The word Sitar is derived from the Hindi words sat tär, for seven strings. See more

A sitar can have 18, 19, 20, or 21 strings; 6 or 7 of these run over curved, raised frets and are played strings; the remainder are sympathetic strings (tarb, also known as taarif or tarafdaar), … See more

There are two popular modern styles of sitar: the fully decorated "instrumental style" (sometimes called the "Ravi Shankar style") and … See more

The instrument is balanced between the player's left foot and right knee. The hands move freely without having to carry any of the instrument's weight. The player plucks the string using a … See more

The book "The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians" suggests possibility of the sitar's origin as that evolved from one or more instruments of the tanbūr family, long necked lutes which it argues were introduced and popularised during the period of … See more

Tuning depends on the sitarist's school or style, tradition and each artist's personal preference. The main playing string is almost invariably tuned a perfect fourth above the tonic, the … See more

In the late 1950s and early 1960s Ravi Shankar, along with his tabla player, Alla Rakha, began a further introduction of Indian classical music to Western culture.
The sitar saw use in Western popular music when, guided by David Crosby's championing of … See more