Surprisingly... After 18 years, then onli i decide i want to learn how to play the sitar when it has been lying in ever since i was born... at least i think it has been that long... And i've heard my dad playing it a couple of times but never really took the interest to play even though the sound of the music is so sweet... i did actually asked my dad to teach me, but he said he needs 2 sitars to teach me... one he plays and the other i use... its not like i dun have 2 sitars at home.. as the matter of fact i have 4... but i was too darn lazy to bring the other ones down and get it cleaned so i just dropped the interest....
On Thursday , my cousin came to my house.. After dinner she was sitting in the hall and listening to my dad play the sitar and my dad was teaching her a few things... so thats when i asked my dad to teach me how to play and thats how it started.... the next day i took the all the 4 sitars and cleaned it... onli 3 of them could be used... so i actually took one of it and scrubbed all the 20 frets which was rusty with sand paper.... though job but wanted to do it...
When it came to the learning part, im still suffering... U see the strings are finer than the guitar string... and when u play u have to press is so hard and u have to drag ur hand while pressing the string to change the notes... So all i've been playing was do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do.... and backwards... that itself is killing my fingers... my index finger on my left hand its so painful that im actually typing this whole blog using my left middle finger instead of my index finger... hehe....
After talking so much bout it... let me actually give u a short briefing bout the sitar...
A Hindustani classical stringed instrument, it utilizes sympathetic strings along with a gourd resonating chamber to produce a very lush sound. Sitar is a long necked instrument with an interesting construction. It has a varying number of strings but 17 is usual. It has three to four playing strings and three to four drone strings. The approach to tuning is somewhat similar to other Indian stringed instruments. These strings are plucked with a wire finger plectrum called mizrab. There are also a series of sympathetic strings lying under the frets. These strings are almost never played but they vibrate whenever the corresponding note is sounded. The frets are metal rods which have been bent into crescents. The main resonator is usually made of a gourd and there is sometimes an additional resonator attached to the neck.
