How to Practice Sitar Hand Techniques

Learning to play the sitar can be a fun and exciting experience, but it takes practice and dedication. Proper positioning and hand techniques are important to learning to play the sitar. With a little practice and respect for the instrument, you can learn to play beautifully.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Understand the different parts of the sitar. Like most stringed instruments, there is a gourd area covered in strings and a neck which contains the frets. The sitar is one of the larger stringed instruments and is played while sitting on the floor.

2. Know the proper body positioning and holding of the sitar. You should be sitting cross-legged on the ground. There needs to be sufficient space between you and the instrument in order to play correctly. The gourd goes to the right of your body and the neck to the left.

3. Find the comfortable positioning for your fingers to be poised to play. They should hang over the strings loosely. The hand on the neck should be with your thumb on top and your fingers wrapped around the frets and poised over them.

4. Rest the first two fingers of the hand around the neck on the frets you will be playing. You will press with your index finger and thumb. This will be quite painful when you first learn to play, before you develop calluses. You can relieve this with coconut oil or by placing a plectrum on your finger--a hard piece of wire you can buy at a musical instrument store.