provide informative articles and short webinterviews/biographies of sitar players. I don't mean to say that this is a site for professional sitar players. Professionals all have their own sites. This will be a web site that will focus on sitar teachers, amateur musicians, or even up and coming musicians, future Ustads/Pandits (etc.) detailing their views on Indian Classical Music.
Many teachers have spent a lot of time learning and teaching students. We all have our own views and opinions. I think it would be great share them in the Interviews section. Want to know what to look for when buying a sitar, to write Indian music notation, to tune your sitar, to maintain your sitar? These are the kind of topics that we will look at here.
Please enjoy your visit and let us know if you have any suggestions or questions.