Sitar Saturday - More Sitar-Like Instruments

Here is an instrument called the taus or mayuri veena. It is basically a bowed sitar with an extra large deep resonator gourd and often shaped like a bird or peacock. The birds in the background of this video are loving the sounds.

This next instrument is called the dilruba and is quite a bit similar to the taus except it has a small carved wooden resonator and shorter scale. This give is a brighter sound. Most of the designs of dilrubas are less elaborate than the taus. I like this particular instrument because it has a machined tuner knob for each resonator string instead of a wooden peg like on a sitar, makes tuning 21 strings much easier.

Speaking of wooden pegs on the sympathetic strings here is the sarangi. This one technically has the highest pitch of the previous two instruments. The main playing strings are not made of metal though and are usually catgut or nylon which tones down the ultra high frequencies. I like the compact nature of the instrument but playability is somewhat tricky as you have to put your fingernail on the edge of the string to fret it at just the right pressure. Too light of pressure it won't fret and too hard of pressure it dulls the note, then if you play too fast your fingernail will be sanded down to nothing over time lol.

That's all for now, more #sitarsaturday posts soon...