🎶 Following my Heart’s dreams: Basics of Learning the Sitar — Sitar Sessions #001

Two months ago, I followed my heart and started learning the Sitar. And what a beautiful experience it’s been so far.

I brought it from India and was so excited to play it that I tried to tune the strings myself, and broke the main string immediately 😂

It was so hard to find a sitar teacher! After searching on Instagram and everywhere online I finally found a mutual friend in a Dubai Musicians group I curated, who led me to my Guru.

I’m incredibly lucky to have found my Guru, Saji Sir, who not only fixed the broken string, but ended up taking my first class, setting my foundations.

The Foundation

Note: This is what worked for me, each student has their own variations and only a Teacher in person can teach this effectively.

1. Seating Posture

Called the Half-Lotus or Ardha Padmasana, this entails bending your left leg and keeping it under an outstretched right knee — and it takes some getting used to 😅 It’s good to exercise your knee and calf muscles before to prevent pain from prolonged seating.

2. Holding the Sitar

The bottom of the sitar (called a gourd, made out of pumpkin) rests on left foot and the sitar is angled at a 45 degree angle to the floor.

3. The Right Hand Grip and Strumming

Mizraab Angle

The right thumb rests on the sitar, near the lowest fret and should be held in a way the sitar stays stable without needing support from the left hand.

The plucktrum (called a mizraab) is worn on the index finger at a right angle to the finger, with 20% of the metal end protruding.

The Practices

At first, just getting the foundations right seemed daunting to me. But with consistent practice you will quickly learn the basics! I practice one hour every morning and the experience is truly transcendental, bringing up beautiful childhood memories.

The sitar strings are steel so it will initially hurt a bit, but you have to keep practicing daily till your fingers form the calluses and the sitar line — it gets much easier to play after this.

The idea is to repeat each practice every day and keep progressively add new practices. Practices are designed to improve dexterity and speed on the left and right hand.

The left hand is used to play along the different frets, similar to a guitar, with the sounds tuned to the note scales (Sa — Re-Ga-Ma.. similar to Do Re Mi Fa..)

The right hand plays the strings in down to up (DA), up to down (RA), and down up strokes (DARA/DIRI). The goal is to increase speed and strength of stroked played.

This video below has the first set of practices, I have learnt, the first few are focused on right hand dexterity and the left hand is a fixed pattern of Sa Re Ga Ma.. and later on there are few which bring variations to the left hand.

[embed]

Practice #1

DA DIRI DIRI DA

Practice #2

DIRI DA DIRI DIRI

Practice #3

DA CHIK CHIK DA CHIK CHIK

CHIK is a where you play the top 3 strings of the sitar.

Practice #4

DA DIRI DIRI DIRI

Practice #5

DIRI DIRI DIRI DIRI DIRI DIRI DIRI DA

Practice #6

BHOOPALI/MOHANAM (Bhoopali is a pentatonic Hindustani classical raga, also known as Bhoop, Bhopali, or Bhupali, which is popular for its devotional and peaceful mood. it’s counterpart in Carnatic is Mohanam)

(On the left hand) SA RE GA PA DHA SA

(Adding a CHIK after each stroke)

SA CHIK RE CHIK GA CHIK PA CHIK DHA CHIK SA CHIK

Bonus

Trying to play Amrita by Anoushka Shankar (as a complete beginner)

Just my approximation of what it sounds like, the actual style is quite different. Grateful to her music for making me fall in love with the sitar and its sound.

So that wraps up my first Sitar Sessions story, and I’ll continue sharing more practices and my journey as I go along!

Thanks for reading! Follow my stories LinkedIn | X | Instagram | Farcaster | Youtube