While traveling to visit family I found this used sitar for sale in a local music store. It’s Ravi Shankar style and was made by Hiren Roy. I’ll keep this at my parents house to practice on when I visit family. Now I need to get back home more often!
Sa is tuned to C#.
I was really determined to play this Taan at 170 beats per minute. I’ve been stuck at 160, so today I slowly worked my way up to 170 with many failed attempts. Here are the last three minutes of my practice where I struggle with and eventually hit the 170 goal.
…180 is the next milestone. My teacher wants me to eventually play all taans for this gat at 200bpm.
A taan is sort of similar to playing a riff in western music.
I took my first sitar lesson on January 27th, 2012.
My guru wants me to play as fast as 200 beats per minute. I’m working up to that goal and practicing my newest Taan. The gat is in Raga Yaman.
A taan is sort of similar to playing a riff in western music.
I took my first sitar lesson on January 27th, 2012.
In this video practicing paltas and the opening to Alap. I’m planning to document my sitar practice on a regular basis.
Paltas are melodic patterns to train your left and right hand using the notes of the Raga you are practicing. I’m working on raga Yaman.
Later I practice my opening to the Alap portion of Raga Yaman.
I took my first sitar lesson on January 27th, 2012.
I have been taking sitar lessons since 2012. I have been slowing learning to play Alap for about 2 years. It’s really hard!
This is a video to document where I currently am with my progress and to get feedback from others.
I hear so much in my playing that needs improvement but people ask to hear me play all the time so I thought I would record something short.
I am playing a Barun Ray (Hiren Roy’s son) sitar.
Thanks for watching! Please feel free to comment.
I recently passed the 1 year milestone of formal sitar lessons. A lot of friends had asked me for a video update so I recorded this the other night. This is the Gat with Taans for the Raga Yaman that I am studying. The Taans start a little after the 1 min mark. I kept it pretty slow to avoid mistakes and to hopefully keep better rhythm. I was using a metronome too, something I just started doing and something I recommend. I still have a long way to go! But, you can get the basic idea. I didn’t record any Mizrab and Pulta exercises, but those are part of my regular practicing. I am playing a student model Radha Krishna Sharma sitar. It’s an okay starter sitar. It is tuned in the style of Ustad Vilayat Khan. Video shot on the Zoom Q3HD.