Category Archives: Sitar

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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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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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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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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Learning Raga Yaman Alap, Update December 2016

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Here is a video of me practicing Alap for Raga Yaman.

As many of you already know, sitar is really hard to play!

Raga Yaman Alap is something I have been slowly learning over the years. For the past few months my teacher has been having me focus a lot of Gat and Taans. Then over the past few weeks we started spending more time during my lesson discussing and playing Alap.

Since I was traveling this week I figured I would shoot a video playing alap to document my current progress compared to the previous videos I have posted. You can see those in the links below. I hope I am getting better. Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Old Alap Videos:
October 2016: https://youtu.be/ohiPO4el_D0
July 2016: https://youtu.be/AZ7mkE4LKpA
April 2016: https://youtu.be/s29hjlDTghI

If you want to learn more about the sitar I am playing you can watch this video:
https://youtu.be/PUA3P_YwMOA

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Almost 5 years of Sitar Lessons?!

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In this video I share some quick thoughts on learning the sitar and show footage of me practicing sitar after 1 month of lessons and then compare it to the same exercises almost 5 years later.

It’s been a long time since I googled “Sitar Lessons for Beginners.” 🙂

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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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