I don't know about the people
who likes Indian traditional music, but if you say sitar,
most of the people like me (about elder than age 35) will
automatically remind the name 'Ravi Shankar'. He was famous
for the guru of George Harison, and he is the god of Indian
Music.
Dr. Chandrakant Sardeshmukh who
was taught by that god, is performing music activities all
over the world, putting his center in Tokyo. He is really
a master grade sitar player.
"This instrument was ordered
by my guru Ravi Shankar's wife for me. The body is made
from pumpkin and the neck is made from big trees called
SAGU which were brought up in Kashmir district. KADDU is
also made from pumpkin.
There are 7 main strings and 11-13 sub-strings which stays
very close to the neck. All the strings are made by copper
and iron. The bridges aimed tense strings are made from
bones of elephants, deers or camels. They also have a role
to decorate the instrument.
Basically sitar is played by
fingers. (For that reason, it is hard and painful to play
for the first time, and the finger-toes of veteran players
are hard like stones.)
And we put MIZRAB on a right forefinger to make distinct
impact for sound.
Do you ask me how much? Because they are hand-made, one
is completely different from one another. But absolutely
different from those in souvenier shops!"
It seemed to be difficult to
master how to play, but a player needs to master 'Raga'
which is appeared in the combination of melody and rhythm.
And also it is nessesary to add one's originality and ad-lib
technique. "There are 100 or more only in rhythm patterns
(Tara)." , he said.
"The main scale used in
these days are : basically one is F, and another is C scale.
We play sitar on the base scale, and Raga is cross coming
into it;
such as mornig Raga, sunrise Raga, or sunset Raga, changing
in every 3 hours.
Sitar playing should be the reflection of Natural Flow or
the Law of Nature. So that every sitar players are the ones
who is facing to the Nature=God, and who is praying to God
continuously during one's play."
Now I got to understand that
sitar playing is not like the play by an excitable sharman
playing according to his feeling.
"But I wil say that not all is decided strictly. Sitar
is the instrument that you can bring a free style and create
new music. It has an unique sound so that it is easy to
have oppotunities to join with other folk instruments in
all over the world.
In Japan, I joind with Taiko, Shakuhachi, or Shamisen. And
in Australia, I joined with Big Band. Isn't it a real culture
exchange?"
