Blazing Fast Sitar Practice – this was exhausting!

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Hi, I’m Jeff Starr, a sitar student and filmmaker. Here is a video of me practicing some of my Taans for Raga Yaman.

My goal tonight was to rebuild some of the speed and strength I lost when I was sick with the flu and I took a week off from practicing.

This video is also a really great example of the importance of practicing as you can see my improvement on the last Taan in the video.

Want to play fast sitar? Practice, Practice, Practice.

I am working to build up speed as my teacher wants me to play between 200 -250 beats per minute (BPM).

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Unboxing my Sitar Strings & Gear: This is what I use.

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Hi, I’m Jeff Starr, a sitar student and filmmaker. In this video I unbox all the sitar gear I carry in my “grab bag” and show you what I use when practicing.

Perhaps I should teach you how to tie  sitar strings in an upcoming video?

let me know.

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How To Tune Your Guitar: The Easiest Way

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In this video I teach a super easy method for how to tune your guitar.

I cover a technique of listening for “warbles” between two notes and how the speed of those can indicate if your strings are in tune with each other.

This is extremely useful when getting yourself in tune with other instruments, like a piano or another guitar player. If you do use a guitar pedal, app, or a built in tuner this method of listening to “warbles” is still useful and can help you get in tune quicker.

Best of all, this technique of listening to “warbles” in the note applies to tuning other instruments as well.

Please let me know if you ave any questions.

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The Self Taught Sitarist. Can you learn sitar by yourself?

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Frequently I am asked, “Can I teach myself to play sitar” and, “I can’t find a teacher, should I even bother trying to learn sitar on my own?”

Well, thanks to YouTube, I have met many amazing sitar players from all over the world. One of them is Manjit Singh. After he and I chatted a bit he offered to shoot a video talking about his experience learning the sitar on his own and teaching himself.

So, if you want to learn sitar but you can’t find a teacher, let Manjit serve as an inspiration.

Please visit his YouTube channel for the full interview and to watch his other performance videos.
Manjit Singh: https://www.youtube.com/user/1966Manjit

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The Star Spangled Banner performed on Sitar

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Earlier this week I was contacted by a filmmaker friend of mine who needed a recording of The Star-Spangled Banner.

And, they needed it performed on the sitar!?!

I did the best I could.

I love our National Anthem and this recording was made with great respect for it.

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How to go crazy by missing 1 beat in Tintal

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Tonight I set out to fix an error I had been making when playing a specific Taan in tintal at my last lesson.

I have been really busy with work and haven’t been able to practice sitar enough. I thought I was doing okay but then I shot this video and realized how by missing even a few days it had set me back in my study.

At my lesson I was playing this Taan and ending 1 beat early. Tonight I kept ending one beat late. I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong. Eventually I figured out that I was adding in a note, but it took me a good 30 min of practice to get there.

So if there is a theme to tonight’s video it’s that I need to practice EVERY DAY. Luckily I was able to recover and get back up to speed, mostly.

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Playing the blues after a long work day

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This has been a REALLY long week. …only 1 day left!

Before I went to bed tonight I wanted to pick up my guitar and play the blues and just feel it.

I think there is some saying, “Play the blues when you got ’em to make them go away.”

I also soaked this with some reverb and delay for the fun of it.

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My Favorite Electronic Tanpura with Tabla App! – iTablaPro Demo

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Here is an in-depth review and demo of iTablaPro, a fantastic Electronic Tanpura with Tabla App.

I love this app so much and it has been so useful to my Sitar education that I made a review and demo.

I like it so much that I wanted people to know about it. I think this is the best electronic Tanpura and Tabla app you can buy.

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Most Difficult Sitar Gamak Exercise Ever: Part 2

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Around September 2016, my teacher gave me this new sitar gamak exercise and told me that it would take a year to master it.

I figured this would make for a great series of videos and I would document my progress.

You can watch Part 1 here: https://youtu.be/Uyn_DP35Bfo

This has been one of the toughest tasks I have faced with the sitar.

Playing this with even tempo and in pitch has been brutal. In addition, I feel like every time I ask my teacher to review I learn that I have been practicing it slightly wrong (or completely wrong) as the subtle elements are beyond my grasp.

Hopefully I am now on the right track. Let’s take a listen and see how I am doing.

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I am now on Patreon! Your support is needed.

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Hi Everyone,
You have been such a huge inspiration for me to keep making videos and posting them. Thank you so much!

If you like this site and the videos I am creating, please consider becoming a patron and supporting this effort.

I post new videos 2-3 times per week. But… shooting videos is starting to cost me money. I’m quickly eating up hard drive space on my old computer. Your patronage will directly help me afford the costs of storage space, software updates, lighting, better audio and will make the process of creating content easier and faster. I will also be embarking on a new short film project this year.

I want to grow my Youtube Channel and this blog to be the best it can possibly be.  Patreon will allow me to do that.

If you like my videos please consider taking the time to support what I do. I am tremendously grateful for every contribution. Words can not express how meaningful your help is to me.

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