[Perfection]

Sitars have always seemed to be a beautiful and rather strange intrument. It also looks really hard to play, I've heard they have like 20 strings. I think it would be great to learn to play one when I can get my hands on it. I have a few questions about them:

1. How much do they cost?
2. How challenging is it to learn?
3. How many strings anyway?
4. Can you wear them on a strap so you can stand instead of sit like that?
5. Can you get them with pickups? Not so much because I want to use effects on it, but becuase I'd like to use a looping pedal with it and adjust the EQ.
6. Does a guitar with a sitar effects pedal on sound just as genuine as the real thing?

[Nate]

Originally Posted by Perfection

1. How much do they cost?

About the same as high-level guitars ($1K-5K), it seems. Google it.

2. How challenging is it to learn?

Most Indian musicians apprentice for years, or decades, to learn.

3. How many strings anyway?

Over 20. Only 6 or 7 strings that you actually play, though.

The majority of a sitar's string are "sympathetic" drones.

4. Can you wear them on a strap so you can stand instead of sit like that?

That would be pretty silly, and difficult due to the construction.

I'm sure there are some oddball contraptions out there that allow it, though.

5. Can you get them with pickups? Not so much because I want to use effects on it, but becuase I'd like to use a looping pedal with it and adjust the EQ.

I'd go with a mic, personally, for that purpose. I'm sure some have pickups, though.

6. Does a guitar with a sitar effects pedal on sound just as genuine as the real thing?

No. Just like a keyboard with a guitar patch dialed in doesn't sound as real as a guitar.

The sitar is a particularly complicated instrument, with its movable frets and drone strings.

Most of the sound is from the player, though. It requires very particular techniques.

[Perfection]

But didn't George Harrison learn how to play one in a couple a weeks?

Surely he didn't practice for decades just so he could play norweigen wood.

Also, have Sitars ever been mounted an stands, so as to allow you to stop playing sitar partway through a song and play something else?

[LWatford]

what I understand is he was able to pick out what he wanted to play on it, but the people who really study it take years. So if you want to play at it, shouldn't take too long.

[Nate]

Originally Posted by Perfection

But didn't George Harrison learn how to play one in a couple a weeks?

Surely he didn't practice for decades just so he could play norweigen wood.

And Jamie Foxx "learned" to play cello for an upcoming movie role. Do you play any other instruments currently?

In the vast majority of the musical world, "learning" how to play an instrument is considered a lifetime task.

In many parts of the Western world, particularly America where we are spoiled by rock 'n' roll and Guitar Hero, we think differently.

People watch Esteban on Home Shopping Network show them how to strum three chords, and think they can "learn" guitar in this way.

Yes, I'm sure you can learn to play a song, maybe a dozen songs, on the sitar in the space of just a couple of weeks, but that's not the same.

I would simply hesitate to say you had "learned" how to play the sitar in this way. The same would apply to any instrument. Music is a craft. It takes time.

Also, have Sitars even been mounted an stands, so as to allow you to stop playing sitar partway through a song and play something else?

I'm sure they have. I'm not sure why you'd want to, though.

Perhaps what you're looking for is something more like the strange Rogue "Sitar Guitar", which is, for all intents and purposes, a guitar with sympathetic strings.

Some strange hybrid like that will probably get you relatively close to the "sound" of the sitar without the other characteristics that you don't seem interested in.

There are quite a number of guitar manufacturers making similar instruments. Just google "electric sitar" (a terrible misnomer, but whatever), and you'll find them.

[Perfection]

Ah ok, you've explained it well.

One more question, is there a way the volume, pitch and sustain of the droaning is controlled?

[LWatford]

just a cool video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erLZ-zW9Ti4