# Me and my Sitar **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 27, 2006, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/me-and-my-sitar/362286 "2006-06-27T00:26:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Chouinard\_Fan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e57/32.png) [@Chouinard\_Fan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chouinard_Fan)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2006, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/me-and-my-sitar/362286/21 "2006-06-29T23:16:37Z")
[QUOTE=Cardinal] 16 years. And a half for kindergarten [/QUOTE] No 18. K-12=13 4 yrs college+a yr for a credential=5 and (prophetic doper moment to follow: ) 5+13='s 18 Please don’t talk to me as if you know my family in the future 'k? :wally Forget the fact that you actually do, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Dervorin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2006, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/me-and-my-sitar/362286/22 "2006-06-30T00:03:49Z")
[QUOTE=TJdude825] Could you build a sitar with guitar-style tuning pegs so that it would stay in tune better? Is there some reason that sitars just aren’t like that, just tradition…? [/QUOTE] The reason my teacher always gave me is that guitar-style pegs wouldn’t be able to maintain the required tension in the string. A large part of playing the sitar is _meend_, or bending the strings to get the glissandos that are so charactersitic of the instrument. The bending is much more pronounced than in a guitar, and the tension is corresponsingly higher. The pegs need to be wedged in quite firmly into the holes in order not to slip. I’ve had new pegs slip on many occasions; quite frustrating. Presumably guitar-style pegs with gears would slip as easily, if not more so. I suppose you could design some sort of locking mechanism, but the traditional way seems to work pretty well. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2006, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/me-and-my-sitar/362286/23 "2006-06-30T00:25:35Z")
[QUOTE=Chouinard Fan] K-12=13 4 yrs college+a yr for a credential=5 and (prophetic doper moment to follow: ) 5+13='s 18 [/QUOTE] I’m still only giving you half a year for kindergarten. Half days, story time, and fingerpainting. That’s half a year. Never give up, never surrender!!! P.S. It’s not prophetic if you’re not telling the future or something unknowable. :wally ---
**Author:** ![edwino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@edwino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edwino)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2006, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/me-and-my-sitar/362286/24 "2006-06-30T01:41:51Z")
[QUOTE=ArchitectChore] Vilayat Khan sitars have 6 main strings while mine has 7, so it’s a Shankar style sitar AFAIK. [/QUOTE] I was taught that Ravi Shankar replaced one of the main pa strings with a “larja” (large) string tuned to pa or sa an octave down to make a more surbahar style in the alap. I use a little paper clip bent around one of the frets in a loop and hook to hook the larja down during jor, jhala, and the gats. You may be right, though… ---
**Author:** ![Chouinard\_Fan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e57/32.png) [@Chouinard\_Fan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chouinard_Fan)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2006, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/me-and-my-sitar/362286/25 "2006-06-30T17:08:14Z")
[QUOTE=Cardinal] I’m still only giving you half a year for kindergarten. Half days, story time, and fingerpainting. That’s half a year. [/QUOTE] Even if I conceed your point and K = .5 yrs school then the equation would come to 17.5 years which ROUNDS to 18. So I win either way. 😛 > [@](#): > > I was taught that Ravi Shankar replaced one of the main pa strings with a “larja” (large) string tuned to pa or sa an octave down to make a more surbahar style in the alap. I use a little paper clip bent around one of the frets in a loop and hook to hook the larja down during jor, jhala, and the gats. You may be right, though… I will try to memorize these as the most wierd sounding sentances I have ever heard used in serious conversation, using real words. ---
**Author:** ![Dervorin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2006, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/me-and-my-sitar/362286/26 "2006-06-30T17:43:39Z")
[QUOTE=Chouinard Fan] I will try to memorize these as the most wierd sounding sentances I have ever heard used in serious conversation, using real words. [/QUOTE] Hey, it’s no more weird-sounding than any slightly technical discussion about pretty much any subject. It’s all about knowing the lingo. 😉 [QUOTE=edwino] I was taught that Ravi Shankar replaced one of the main pa strings with a “larja” (large) string tuned to pa or sa an octave down to make a more surbahar style in the alap. I use a little paper clip bent around one of the frets in a loop and hook to hook the larja down during jor, jhala, and the gats. You may be right, though… [/QUOTE] The Indian classical equivalent of the Do, Re, Mi scale goes **Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni, Sa** , and so a \*\*sa \*\*and \*\*a pa \*\*make a major fifth (I think). A \*\*surbahar \*\*is an instrument similar to the sitar, but larger and slightly deeper in tone. North Indian classical music is divided into a slow **aalaap** , which is a slow, non-rhythmic improvised part, and the \*\*jor \*\*and **jhala** , where there is a steady but non-cyclical beat, the jhala being faster than the jor. The \*\*gat \*\* is the last part of a performance, accompanied by a percussion instrument (usually the tabla), and has a cyclical beat. Or were you not asking? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![TJdude825](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2006, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/me-and-my-sitar/362286/27 "2006-06-30T17:51:49Z")
[QUOTE=Dervorin] Hey, it’s no more weird-sounding than any slightly technical discussion about pretty much any subject. It’s all about knowing the lingo. 😉 The Indian classical equivalent of the Do, Re, Mi scale goes **Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni, Sa** , and so a \*\*sa \*\*and \*\*a pa \*\*make a major fifth (I think). A \*\*surbahar \*\*is an instrument similar to the sitar, but larger and slightly deeper in tone. North Indian classical music is divided into a slow **aalaap** , which is a slow, non-rhythmic improvised part, and the \*\*jor \*\*and **jhala** , where there is a steady but non-cyclical beat, the jhala being faster than the jor. The \*\*gat \*\* is the last part of a performance, accompanied by a percussion instrument (usually the tabla), and has a cyclical beat. Or were you not asking? 😃 [/QUOTE] If anything, it would be a perfect fifth, as there is no such thing as a major fifth. Nit successfully picked. ---
**Author:** ![Dervorin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2006, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/me-and-my-sitar/362286/28 "2006-06-30T19:26:54Z")
[QUOTE=TJdude825] If anything, it would be a perfect fifth, as there is no such thing as a major fifth. Nit successfully picked. [/QUOTE] This is why I never claim to know anything about Western classical music. I stuck my neck out, knowing someone would be along to correct me in a jiffy if I was wrong. I love this place. ---
**Author:** ![RTA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b4bc9f/32.png) [@RTA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTA)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2006, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/me-and-my-sitar/362286/29 "2006-06-30T20:10:51Z")
I had a nearby neighbor once who, one black day, began trying to learn how to play one of those damn things. Poing poing poing poing poing poing poing poing poioioioing pooioioioinggg … generally for two or three hours at a time … always in the evening, and me, suffering, never able to determine what tune he was trying to learn (_Norwegian Wood_? _Bridge Over Troubled Water_? _Pinball Wizard_? Argh!). Eventually he stopped, perhaps realizing at last what we all knew: that he was terrible. It’s also possible he moved away; or maybe one of his (other) neighbors killed him. ---
**Author:** ![Chouinard\_Fan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e57/32.png) [@Chouinard\_Fan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chouinard_Fan)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2006, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/me-and-my-sitar/362286/30 "2006-06-30T21:06:42Z")
[QUOTE=RTA] I had a nearby neighbor once who, one black day, began trying to learn how to play one of those damn things. Poing poing poing poing poing poing poing poing poioioioing pooioioioinggg … generally for two or three hours at a time … always in the evening, and me, suffering, never able to determine what tune he was trying to learn (_Norwegian Wood_? _Bridge Over Troubled Water_? _Pinball Wizard_? Argh!). Eventually he stopped, perhaps realizing at last what we all knew: that he was terrible. It’s also possible he moved away; or maybe one of his (other) neighbors killed him. [/QUOTE] I guess we can safely assume that the non-Western instruments, played poorly by newbies, grate upon the ear. They do sound oh so good when mixed with the traditional guitar/drum set up of the West though. ---
**Author:** ![TJdude825](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2006, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/me-and-my-sitar/362286/31 "2006-07-03T16:25:07Z")
[QUOTE=Chouinard Fan] I guess we can safely assume that the non-Western instruments, played poorly by newbies, grate upon the ear. [/QUOTE] Pretty sure it has nothing to do with the instrument being non-western. With almost every instrument I know of, it is possible (and begiinners do) make some terrible sounds. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/me-and-my-sitar/362286.md?page=1)