I am working to build up speed as my teacher wants me to play at 250 beats per minute (BPM). Tonight I kept things slow so I could focus on the basics.
I got bored and figured the internet would like having Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” on sitar. Enjoy it inter-webs. Now you can Rick Roll in a whole new way.
I tried to play “Never Gonna Give You Up” so that it sounded like indian music instead of being a straight copy of the original chorus heard in the song. Hopefully I did okay. I’ve been taking sitar lessons since 2012. I still have a lot left to learn. This was fun!
Hi, I’m Jeff Starr, a sitar student and filmmaker. Last week my sitar teacher revised one of my existing taans to expand it further.
It’s not super complicated, but he wants me to build up my speed so that I can play my sitar taans at 250 beats per minute (bpm). And, this one started getting really hard at at 175 bpm.
I give all my my Taans nicknames and I call this one “3P.”
Let’s see how fast I can get today!
I took my first sitar lesson on January 27th, 2012.
My teacher said that he booked me for a sitar performance in NYC this December!
I am stressing out! Back in November 2015 I had my first public performance. I was background music for an event at the Pakistan Mission to The United Nations. It was an honor to be invited to play there, but I was REALLY nervous about it.
In tonight’s video I reflect on that performance, where I am now with my training and I show a super old clip from 2012, after I had taken my third sitar lesson. I’ve come a long way since then!
If you or someone you know is looking to build a collection of the best guitar effects pedals then let me start by saying, “Welcome to the best club ever.”
I love guitar gear. It’s an obsession for me. I spend so much of my free time researching gear that it only seemed logical that I should start putting some of this passion into a website. So, if you want information, I have already done the research.
Why trust me? I have been playing guitar for over 20 years and I have experimented with tons of pedals. During my lunch breaks, I sneak off to Guitar Center and New York City’s boutique guitar shops to try out all the new (and vintage) toys. I have the product lines practically memorized for all of the major guitar companies. My brother is also a gear head and it’s all we talk about. Did I say that I love gear?
Now is perhaps the best time to buy guitar effects pedals because there are tons of options, quality is at an all time high and prices are cheap.
Below is my list of the five perfect pedals to start with. I tried to keep prices in the $100 range with one pedals as low as $49. (Click on the links to check the prices on Amazon.)
I have strived to suggest pedals that are easy to use, sound amazing (duh) and have stood the test of time.
Anything you pick from the list below will be cool today and something you will still use years later. Many of these pedals appear on the boards of touring rock stars.
I’ll list these in the order I think you should buy them and then I’ll list the order you should connect them once you hook them all up together. Here we go!
1: Tube Screamer – Classic or Mini (click links to see prices):
This is the most famous overdrive pedal and with good reason. The Tube Screamer has managed to remain in constant use by professional guitarists for decades. Everyone from your weekend warrior to Stevie Ray Vaughn have used a Tube Screamer to define their sound.
The Tube Screamer is now available in a less expensive “mini” option, making it easily fit onto a pedal board. Please note that if you buy the Mini you will need an external power supply.
If size isn’t a concern, I would suggest getting the full size Tube Screamer because you can run it off of a battery. You can see the size difference in the video above.
Here is a video of me practicing gat and taans for Raga Yaman.
I am working to build up speed. My teacher wants me to play at 250 beats per minute (BPM). Although I’ve been able to play a handful of taans at 200bpm, tonight I stayed at 170 BPM to try and clean up the technical errors in my playing.
