A sitar is a lute-like musical instrument that is popular in India and parts of the Middle East like Iran, Israel, and Turkey. At first glance, the instrument appears to be a guitar with a very long neck. The body, or gourd, is made from a toomba, which is a dried pumpkin that has been hollowed out. The jawari, or bridge, controls the tone of the instrument. Although a sitar has 21 to 23 strings, not all of them are played.
The strings are split into two layers. When one string is plucked, another string resonates, or sounds, without the need for plucked strings. The sitar is regarded as a challenging instrument to master. Because the notes are spaced so far apart, it requires dexterity and flexibility in the fingers. To keep the strings in place, a lot of pressure must be applied to them.
Because the frets on a sitar are movable and raised, it usually takes a lot of practice to be able to clearly hit the notes. Although a guitarist has an advantage in learning to play one, the two instruments are still played in very different ways. The sitar is played in two directions, vertically from top to bottom and horizontally from left to right, unlike the guitar. The entire scale is covered these two directions of notes, and plucking the main string can access up to six notes on the scale. The plucking technique is a right-to-left pulling motion, which is the polar opposite of the bending technique used on a blues guitar.
The sitar is a 400-year-old instrument that has been used in Hindustani classical music for centuries. Its music is considered emotional and should be performed with sincerity. Ravi Shankar is one of the most well-known sitarists in the western world. He taught The Beatles’ George Harrison how to play the instrument, and Harrison used it in at least three of their songs, including Norweigan Wood. The Rolling Stones and Metallica, for example, have sitar music in several of their songs.