SITARS, RAGAS AND INDIAN CLASSICAL MUSIC: 01/05/2011

Tunings For Ragas

I've recently been taking a break from raga yaman and have been tinkering with raga bhimpalasi. I will post a video at the end of the post to give you an idea what this raga sounds like. However, first I want to list some tunings for various ragas. Tunings for ragas can vary quite a lot depending on which school/style that you follow so the following tunings are just guidelines and changes can certainly be made. I will start with the main playing string (Ma) and work down towards the high pitched strings. You may need to adapt them for your sitar,...

Restringing A Sitar

Over at Chandrakantha there was recently a discussion about the best way to attach the main top strings to their pegs. Sooner or later you will need to replace a string, whether you snap one or they just get old and dull. It is quite an easy process to replace the top strings. This photo from Rain City Music shows the best way to attach the string to the peg. This will give a secure and tight grip on the peg, ensuring that the string does not slip. At the other end you need to create a little loop to attach to behind the bridge. To do this,...

Where To Buy A Sitar

Someone asked in a previous thread about where to buy a sitar so I thought I would write a quick post about it. Considering which sitar to get and where to get it from is a mine-field of a subject. Many sitars that you see on ebay are junk instruments that were never made to be seriously played and should be avoided at all costs if you want to do anything with it other than hang it on your wall for decoration (if this is what you want then, by all means, buy a cheap one from ebay). There are some real gems to be had but unless you really know what...

50 Followers!!

Well I've just hit that first milestone of 50 followers! Thanks to everyone, I can hardly believe it. As a thank you here are a couple of videos of two amazing players. This first one is very short but it is incredible. Balaram Pathak was one of the most unusual players I have ever heard, he used a range of techniques that you rarely hear and he somehow manages to pull out the most beautiful melodies. This video is from the recording of his Inde Du Nord album, which I highly recommend. The...

Some Wallpapers

Before my next post I thought I would just post some wallpapers that I've found around the web. As you'll see they are mostly of Anoushka Shankar, Ravi Shankar and Shujaat Khan. ...

Exercises

Here are some exercises that can be practised daily, they will improve agility, speed and accuracy of playing across the fret board. Play them slowly to start with and gradually build up speed. Accuracy and clarity of the note is more important than speed though so don't try to play these at a hundred miles an hour straight away, spend a lot of time practising them before you try to play at silly speeds. Very simple ones to start with: Ni Re Ga Ma Dha Ni Sa' Sa' Ni Dha Pa...

A Strange Yaman Gat

Well it's been a while but I'm back. I'm guessing you know the basic rules of raga yaman. If you don't then head over to wikipedia. Go here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaman_(raga) It gives the pakad (characteristic phrase) as well as the aaroha (scale going up the frets) and the avroha (scale going down the neck). As you can see this raga uses tivra Ma (sharp) and all the rest of the notes are natural. You can also see that yaman usually skips Sa and Pa on the way up the scale. When I...

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