tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46760340837784653192026-03-08T06:05:55.361-07:00All things related to Indian classical music and sitars. Raga Yaman will be the main focus, with an aim to document as much as possible to provide an understandable resource for beginner sitarists and lovers of Indian classical music.Alexishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17369139828437453155noreply@blogger.comBlogger22125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4676034083778465319.post-64205758113974520322011-06-26T19:13:00.001-06:002011-06-27T02:14:24.717-06:00

Sorry for not posting for a while, I've been a bit busy with organising a house move and some other stuff that seems to be unbelievably time consuming. I recently came across a few blogs that I would like to mention. They both feature rare recordings which are pretty hard to find anywhere else. The first one is Oriental-Traditional-Music. There are some real gems available on this site

Alexishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17369139828437453155noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4676034083778465319.post-43767091639620645282011-06-19T07:26:00.000-06:002011-06-19T07:26:00.378-06:00

Alexishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17369139828437453155noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4676034083778465319.post-12116020324525479312011-06-17T07:19:00.000-06:002011-06-17T07:19:00.392-06:00

Alexishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17369139828437453155noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4676034083778465319.post-53532972307561865892011-06-15T07:13:00.000-06:002011-06-15T07:13:00.903-06:00

Alexishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17369139828437453155noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4676034083778465319.post-89527686272992643012011-06-14T18:22:00.002-06:002011-06-14T18:28:36.520-06:00

Not mine, Ravi Shankar's impressive grooves Just a short post today. I've been practising a lot over the last couple of days and now my fingertips are feeling a tender. I had been neglecting my practice routine a little bit previously but the grooves in my fingertips are coming back nicely. I'm still playing in Bhimpalasi, I just love the sound of it. It's funny how different your playing can

Alexishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17369139828437453155noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4676034083778465319.post-29485158776986551502011-06-13T07:21:00.001-06:002011-06-13T07:21:00.600-06:00

Just a quick post today. I'm posting images that may be useful if you're learning. Vilayat Khan style tuning String gauges Ravi Shankar style tuning

Alexishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17369139828437453155noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4676034083778465319.post-53385287293484041392011-06-11T07:49:00.002-06:002011-06-11T14:03:06.886-06:00

Most sitarists have a little secret that is not immediately obvious if you are new to the instrument. You might see players take their hand away from the neck of the sitar and do something quickly near their feet. The secret is that they are dabbing their index and/or middle finger in the a little pot like this one. These usually contain cotton wool which has some kind of oil soaked in to it.

Alexishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17369139828437453155noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4676034083778465319.post-18096070271239246992011-06-09T08:53:00.016-06:002011-06-09T08:53:00.614-06:00

I've just hit the one hundred followers mark so thank you to everyone who is following the blog and commenting on the posts.  Just a short post to say thanks today so here is one of my favourite player, Shahid Parvez. This is an excellent video with all the close ups.  Sitar - Ustad Shahid Parvez from Sayeed Mohiuddin on Vimeo. I haven't mentioned much about Shahid Parvez but he

Alexishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17369139828437453155noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4676034083778465319.post-90597500218360841332011-06-07T10:19:00.002-06:002011-06-07T10:19:00.708-06:00

In a recent comment someone requested that I post more music so here are a couple of videos. This first one is quite a long one but beautiful. It is raga Bageshri by Sharif Khan Poonchwaley. Raag Bageshree (Sitar) -by Ustad Sharif Khan Poonchwaley from Syed Wajid on Vimeo. I also had a comment asking about whether there are many female sitarists. While there are certainly more men, there are

Alexishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17369139828437453155noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4676034083778465319.post-71532570411271272142011-06-04T02:14:00.002-06:002011-06-05T12:36:38.256-06:00

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have been playing with raga Bhimpalasi recently. I have to say that it currently my favourite raga and is so much fun to play in. It has a darker mood than Yaman which makes a nice change after playing that for so long. Here is a gat that I have been learning, it is simple but sounds lovely. It is in teental: I don't have much else to post at the moment, I

Alexishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17369139828437453155noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4676034083778465319.post-61850343702321705272011-05-30T07:45:00.005-06:002011-06-06T22:37:36.673-06:00

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

Alexishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17369139828437453155noreply@blogger.com34tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4676034083778465319.post-80550795379045284262011-05-29T16:44:00.005-06:002011-06-05T12:37:00.105-06:00

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

Alexishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17369139828437453155noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4676034083778465319.post-45929092772688432922011-05-26T16:46:00.002-06:002011-06-05T12:37:14.425-06:00

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

Alexishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17369139828437453155noreply@blogger.com32tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4676034083778465319.post-82942944670259705942011-05-24T14:46:00.002-06:002011-06-05T12:37:23.384-06:00

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

Alexishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17369139828437453155noreply@blogger.com33tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4676034083778465319.post-36566584037731452912011-05-18T20:19:00.001-06:002011-06-05T12:37:35.789-06:00

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.

Alexishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17369139828437453155noreply@blogger.com52tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4676034083778465319.post-86879634827404938972011-05-16T20:54:00.001-06:002011-06-05T12:37:45.556-06:00

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

Alexishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17369139828437453155noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4676034083778465319.post-27610169134841795852011-05-14T00:32:00.001-06:002011-06-05T12:37:58.720-06:00

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

Alexishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17369139828437453155noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4676034083778465319.post-66608354265641091702010-09-18T15:00:00.002-06:002011-06-05T12:38:07.726-06:00

I'll start with this raga by showing some examples to listen to. If you want to understand a raga you need to start to understand the feelings and emotions it conveys. This is a video of one of my favourite sitarists, Shujaat Khan, son of the legendary Ustad Vilayat Khan. This is a very unusual rendition of Yaman, as usual Shujaat's style sets him apart from most other musicians. 

Alexishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17369139828437453155noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4676034083778465319.post-47650586731131107712010-09-17T11:00:00.001-06:002011-06-05T12:38:15.555-06:00

There are probably many ways to tune a sitar and every good player will tell you that you should tune by ear, which is certainly something you should work on developing, but this can be difficult when you are starting out. Once you have the sitar tuned properly it should be fairly easy to make small adjustments because you will hear the clashing sound compared to the pureness of a well tuned

Alexishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17369139828437453155noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4676034083778465319.post-62748863479492196442010-09-17T10:00:00.001-06:002011-06-05T12:39:54.307-06:00

When it comes to sitars you really don't want to be using a guitar tuner. Sitars, and a lot of Indian instruments, use something called Just Intonation, which is a method of tuning quite different from that of a guitar or a piano. Just Intonation notes are written as fractions or ratios corresponding to the base note. This means that the resulting notes are purer sounding compared to the

Alexishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17369139828437453155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4676034083778465319.post-32456461938241606872010-09-15T11:02:00.001-06:002011-06-05T12:40:17.804-06:00

In Indian music the western notes that we all know are not used so the first thing to do is familiarize yourself with the system that is used. Most western people will at least have heard of Do Re Mi La etc. which refer to steps in a given scale, or pitch intervals, rather than actual notes. This means that you can sing a scale in any key without needing to know what the actual notes are, it is

Alexishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17369139828437453155noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4676034083778465319.post-12380598922804375772010-09-15T09:53:00.000-06:002011-05-22T10:39:03.266-06:00

In this blog I am going to write about my journey in to Indian classical music as I learn to play the sitar. I am going to document all the things I learn along the way and hopefully provide a useful resource for other people starting out on this mind-boggling topic. I am starting out by learning raga Yaman, the king of all Indian ragas. I do not have a teacher so I cannot verify the validity of

Alexishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17369139828437453155noreply@blogger.com0