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!
Playing the sitar is hard and it can be really painful. In this video I’ll demonstrate the method I use to tape my fingers. This helps reduce pain and can be very useful when you have been practicing a lot. Or, if you are just beginning to learn sitar using tape can be helpful while your fingers build up a callous.
Some additional thoughts:
Sorry for the messy room. I figured it was better for me to shoot a video surrounded by my son’s toys than to clean everything up and not have time to make the video.
You don’t want to use tape every time you practice.
I suggest masking tape because it’s very slick on the strings and also because the glue is fairly weak allowing you to take the tape off easily. It also won’t leak glue onto your strings like a fabric athletic tape will.
I changed my shirt halfway into filming so that you can see my hands better. But if you like the shirt I was wearing, you can buy one at http://copycreditmeals.net/ My buddy runs that website and is giving his profits back to artists, actors, etc.
