Plucky Strings and Peppy Percussion Strings and Percussion    

Lesson 21: Sitar - Sitar Sample

by Tito Dutta

Performer: Yaman

Directions

Study the musical selection for one week.

Over the week:

• Listen to the music daily.
• Recite the composer and composition names.
• Read the synopsis.
• Review the vocabulary terms.
• Read about the instrument category.
• Complete the enrichment activities.
• Study the review questions.

Synopsis

This lesson introduces the sitar, a stringed instrument. Sitars typically have a gourd-shaped body made from a dried pumpkin or wood, a long neck, and between eighteen and twenty-one strings. Musicians strum six or seven of these strings that run over frets. The remainder of the strings are sympathetic. They run under the frets and resonate along with the played strings. The musical composition for this lesson, 'Sitar Sample,' by Tito Dutta, features the music of a sitar. The painting included in the lesson, 'Kadambari,' by Raja Ravi Varma, shows a woman playing a sitar.

Vocabulary

Sitar: A large, long-necked Indian lute with movable frets, played with a wire pick.
Lute: A plucked stringed instrument with a long neck bearing frets and a rounded body with a flat front that is shaped like a halved egg.
Fret: Each of a sequence of bars or ridges on the fingerboard of some stringed musical instruments (such as the guitar), used for fixing the positions of the fingers to produce the desired notes.
Sympathetic Strings: Strings that are not directly strummed. Instead, they vibrate in sympathy with nearby strummed strings.
Pickguard: Plastic placed on a guitar, mandolin, sitar, or other instrument to protect the finish of the instrument from being scratched by the pick.

Category

Music lessons over the next two years group musical instruments into five major categories: strings, keyboards, percussion, brass, and woodwinds.

String instruments produce sound through the vibration of strings. Strings may be plucked or strummed with fingers, hit with hammers, or rubbed with a bow.

See a picture of strings below. Note that some strings are thicker and some are thinner.

The sound produced by a string depends in part on its thickness, its length, its tightness, and its material.

Instruments have multiple strings of varying thickness. Musicians playing instruments turn pegs to tighten or loosen the strings and change their sounds. Musicians also press their fingers against the strings to control the length of strings that vibrate and produce sound. Strings are made from materials such as nylon or steel.

String instruments include violins, violas, cellos, double basses, guitars, ukuleles, sitars, mandolins, banjos, and depending on who you ask, pianos.

Study the images of strings.

1. Viola Strings

2. Cello Strings

3. Guitar Strings

Enrichment

Activity 1: Study the Parts of a Sitar

• Study the parts on the labeled picture of the sitar. Note the addition of new parts, the upper and lower resonating chambers, the movable frets, and the pickguard.

Activity 2: Map the Instrument

• The sitar often used in Indian classical music. Find India on the map below.

Activity 3: Can You Find It?

Study the lesson image, 'Kadambari,' by Raja Ravi Varma, and find the following:

• Woman
• Sari
• Earrings
• Bracelets
• Bench
• Two Shoes
• Flowers
• Strumming Hand
• Hand Shortening and Lengthening the Strings
• Sitar
• Sitar Tuning Pegs
• Sitar Neck
• Sitar Lower Resonating Chamber
• Sitar Frets
• Sitar Bridge

Review

Question 1

What are the five major groups of instruments listed in the lesson?

1 / 6

Answer 1

The five major groups of instruments are strings, keyboards, percussion, brass, and woodwinds.

1 / 6

Question 2

Which string instrument does this lesson feature?

2 / 6

Answer 2

This lesson features the sitar.

2 / 6

Question 3

How many strings do sitars typically have?

3 / 6

Answer 3

Sitars typically have between eighteen and twenty-one strings.

3 / 6

Question 4

How many sitar strings are strummed by the musician?

4 / 6

Answer 4

Musicians strum six or seven of these strings that run over frets. The remainder of the strings are sympathetic. They run under the frets and resonate along with the played strings.

4 / 6

Question 5

What are the major parts of the sitar?

5 / 6

Answer 5

Major parts of the sitar include the upper and lower resonating chambers, tuning pegs, strings, movable frets, nut, two bridges, pickguard, and tailpiece.

5 / 6

Question 6

How do musicians make sounds with a sitar?

6 / 6

Answer 6

Musicians use one hand to strum the strings and the other to shorten and lengthen the strings to change the sound.

6 / 6

❮ ❯

1. What are the five major groups of instruments listed in the lesson? The five major groups of instruments are strings, keyboards, percussion, brass, and woodwinds.
2. Which string instrument does this lesson feature? This lesson features the sitar.
3. How many strings do sitars typically have? Sitars typically have between eighteen and twenty-one strings.
4. How many sitar strings are strummed by the musician? Musicians strum six or seven of these strings that run over frets. The remainder of the strings are sympathetic. They run under the frets and resonate along with the played strings.
5. What are the major parts of the sitar? Major parts of the sitar include the upper and lower resonating chambers, tuning pegs, strings, movable frets, nut, two bridges, pickguard, and tailpiece.
6. How do musicians make sounds with a sitar? Musicians use one hand to strum the strings and the other to shorten and lengthen the strings to change the sound.

References

'String instrument.' Wikipedia. Wikipedia.org. n.p.

'Sitar.' Wikipedia. Wikipedia.org. n.p.

'Pickguard.' Wikipedia. Wikipedia.org. n.p.

'Sitar Sample performed by Yaman (CC BY-SA 3.0).' Wikipedia. Wikipedia.org. n.p.