# data[].attributes.body
Romer, M. (2019, April 9). The sitar and famous musicians who incorporate it into songs. LiveAbout. Retrieved November 11, 2022, from https://www.liveabout.com/sitar-instrument-3552878

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, T. E. of E. B. (2022). Sitar. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved November 11, 2022, from https://www.britannica.com/art/sitar

Sitar. Sitar, Sitar Indian Musical Instrument, Sitar Instrument ,Sitar Musical Instrument, Indian Musical Instrument Sitar, Indian Instruments. (n.d.). Retrieved November 11, 2022, from https://www.indianmirror.com/music/sitar.html

Courtney, D. (1998). Tuning the Sitar. Retrieved November 11, 2022, from https://chandrakantha.com/articles/indian_music/sitar/sitar_tuning.html#:~:text=Sitars%20are%20usually%20tuned%20to,like%20playing%20a%20cheese%20slicer.

Baral, P. B., & NID, Bengaluru, R. (2016, December 27). Making process. D'Source. Retrieved November 11, 2022, from https://www.dsource.in/resource/sitar-making-varanasi/making-process#:~:text=In%20general%20sitar%20is%20constructed,with%20the%20final%20product%20produced.

Roda, A. (2009, March). Musical Instruments of the Indian Subcontinent. Metmuseum.org. Retrieved November 11, 2022, from https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/indi/hd_indi.htm

Ragatip, R. (2020, August 20). How does the sitar work? what happens at a sitar concert? Ragatip. Retrieved November 11, 2022, from https://ragatip.com/how-does-the-sitar-work-what-happens-at-a-sitar-concert/#:~:text=The%20sitar%2C%20like%20most%20Indian,mimic%20a%20singer%27s%20intricate%20ornaments.

Classes, P. (2022, April 4). Sitar instrument classical music- overview, facts and types: Music. Podium School. Retrieved November 11, 2022, from https://learn.podium.school/music/sitar-instrument/

Songfacts, S. (2021). Wherever I may roam by Metallica - Songfacts. Song Meanings at Songfacts. Retrieved November 11, 2022, from https://www.songfacts.com/facts/metallica/wherever-i-may-roam

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, T. E. of E. B. (2022). Ravi Shankar. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved November 11, 2022, from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ravi-Shankar

Abbey Road Studios, A. R. S. (2021, July 10). Abbey road 90: Ravi Shankar and Yehudi Menuhin record 'west meets east' - the first time Indian and western classical music come together. Abbey Road. Retrieved November 11, 2022, from https://www.abbeyroad.com/news/abbey-road-90-ravi-shankar-and-yehudi-menuhin-record-west-meets-east-the-first-time-indian-and-western-classical-music-come-together-3010

Michaels, S. (2010, August 18). George Harrison and Ravi Shankar collaborations to be reissued. The Guardian. Retrieved November 11, 2022, from https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/aug/18/george-harrison-ravi-shankar

Metallica Wiki, M. W. (n.d.). Wherever we may roam tour.
Metallica Wiki. Retrieved November 11, 2022, from https://metallica.fandom.com/wiki/Wherever_We_May_Roam_Tour

Metallica Wiki, M. W. (2022). Nowhere else to roam tour. Metallica Wiki. Retrieved November 11, 2022, from https://metallica.fandom.com/wiki/Nowhere_Else_To_Roam_Tour

# data[].attributes.body
As I have studied and explored this topic, I have learned many things about this instrument that is unexpected. I found an admiration of the Sitar as an instrument and as a guitar player myself. The sitar has its place in history from its influence in western music.

Before this project, I had barely heard anything about the sitar and went into research not expecting much. I must say the development of the sitar throughout its years has been interesting. It is remarkable to see its deep history and roots within central Asia and India being one of the main instruments. The first realization as I constantly compare the sitar with the guitar, although similar, it is much more complex to play than a guitar.

I think that especially in today’s age, the sitar is vastly underrated. It is understandable as even instruments themselves are not used in forms of music today. I find it interesting that it originated from India and proceeded be in the limelight globally which brings light to their community. Although it is underrated, it allows their culture to enjoy and embrace their music in their own way. Also, as I currently studying the Beatles as well, it was interesting to see Ravi Shankar collaborating with George Harrison and integrating the sitar into his music.

There is not much else I can say. My knowledge of any instruments outside of piano, guitar, drums and bass is vastly limited and I have not dived into learning about any other instrument so far besides the sitar. This has made me change my view and I will be more opened to learning about new instruments.

# data[].attributes.body
Metallica, one of the biggest Heavy Metal bands consisting of James Hetfield (Rhythm Guitar), Kirk Hammett (Lead Guitar), Lars Ulrich (Drums) and ex bass player Jason Newsted. The band’s self-titled 5th album “Metallica” or better known as the Black Album, sold more than 48.5 million copies worldwide. "Wherever I May Roam" was a song about travelling that James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich wrote. Metallica were renowned for touring globally. The Black Album tour consisted of the “Wherever I May Roam” tour (August 1st 1991 to July 5th 1992) (Metallica Wiki) and “Nowehere Else to Roam” tour (Jan 22nd 1993 to July 4th 1993) (Metallica Wiki) with a total of over 300 shows. A now iconic intro of an electric sitar can be heard being played. Kirk Hammett also used the sitar when performing this song live alongside the San Francisco Orchestra (S&M 1 & 2) in 1999 and more recently 2019. The song sings about the exhausting journeys both during and after the tour. The first few seconds of the song featuring the instrument undoubtably stands out and is now instantly recognizable.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Wherever I May Roam - Metallica & San Francisco Symphony (S&M2)

# data[].attributes.body
In the 1960s, the Sitar was popularized in Pop music from then on. Many rock musicians in the 1960s were influenced by the sounds of South Asian instruments, particularly the sitar. The Beatles' lead guitarist George Harrison learned about the sitar and used it on various songs, starting with "Norwegian Wood" (1965) where leads, fills and accompaniment were done using the sitar. Other performers of the time copied sitar sound on the guitar; some of them employed an electric "sitar" that changed the instrument for ease of playing while retaining its primary tone color.  The sitar's Middle Eastern melodies were especially beloved by the psychedelic rock scene. In their recordings, The Doors are renowned for primarily adopting Indian scales and frequently combining the sitar with other instruments to create a groovy, entrancing background for their own brand of hallucinogenic rock.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
सितार मैटल ਸਿਤਾਰ ਮੈਟਲ সীতার মেটাল 𝗦𝗜𝗧𝗔𝗥 𝗠𝗘𝗧𝗔𝗟

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
𝐒𝐈𝐓𝐀𝐑 𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐀𝐋 • 𝑾𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝑻𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒔 𝑺𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍 {Official Video}

# data[].attributes.body
Nowadays, the sitar is used by electronic musicians, pop performers, global music ensembles who blend with other genres, and even musicians on YouTube who evoke Middle Eastern melodies in their performances in many creative ways.

It is however, rare to see the Sitar make an appearance in original songs from independent artists and bands today.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
World Beat Raga Fusion Music by Ashwin Batish - Sitar Power Band! Kuumbwa Jazz, Santa Cruz

# data[].attributes.body
Ravi Shankar spent the most of his adolescence learning music and dance while touring widely in India and Europe with his brother Uday's dance troupe. He was born into a Bengali Brahman family, the highest social class in Hindu religion. After quitting dance at the age of 18, Shankar spent the following seven years studying the sitar (a long-necked stringed instrument from the lute family) with renowned musician Ustad Allauddin Khan. He started a string of tours in Europe and the United States after serving as the music director of All-India Radio from 1948 to 1956.

Over the course of his lengthy career, Shankar became to become the most well-known performer of Hindustani (North Indian) classical music, sharing the stage alongside some of that country's most renowned percussionists and producing a large number of commercially successful records. For Indian director Satyajit Ray's well-known Apu trilogy, Shankar created the music for the movies (1955–59). He opened the first Kinnara School of Music in Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1962, followed by a second one in Los Angeles in 1967. A few years later, however, having become weary of institutional education, he dissolved both institutions.

His concert appearances with the American violinist Yehudi Menuhin and his friendship with George Harrison, the lead guitarist of the Beatles, a hugely successful British rock band at the time, helped promote Indian music to the West starting in the 1960s. Due of how different Indian music was from typical western classical knowledge, Menuhin was both attracted and shocked by it. Indian classical musicians perform from memory, through oral tradition, and improvisation rather than reading music from a piece of paper. The groundbreaking 1967 album East Meets West (also known as West Meets East), a collaboration between these two avant-garde musical minds, brought these two streams of thinking and expression together. Both men gave their debut stage appearance in front of the general audience in Bath in June 1966. A few days later, in July, they decided to record the composition, spending two days in Studio Three at Abbey Road recording improvisations and Shankar's ragas. The resulting album, which was published a year later, has three ragas and three further recordings of George Enescu's Violin Sonata by Menuhin. The Grammy-winning record held the number-one spot on the classical charts for six months. It was the first time Asian music had received recognition for chamber music, and it was also a significant milestone that brought Western and Indian classical music to the world stage for the first time.

He also worked with George Garrison. Shankar and Harrison originally connected in the middle of the 1960s, but their official collaboration didn't begin until 1971's Concert for Bangladesh. The two musicians collaborated with other musicians, including Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton, to raise money for East Pakistani refugee aid. A few years later, Harrison added Shankar to his roster of artists on his Dark Horse label, which at the time only included the Indian maestro and the English duo Splinter. The collection, Collaborations, features the albums The Ravi Shankar Music Festival from India from 1976, Chants of India from 1997, and the final collaboration between the two artists, Shankar Family & Friends from 1974. All three albums are out of print, and only Chants of India has been published on CD before. A concert film for Shankar's 1974 performance with a 17-piece Indian classical ensemble at the Royal Albert Hall is included on the DVD.

# data[].attributes.body
Ravi Shankar started utilizing the instrument on world tours in the 1950s to add a little flair to their music, which sparked a resurgence in popularity for this common Indian instrument. The sitar is often held between the player's opposing foot and knee while being played. For instance, a left-handed player would stretch it over his left knee while holding it against his right foot. This frees up the hands, which are used to tune the frets and strum the strings, from having to support the instrument's weight, which may be fairly heavy (Romer, 2019). The musician then picks each string individually with the Mezrab, a metallic pick, and uses their thumb to modify the tone (which remains on the fretboard). Many of the frets are already set to play microtonal notes, allowing the seamless and fluid transition between notes the sitar is most famous for, however more skilled players can use other ways to add flair to the performance.

# data[].attributes.body
The sitar, which was created as early as the 7th century, may have descended from the veena, a Hindustani musical instrument modified for use under the Mughal empire of India in the 16th through 18th centuries. Traditionally performed at royal performances with Hindustani classical music and significant religious rituals. The sitar was widely used in particular because of its lovely, vibrating tone. The sitar didn't go global until the 1950s, during the era of rapid musical globalization.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
First time ever in the World, a Grand Symphony of a 1000 Sitarists - Raag Hansadhwani

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Anoushka Shankar - Voice of the moon | Live Coutances France 2014 Rare Footage HD

# data[].attributes.headline
What to expect from a Sitar performance?

# data[].attributes.subject
What to expect from a Sitar performance?

# data[].attributes.body
Hindustani instrumental music is based on the long form of raga playing. A raga is, somewhat simplistically, a kind of 'mood recipe' with musical 'elements' (notes, phrases, melodies, etc.) and rules on how to mix them. Ragas also have specific cultural colors, often associated with specific deities, seasons, or times of day.

The sitarist first plays the alap (the non-rhythmic part) and slowly introduces the raga timbre. Then we move to jol and jala, where a continuous stream of notes is played without a steady pulse. Then comes the tabla drums, where two musicians perform long improvisations based on raga key phrases and melodies.

Ragas can last for over an hour of his, gradually increasing in intensity and ending with his sequence finally culminating in a loud unison. After this, the sitarist usually plays another short raga with a contrasting mood. The evening may end with some 'light' works, perhaps in semi-classical form such as thumri (romantic songs) and bhajans (prayer songs).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Ravi Shankar - Tenth Decade in Concert: Live In Escondido (Raga Mala)

# data[].attributes.body
Although many Indian regions also have their own musical traditions that are distinct from these two, the music of the Indian subcontinent is typically categorised into two major classical traditions: the Hindustani music of North India and the Karnatak music of South India. The raga system—sets of pitches and brief motives for melody construction—and tala for rhythm are used in both Hindustani and Karnatak music. Ragas establishes a set of guidelines and rhythms around which a musician can build a performance that is uniquely their own. Similar to this, tala is a system of rhythmic structures built around the blending of stressed and unstressed beats. Musicians can develop their own rhythmic patterns inside these rhythmic frameworks by drawing inspiration from other composers' composing techniques.

While Karnatak classical music is famed for its virtuoso vocal techniques, Hindustani classical music is mostly known for its instrumentalists. The sitar, sarod, tambura, sahnai, sarangi, and tabla are the instruments most frequently used in Hindustani classical music. The vina, mrdangam, kanjira, and violin are frequently employed in Karnatak classical music. Both lineages and many other types of Indian music use bamboo flutes, such as the murali.

Like most Indian classical instruments, the sitar aspires to mimic the sound of the human voice, hence melodies are performed in a manner akin to singing. As they go up and down the fretboard and make wide bends to imitate a singer's elaborate ornamentation, musicians keep their attention on one major playing string.

The sitar's capabilities are greater than those of the voice as well. 22 more strings are present, which are either used for'sympathetic' vibrations or percussion stabs. Singers are unable to contribute rhythm and harmony to a song as they perform it, whereas sitar players can hit these strings to emphasise the beat of the music in the background. Additionally, the "sympathetic" string that runs beneath the frets is intended to be "activated" by vibrations from the primary playing string, fusing its notes into a kind of "droning echo" as a result.

# data[].attributes.body
Sitar is generally made in two stages. The first stage begins with the selection of the instrument and ends with the assembly of all parts of the instrument. The second stage involves designing, sculpting, and completing the final product. The manufacturing process of the instrument "sitar" begins with the selection of well-seasoned wood. Usually, all parts of the instrument are made from a single log of wood/wood. First, the seasoned wood is processed into lumber. The wood is divided to make sitar parts such as gurus, tablis, dandis, puta and tumba. The tumba portion (sound box) of the sitar is generally made from the tumba he gourd that grows on the banks of rivers. These are neither too thin nor too thick. The texture is smooth and symmetrical, with minimal imperfections and no burrs, not too dense or heavy, making it easier to use on sitars and adjusting the overall quality of the sound produced by sitars play a very important role in doing the tumba part limits the length of the sitar. Larger gourds are generally preferred by professional sitarists.

To make a tumba, cut off the top of the pumpkin and scrape out all the flesh inside. The rest of the gourd is then soaked in water for several hours. This gives the pumpkin the consistency of thick leather. Later, bamboo sticks are used as supports for this. It is placed in a precise location from the inside (inside the gourd) using some rough height and width measurements. Then put it in the sun to dry. This determines the perfect shape of the tamba.

The dandi is regarded as the instrument's neck. Its hollowness allows sound to resonate through it, amplifying the effect of sound generation when the instrument is performed. It is typically fashioned out of a single piece of wood, which renders it susceptible to bending and distorting with time. The typical top cover for this dandi is pta. Six components make up Dandi. The neck region makes up the majority, and there are three front plates with two patri, arda-patri bridges made of camel bone. The wooden cover that connects tumba and dandi is called gulu. A tabli is the main soundboard of a musical instrument made from a single piece of wood. It should not have any knots or bumps.

The width of the tabli should not be too thick or too thin. A thinner tabli reduces the carrying capacity of the instrument but produces a louder sound, while a thicker tabli is more durable at low volumes. Proper tabli selection therefore plays an important role at this stage. The form of the tabli varies from instrument to instrument, depending on the specific parameters of dimensions and proportions of the tumba and guru. This is how all the body parts of the sitar are glued together and left to harden.

The process of assembling the parts of the sitar begins by joining them together by securing the dandy and guru with her two screws remaining on the instrument. The tabli is glued a little extra by applying a mixture of local glue and sawdust to the outer joints. After assembling all the parts of the instrument, the craftsmen concentrate on carving/decorating the sitar. What you see on professional sitars is usually floral carvings on wood. The intricate engraving of the instrument depends on the quality of the instrument commissioned. These sculptures are usually simple leaves and flowers drawn freehand. Follow the given order and refer to some old engraving blueprints to modify the engraving. The tailpiece (long part) of the sitar is usually made of canon wood or deer antler. After the engraving/engraving is done, it is ready for polishing. Traditionally, six steps are performed before entering the polishing process: wet stripping, grinding, and sealing. This process is called "French polishing". Shellac polishing is used in the polishing process. This polish is a resin secreted by female bugs and takes a few days to dry. But now day varnishes are used, which dry faster. Along with langort other parts like koonti (tuning pegs), jiwari (main bridges), parda (fret), targen (nuts) and some other tiny pieces of the sitar are also polished thoroughly at the final stage. Kuntis are generally fixed towards the left side of dandi and jiwari made of camel bone is fixed on the top of tabli that enhances the tonal development. Frets are placed on top of dandi and they are adjustable as they are tied in nylon threads. In the final procedure of making sitar, brass strings are attached to kunti to lay emphasis on rhythm. Some sitars also have secondary gourd as per the requirement of the customer. It is believed that the secondary gourd also acts as a resonator and improves sound quality.

# data[].attributes.body
In this project, I will explore the musical instrument, Sitar in a traditional and modern context. My personal opinions will be shared at the end of the project.

# data[].attributes.body
The Sitar is a stringed lute-family instrument that is popular in northern India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.  The Persian term sehtar, which means "three-stringed," is where the English name sitar comes from. The instrument is thought to have originated from long-necked lutes brought to India from Central Asia. The sitar, which is typically around 1.2 meters (4 feet) long, features a deep pear-shaped gourd body, a long, wide, hollow wooden neck, front and side tuning pegs, and 20 arched movable frets. Its metal strings typically have five melody strings, one or two drone strings to emphasize the rhythm or pulse, and up to 13 sympathetic strings underneath the frets in the neck that are tuned to the notes of the raga. In order to balance the weight of the instrument and provide support while it is not being played, the sitar frequently features a resonating gourd under the pegbox end of the neck.

# data[].attributes.body
20 frets and 18 to 21 strings are typically found on a sitar. Five of the 21 strings make up the melody, twelve to thirteen of them are sympathetic, and one or two are drone strings. Main strings, also referred to as playable strings, are the collective term for drone and melody strings. Below the frets are sympathetic strings, also known as Tarafdaar and Taarif. Their purpose is to alter the melody that the main strings produce. It should be noted that sitar players rarely play sympathetic strings. As a result, auxiliary strings are another name for sympathetic strings.

Depending on the sitarist's school or style, choice, and tradition, the tuning varies. The second string is tuned to the tonic, while the primary playing string is generally tuned a perfect fourth above it. The tonic is referred to as ṣaḍja, ṣaḍaj in this context. The drone strings, on the other hand, are tuned to a perfect fifth. The sitar should be tuned again each time a player switches ragas. The main playing strings can be fine-tuned by moving a bead threaded on each string after the strings have been tuned using tuning pegs.