Kaayna Musicals acoustic-electric sitar
Kaayna Musicals acoustic-electric sitar
Friday, February 25, 2011
The first time I heard a sitar was likely where you first heard it too: it’s the lead melodic instrument played by George Harrison in The Beatles “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown).” I didn’t know at the time that was what I was listening to, but the delicate yet resonant sound intrigued me. Hearing Ravi Shankar’s set on “The Concert for Bangla Desh” gave me a far better understanding of what could be done with a sitar, and a greater appreciation for it as well.
At Iowa State University in 1987, I was surrounded by international students. It occurred to me that there were likely Indian and Pakistani students there as well, that one or more of them might play sitar, and that they might allow me to watch them play, maybe even show me a thing or two. I posed the question with the International Students’ office and after a few days, a man named Joy Sen gave me a call. I was invited to his apartment for a Saturday afternoon, and he asked me to bring a guitar along as well, which I did.
Joy played some ragas for me, and explained a bit of the theory behind the instrument. He was just as fascinated with Western popular music and asked me how the guitar was tuned. I offered to let him toy with my Kent classical guitar, but I was scared to death to handle his extremely expensive, unbelievably delicate sitar. We rolled a cassette tape for a rollicking East-meets-West version of “Johnny B Goode.” I politely declined his offer to stay for dinner -- I hadn’t yet developed my taste for Indian cuisine and was a little nervous about how spicy I’d heard South Asian food could be. With 20/20 hindsight 20 years later, I realize I should have accepted the offer.
For two decades, I’d dreamed of being able to afford a sitar of my own, but certainly could not justify the four- or five-digit prices they commanded in the States in the 80s and 90s. It was only in 2011 that I found a handmade Indian sitar at a price that seemed reasonable -- it retails for under $300.
This model is a fully acoustic sitar with a single flat gourd (as opposed to the delicate pumpkin-shaped gourds on traditional models, or the double gourds of high-end sitars). It has a built-in pickup to attach to a guitar amplifier or PA system, making it appropriate for a large room. Although it is modestly decorated with shell or mother-of-pearl, it’s not nearly as ornate as other models by the same manufacturer. It was hand made in New Delhi, and I’ve been in contact with the manufacturer for advice and suggestions. They can be contacted as “exotichub” on Ebay.
My sitar has 17 strings: the twelve under the fretboard are tuned in half steps, so that any note played on the upper strings will have a lower string resonating in sympathy. The upper strings closest to the player are drone strings, tuned to the key of the song, or possibly to the fifth. The last two strings are intended to play the melody, and can be fretted and bent to achieve the pitch needed. These last two strings are plucked with a wire pick or mizrab, which fits over the right index finger, while the drone strings are strummed with the right thumb.
At this point, I’m still working out how to hold and tune the sitar, let alone play anything that anyone would want to hear. But the experimentation I’ve done has definitely given me some ideas, and I have a feeling they’ll find their way to one of my recordings in the not-too-distant future.
NOTE: George Harrison would have turned 68 on 25 Feb 2011. We miss you, George!
Photo by Donna Jo Wallace