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From: vallath@ucbcad.UUCP (Vallath Nandakumar)
Newsgroups: net.nlang.india,net.music.classical
Subject: Re: Tuning that old sitar you've got laying about
Message-ID: <249@ucbcad.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 17-May-85 02:09:25 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbcad.249
Posted: Fri May 17 02:09:25 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 24-May-85 21:38:49 EDT
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> THe instrument in question has 2 strings
> mounted on pegs off the left side of the neck (like a banjo), another
> 2 or three strings, and then two strings set away from the others, along
> with about 11 sympathetic strings underneath the bridge on a little bridge 
> of their own.
> 
> So-how does one tune this instrument? I know that the intervals are not
One book I know which has something on sitar tuning is
"My music, my life" by Ravi Shankar.  This book is written 
specially for the non-Indian reader.  He describes the tuning
procedure with a piano.  
As you say, the intervals are not the same as in Western
music, but the differences are small.  For example, Pa (the 
Indian name for the fifth) is 702 cents versus 700 cents for
the Western fifth.  The differences in the other notes may be
slightly more (5-6 cents), and there are different versions
of each semitone interval (corresponding to the srutis),
but correct intonation is often achieved by pulling the
strings.
The five (only five?) strings you mention are the playing
strings, the two set away from the others are the drone
strings (these are tuned to the "tonic" Sa and maybe its
octave) and the others are, as you say, sympathetic strings
and tuned to different notes in the raga being played.
The frets are movable, as you might have noticed, and
are changed for the scales.

ucbesvax.vallath@berkeley.arpa, ucbvax!ucbesvax!vallath
Vallath Nandakumar
Dept. of EECS, UC Berkeley.