Tag Archives: sitar instrument

Sitar Speed Breakthrough

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My teacher has been pushing me to increase my sitar speed so that I can play at 200 beats per minute (BPM).

I was traveling a while back and using my secondary sitar when I had a breakthrough in speed… Here is a video of my progress.

Here is an old video about the sitar I am playing, I have improved a lot since it was recorded: https://youtu.be/PUA3P_YwMOA

For those curious, I took my first sitar lesson on January 27th, 2012.
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Sitar Tuning for Beginners: Movable Frets

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This week a viewer asked me questions about tuning problems on his sitar. So, here are some common fixes and information about sitar frets.

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Lots of Alap (and thoughts on my sitar lesson)

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Hi, today I had a 2 hour sitar lesson! I wanted to practice more alap tonight before I forgot everything.

Here are links to the videos I reference:
Sitar Speed Breakthrough: https://youtu.be/BEP9cmqayiU
I bought a Sitar! Is this Ravi Shankar Style? https://youtu.be/PUA3P_YwMOA

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How to string a Sitar

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Tonight I’m showing how to string a sitar.

I cover how to tie a sitar string loop, chalk pegs and the process of tuning.
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Sitar Gamak Practice. Ouch!

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Sitar Gamak practice… Mistakes and all.

I am trying to build up speed. This is REALLY hard.
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Sitar Practice: Warm up, Gat and Alap

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Here is a live stream video of my sitar practice, mistakes and all. I start with a short warm up, go into Gat and end with some Alap practice.
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Interview with American Sitarist Chris Stephens

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Hi, I’m Jeff Starr, a sitar student and filmmaker. This is my interview with Chris Stephens, an American who has been playing sitar for 15 years. You will hear a 1 minute clip of his playing before we discuss learning the sitar.

Aside from occasional lessons with Ustad Imrat Khan, Chris is primarily self taught. He is extremely dedicated to Hindustani music and has spent countless hours learning about its deep intricacies.

You can learn more about Chris at the following links:
http://www.chrisstephensmusic.net
https://chrisstephens.bandcamp.com
https://www.youtube.com/user/chrisitar
https://www.patreon.com/ChrisStephens

If you play sitar, please visit https://www.reddit.com/r/Sitar/ and contribute to the discussion on Reddit.

You can find the Bela Fleck album we discuss at this link:
http://amzn.to/2lvY0jo

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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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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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Sitar Paltas

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A viewer recently asked how often I practice my Paltas so I wanted to make a video to show what that part of my practice is like. For those wondering, I always include Paltas as part of my warm up.

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