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Topic: Sitar music |
Mark Metdker
From:
North Central Texas, USA
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Posted 20 Dec 2005 4:07 am |
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Am I nuts, or does anyone else hear listen to the sitar? I have the Concert for George Harrison DVD, and at the very first of it, a girl comes out and plays the heck out of a sitar. Come to find out, it is Anoushka Shankar, the daughter of Ravi Shankar. Regardless of what you think of the instrument, you would have to see this girl play. She looks to be in her twenties and she has just about mastered this very difficult instrument. Fascinating stuff, check it out if you get the chance.
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Zum U-12 w/True Tone pickup thru a Nashville 112
Strats thru a VHT Super 30
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www.lonestarattitude.net
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Steve Hitsman
From:
Waterloo, IL
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Posted 20 Dec 2005 5:07 am
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Mark,
If you're nuts, so am I. I've been listening to Indian classical music since the late 60's. Of course, my initial interest probably involved some, ahem, chemical enhancements, but it stuck. If you haven't heard Ali Akbar Khan, check him out. He plays the sarod rather than the sitar but it's similar. |
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Bill Hatcher
From:
Atlanta Ga. USA
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Posted 20 Dec 2005 5:17 am
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| I have that DVD and she can play. I also have a sitar that I tinker around with every now and then. I use it in the studio when that tone is needed. I like music from India in general. |
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Mark Metdker
From:
North Central Texas, USA
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David Mason
From:
Cambridge, MD, USA
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Posted 20 Dec 2005 5:41 am
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My listening is about:
40% classical Indian
40% Western classical
30% everything else*
I was raised a rock and roll baby, but there's very few people playing anything interesting anymore ("Mountain Jam"; "Dark Star"). I am a fiend for long, evolving melodies, and classical and Indian music are where you find those. If you want to hear some fiery-hot young sitar players, check out Kartik Sheshadri and Indrajit Banerjee.
There are a couple of incredible Indian lap slide guitarists too, Debashish Bhattacharya and Vishwa Mohan Bhatt. Listening to them can absolutely change your ideas about the limitations and possibilities of playing a steel-type instrument. (E-mail me if you'd like a list of specific recommendations.) http://www.khazana.com
*(I know, I know, go to "math.com" if you're so friggin' picky)[This message was edited by David Mason on 20 December 2005 at 05:42 AM.] |
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Jim Cohen
From:
Philadelphia, PA
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Posted 20 Dec 2005 6:04 am
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| I recently went to a concert of Ravi Shankar and his daughter Anoushka Shankar. She is definitely following in his footsteps and has indeed mastered the instrument. An absolutely awesome player, at least as far as my untrained, western ears can detect. But I do believe she has already earned her way into the topmost echelon of sitarists in the world. |
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Mark Metdker
From:
North Central Texas, USA
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Posted 20 Dec 2005 6:09 am
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I guess when the master is your dad, and he starts teching you as a child, you have a huge advantage on the other sitar players in the neighborhood. But IMO the sitar looks like a hard instrument to play. The neck looks big and it is hard to hold. I would think it would be even more difficult for a small female to play, much less master it like she has.
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Zum U-12 w/True Tone pickup thru a Nashville 112
Strats thru a VHT Super 30
Band Pics
http://community.webshots.com/album/176544894AuXSmi
jonchristopherdavis.com
www.lonestarattitude.net
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Dick Wood
From:
Springtown Texas, USA
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Posted 20 Dec 2005 8:16 am
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I have this picture of Mark sitting in the middle of his living room suckin on a water pipe with his Zum turned up on it's end chanting something about not stealing squishies.
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Cops aren't paid much so I steel at night. |
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Mark Metdker
From:
North Central Texas, USA
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Mark Lind-Hanson
From:
Menlo Park, California, USA
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Posted 20 Dec 2005 8:24 am
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I have been a fan of Ravi's since way back in the days when George first turned (the world) on to him. Anoushka is every bit as talented as her father, something I discovered when I saw them both perform herein SF some months back. As to how the sitar is tuned, there are 3 melody strings tuned to the tonic, dominant and fifth (I believe) and sympathetic strings as well across the scale. It is generally tuned to the key that the p[iece is in. Indian music does NOT rely on harmonic substance like our westernmusic does (chords & harmony) but rather melodic phrasing and rythmn- "chord changes" as such are rather irrelevant and out of place to raga. There are many distinct ragas but each is also filtered through what are known as the dominat rasas, or, emotional qualities such as (sadness, joy, heroism, eroticism) and the time of day sets what key the piece is played in (acc to Ali Akbar Khan, who feels that Ravi often played ragas at innapropriate times to
"please his box office")-
The sarod which AAKhan plays is similar to the sitar only in that it also has sympathetic strings and also is played with picks- but the fretboard and body of the instrument are more likely as not to be made of metal, not wood or gourd. Personally I think the metal fretboard imparts a distinct sound which makes it easy to tell wether you are listening to a sarod or a sitar if you have a little patience learning the differences.
A very good book (if you are interested) is Ravi's autobiography, "Raga Mala" which deals at great length on the structure and
intricacies of Indian music. And also Ravi's rather pithy view of the 1960's culture which made him popular in the West. |
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Bill Hatcher
From:
Atlanta Ga. USA
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Posted 20 Dec 2005 8:51 am
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Mark. Don't laugh, I tune mine like a guitar!!
I used to read the old 60s and 70s guitar player mags when LA studio giant the late Tommy Tedseco had a column. I read that he tuned every instrument he had like a guitar. When I started doing lot's of recording dates here in Atlanta I understood why! Mandolins, banjos, sitar, esraj, steels, ukes---all tuned in standard guitar tuning for me. I only play enough on these to use for melody lines and things in the studio. |
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Mark Lind-Hanson
From:
Menlo Park, California, USA
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Posted 20 Dec 2005 9:00 am
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| well, it's an instrument & you can tune any instrument ny way you like. Personally I think these electric sitars out on the market now are worth looking into- basically they are guitars with sitar-toned bridges & sympathetic strings. I was only explaining the way they do it OVER THERE. |
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Mark Metdker
From:
North Central Texas, USA
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Bob Hoffnar
From:
Austin, Tx
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Posted 20 Dec 2005 9:34 am
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I used to study North Indian Classical music with Pandit Pran Nath and Lamonte Young. These days I find myself listening to more Kawali music from Pakistan.
I saw one of the last concerts in NYC of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and it was a life changing experience !
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Bob
My Website
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Charlie McDonald
From:
out of the blue
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Posted 20 Dec 2005 11:51 am
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| Ali Akbar Khan: the Mark Knopfler of sarod. |
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Mark Metdker
From:
North Central Texas, USA
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Posted 20 Dec 2005 11:56 am
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Quote from Ali Akbar Khan. these guys take their music seriously.
"If you practice for 10 years, you may begin to please yourself, after 20 years you may become a performer and please the audience, after 30 years you may please even your guru, but you must practice for many more years before you finally become a true artist-- then you may please even God."
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Zum U-12 w/True Tone pickup thru a Nashville 112
Strats thru a VHT Super 30
Band Pics
http://community.webshots.com/album/176544894AuXSmi
jonchristopherdavis.com
www.lonestarattitude.net
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Bo Borland
From:
South Jersey -
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Posted 20 Dec 2005 3:40 pm
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| What a musical family those Shankars, and don't forget that Nora Jones is his daughter too. What a sweet voice she has. |
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James Cann
From:
Phoenix, AZ
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Posted 20 Dec 2005 8:51 pm
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| Add my vote. I saw Shankar in Rochester, NY, in the 70s--Anoushka in diapers, perhaps?--and got "The Concert for George" for last year's birthday. It's a prize on the shelf, and I'll never get tired of it: a great collection of fine artists in an atmosphere of historical family you can't beat. |
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