shankar secondary

• Sitar

  • Can have 18, 19, 20, or 21 strings
  • 6 or 7 played strings which run over curved, raised frets
  • Remainder are sympathetic strings (tarb, also known as taarif or tarafdaar) which run underneath the frets and resonate in sympathy with the played strings
  • Frets (pardā or thaat) are movable, allowing fine tuning
  • Played strings run to tuning pegs on or near the head of the instrument
  • Sympathetic strings pass through small holes in the fretboard to engage with the smaller tuning pegs that run down the instrument's neck
• Strings of the sitar

  • Chikaari
  • Melody strings
  • Baajtaar (first string)
• Sitar

  • Has two bridges: large bridge (badaa goraa) for playing and drone strings, small bridge (chota goraa) for sympathetic strings
  • Timbre results from the way the strings interact with the wide, sloping bridge
  • Maintenance of specific tone by shaping the bridge is called jawari
  • Bridges are fixed to the main resonating chamber (kaddu) at the base
  • Some sitars have a secondary resonator (tumbaa) near the top of the hollow neck
• Materials used in construction include teak wood or tun wood (Cedrela toona), which is a variation of mahogany, for the neck and faceplate (tabli), and calabash gourds for the resonating chambers. The instrument's bridges are made of deer horn, ebony, or very occasionally from camel bone. Synthetic material is now common as well.
• The sitar came originally from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani classical music. The instrument flourished under the Mughals, and it is named after a Persian instrument called the setar (meaning three strings). The sitar flourished in the 16th and 17th centuries and arrived at its present form in 18th-century India.
• Sitar

  • Instrument is balanced between the player's left foot and right knee
  • Hands move freely without having to carry any of the instrument's weight
  • Player plucks the string using a metallic pick or plectrum called a mizraab
  • Thumb stays anchored on the top of the fretboard just above the main gourd
  • Generally only the index and middle fingers are used for fingering although a few players occasionally use the third
• Meend technique

  1. Pulling the main melody string down over the bottom portion of the sitar's curved frets

  2. Sitarist can achieve a seven semitone range of microtonal notes
• Specialized techniques and ornaments (alankar)

  • Kan-swar (acciaccaturas or mordents)
  • Krintan (hammering downwards)
  • Sparsh (like krintan but upwards)
  • Khatka (rapid cluster of notes, distinct but light turn)
  • Murki (even lighter than a khatka)
  • Zamzama (with even more notes in the cluster)
  • Gamak (trill)
  • Andolan (vibrato)