Is it the right one baby? Sitar that is!

If you are looking for sheer acoustic volume, you need to have a sitar which has a large gourd. But this might not be practical. If you are a small person you'll have a terrible time trying to hold it in the playing position. The opposite is also true for a large person. In this case, if the gourd is too small, I've seen people leaning excessively to keep the sitar stable. This bends their backs un-naturally and eventually they have a back ache.

Nothing to fret about?

The next thing you need to check is the condition of the frets. Look for frets that feel loose. They'll usually wobble excessively when you hold them between your thumb and index fingers and try to move them. There should be some movement but if they feel wobbly then it is possible that the thread tying them has stretched or is unravelled. Many times the sitar wallas (makers) will tie the sitar frets while the varnish is wet. I have no idea why they don't wait. But the end result is that the thread digs into the varnish and dries hard.

This is a major problem because, and I know you'll have to do this, by the very nature of requirement of playing ragas on this instrument you will have to move these fret to get the right notes. Having these tying threads imbedded in the varnish means you'll have to pry them loose and then move them. This prying process might result in the thread becoming unraveled or even breaking. If it's any consolation, even my sitar had this problem. I eventually removed all the frets, sanded the embedded marks in the varnish and revarnished the sitar. But this was a lot of work! And don't attempt this yourself unless you are good at this sort of thing.

The only recourse is to re-tie the fret. If you have already brought a sitar If you are experiencing this problem then call our Institute. We have some of the original tying threads available in rolls.

As a replacement, you can also use fishing line to tie the frets. It does not look exotic, it lacks friction so it slips during the tying process, it is difficult to install, but it cheap and it works.

The next thing you need to do is invest in a good quality tone generator. For many years I was using a mouth blown pitch pipe. That's the cheap way out. If you are tuning to the key of C then get that one. But tuning the sitar for a beginner is a bear. So you might have a bit of a struggle. If you can dish out the funds, get a guitar tuner from a music store in your area. These days there is a lot of variety. What you need is a tone reader and a generator. Many of the newer, less expensive, tuners are only readers. They make the task of tuning visual. You see a little led light that tells you when your instrument has the true note. Click here to view the tuner I recommend. We have these available in our store incase you wish to order one.

My personal feeling is that we are working with an audio medium so while the reader is a nice tool for an accomplished musician, the new student will find this can be very difficult. It will also not cultivate your ears to read and react to the necessary tuning proceedures. So buy the tuner with a tone generator. Hear the Sa note and then try tuning it on the sitar. But to save you some money, I've devised a bunch of midi files taht you can use for tuning your sitar. Now aren't you happy you've joined the Internet?

Here's how you go about tuning your sitar.........

One thing to remember is that the tuner is set to the Western Equal Temperament tuning. There is a work around to this. In Indian music the concern is to play harmonically pure intervals. Some refer to this as just intonation. I personally use harmonics to set my strings. This process can be intimidating especially to the untrained ear. But believe me, your sitar will sound celestial if you tune it the way I'm going to show you.

If you have a tone genertor that allows for alternate tunings then pick the "Just Intonation," setting. For everyone with only an equal temperament module, I'll show you a way to correct the intonation in another lesson. For now, go ahead and tune to the notes your tone module produces. It'll atleast give you a good head start. If you intend to play your sitar with other Western instruments, you might actually have to tune it to play equal temperament. Otherwise there will be a distinctive intonation compatibility problem when you start playing together.

Tuning Tones

Next tune your 2nd wire to Sa. Here is a tone to help you do that.

Now tune your third wire to Pa (5th). Here is a tone for this. Remember this note is in the lower octave called the Mandar Saptak.

Now tune your 4th wire to Sa. This is the same note as in #2 above. The two strings should be the same gauge in most sitars. But in some sitars this string is of a thicker gauge. It is used for slow meditative improvisations. The problem with having this string is that in faster movements it flops around and is distractive. Sitar with this string sometimes has a little metal latch installed on the last fret (the one closest to the bridge) so one can tuck the string onto the latch when the faster movements are anticipated.

If you have this thicker gauge string installed then tune it to the lower octave Sa also called "Ati Mandar Shadaja - Sa (C)". Here is a tone for that

The fifth string is also tuned to Pancham (5th note) but it is an octave higher then #3. Here is that note

The sixth string, is tuned to the tonic, Shadaja, but is an octave higher than #2. It is also called the "Taar Shadaja". Here is that note

The seventh string, is also tuned to the tonic, Shadaja, but is two octaves higher than #6. This is also called the "Ati Tar Shadaja". Here is that note

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