Chitrali sitar

The chitrali sitar (Urdu: چترالی ستھار‎)is a long-necked lute played in northern area, Chitral of Pakistan. It is not related to the Indian sitar and its name is probably a corruption of setar a Central Asian and Iranian long-necked lute.

Chitrali sitar. Front view.
Chitrali sitar. Side view.
Chitrali sitar. Back view.

The instrument has five strings in three courses, the middle course being of one string. Melody is played on the top two strings which are fretted together.

The tuning of the instrument is unusual, as the single middle string does not go down the whole length of the neck of the instrument, instead it passes under the first four frets, where it then emerges and takes its place with the other strings. At this fret all the strings have the same note (g) - the actual tuning of the instrument is cc g cc. All the strings are of the same thickness, and are made of very thin metal wire, far thinner than the thinnest guitar string.

The two bottom c notes and the g note act as a drone and the melody is strummed on the top two strings. The scale is a special scale of only seven notes to an octave and the player moves their hand up and down the neck, often quite rapidly to play the instrument. The thinness of the neck makes it very easy to move the hand quickly up and down the neck to reach different notes.

The whole instrument is made of mulberry wood, the body being carved from a single block with a thin wooden table and a very low bridge about the height of a matchstick. The strings pass over this bridge and are often fixed to a metal eye at the bottom of the body. The mulberry wood neck of the instrument is fixed to the body and there is a mulberry nut at the top leading to five carved wooden winders for the strings.

The instrument is not very loud, and is played by strumming the top course of strings with the forefinger while allowing the finger to also play the drone strings. It is related very much to instruments from Central Asia and similar long necked lutes (although not with the strange middle string arrangement which seems to be a regional invention) can be found over the border in the neighbouring countries to the West and North.

Playing

It is often played in tea rooms in Chitral district.[1] It can be played to accompany singing,[2] sometimes along with drums, or beating on the jeer can (empty petrol jerry can).[3]

gollark: It would no longer be possible for humans to cut many of them down.
gollark: Also deforestation. There are so many upsides.
gollark: Which would also fix flooding.
gollark: Also, rising sea levels. This could be eliminated as an issue by breaking all the various feedback loops enough that the oceans boil.
gollark: For example: apparently climate change is causing more/worse hurricanes or something. But if we heat the Earth by something like ~~10~~ 30 degrees, there will be hypercanes instead.

See also

References
  1. Hugh Swift (1 June 1982). The trekker's guide to the Himalaya and Karakoram. Sierra Club Books. p. 69. ISBN 978-0-87156-295-1. Retrieved 24 March 2012.
  2. Magnus Marsden (22 December 2005). Living Islam: Muslim Religious Experience In Pakistan's North-West Frontier. Cambridge University Press. pp. 4–. ISBN 978-0-521-85223-4. Retrieved 24 March 2012.
  3. Diane P. Mines; Sarah E. Lamb (15 July 2010). Everyday Life in South Asia. Indiana University Press. pp. 269–. ISBN 978-0-253-22194-0. Retrieved 24 March 2012.
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