I am a 14 year old boy living in Sri Lanka ... I love a sitar ... but I do not have the resources to buy a sitar ... I watch your videos every day ... you play the sitar well.
It has been two years, I am curious if you have acquired a sitar yet? If you have a garden, you can grow some calabashes (birdhouse/bottle gourds) and make a banjo using tutorials here on RU-vid. Just use sitar bridge, frets, and tuning on the banjo. 😅 A professionally crafted instrument will certainly sound better, but there's also a sense of pride and accomplishment when one makes their own tools how they like, for their art how they like. My friends and I used to make guitars with our pencil cases and rulers, use rubber bands as strings. The teachers didn't like us interrupting but we felt like gods. 😂 Much love, God bless.
Ustad Vilayat Khan style sitar is most unique instrument in the whole world when you play it, it sounds like the instrument is vocaling and it has the most stretchy strings. I love Ustad Vilayat Khan Saheb.
Please visit olddelhimusic.com for prices. They have various instruments in stock. I recommend emailing them for help selecting the right instrument for you and your price range.
Hi Jeff, sorry for asking questions like this in the YT comment section. I don't have your email address and this is the only way I can communicate with you. Thing is that I am planning to switch my sitar teacher and am thinking about starting under your Ustadji. I am a novice learner who only ever have learned using the Ravi Shankar style sitar. I know that Ustadji has learned under the tutelage of Pandit Ravi Shankar but you said in one of your videos that he uses the Vilayat Khani Style Sitar now. I would like to keep learning on the Ravi Shankar style star and not switch midway (actually, just ordered a new RS style sitar from India). So I guess my question is: does he teach students on the RS style sitar too? Your response would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance, Zihad
Ustadji teaches the gayaki ang style (vocal style). This style is often associated with Ustad Vilayat Khan. This is not the style of performance that Pandit Ravi Shankar played. Ravi Shankar would be classified as tantrakari ang (instrumental style). Each style will have unique approaches to the Alap, Jor and Jhalla sections of a raga. There is also the Dhrupad style with its own approach. I hope this answers your question.
Anybody know of a hybrid tuning with the chickari/sympathetic string harmony sound Vilayat Khan tuning gives you. But with more than one main playing string like Ravi Shankar tuning. At least adding one lower main playing string ? Or is there any custom sitar’s made with extra strings ? So I can keep all the low main playing strings in Ravi Shankar tuning but get the beautiful chickari/sympathetic harmony sound of Vilayat Khan Tuning ? Basically I want the chickari sound of Vilayat khan tuning but retain the versatility of the Ravi Shankar lower main playing strings. Anybody have any suggestions ? I realize those tunings are like that to play a very specific style. Without being disrespectful to any gharana my dream sound would be the combination of the best of both tunings.
I had mine restrung two years ago. The luthier who did it said he made kind of a fishhook sort of thing out of an old guitar string and that helped him feed it through the holes. Needless to say, it was a pain in the ass and exactly why I had someone else do it lol.
