Chitrali Sitar Improvisation

I found this long-necked lute in a music shop in Worcester, England while on holiday there, and made this short film a few hours after buying it. it is a Chitrali Sitar from the mountainous North Western Frontier of Pakistan.

The body, table and neck of the instrument is carved from mulberry wood.

The frets are tied-on nylon (in 3 windings), in a special scale (7 notes to an octave).

There are five T-shaped pegs, and the five strings go over a wooden nut, underneath a copper winding to the pegs. The middle string goes UNDERNEATH the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th fret to come out at a tiny single sting 'nut', and at that fret all the strings are tuned to the same note. So if you play below the 4th fret you only play 4 strings but above the 4th fret you play 5 strings.

The thin metal strings run over a very small loose bridge to a iron hook in the end of the body. The five strings (all of similar thickness) are at equal distance from each other, although the melody is played on the first two as a single course. Tuning is c c g cc.

The instrument is strummed and is used for instrumental folk music and to accompany song.

The film was shot at Burlingham, Near Pershore, Worcestershire, England.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Chitrali
• Sitar
• lute
• Burlingham
• Pershore

[glorplaxy]

this looks like a setar, not a sitar. interesting.

[NicholasBreezeWood]

Hi no - this is not a setar - I have one of those too. If I can find time in the next little while I will record a short video to show you the difference. Setars have more frets, shorter necks and different body shape, and they come from Iran, this is an instrument from Pakistan

[kaiser6665]

Very nice & u have played & explained well....now living in UK & from that part of world,,i really enjoy it..

thnx

[NicholasBreezeWood]

Hi

thank you for your comment. i am pleased you know the instrument and like what i did. It's a ncie instrument - but the tuning makes it a bit hard to play with other things so I have not played it much since I made the video.

[Ducktowners]

is that small Saz?

[NicholasBreezeWood]

Hi, No, it's not a saz, although it and the saz share a common ancestor.. an original long neck lute from Central Asia that the Turkic people brought with them when they migrated to Turkey and which they gradually evolved into the saz. Read my notes on the video for more info on the instrument - it is really only superficially like a saz, it has a different shaped body, different number of strings, different tuning and a very different arrangement of frets. It's also longer than most Saz. Nick

[omgwhatastupid]

o.o woa ... what a strange instrument

[CzeckTalia]

in a music shop in Worcester, England.

[PureZOOKS]

India's answer to the strumstick?

[GouledXD]

How come everyone who plays these medieval instruments is from England? Are the expensive. I would love to get these kind of instruments. I play guitar, and I would love to own these smaller, older string instruments. Also some of the early pump organs look cool. I like how cool the unpracticality of it is, and how you play with one hand while standing up. They all look pretty awesome.

[linkofwar360]

parece linha de pescar grudada num remo XD

[onebighoe]

A paddle is an instrument. O__o

[shahalamalimi]

Hi sir fantastic, You play it in a very unique manner and one thing ya this is Sitar first time made by a scholar in central asia Pir Nasir e Khisraw,

I have here in my room because i m from Gilgitbaltistan where this Sitar is popular and one day i'll also up load, and I would like more videos with this instruments,

thank you for this wonderfull play

[saleem5195]

@NolikargAven it has 5 strings 3 for chords n 2 for melody

[saleem5195]

@fathaykhankharotti09 but um sure that u cant find ny single word of pushto language in chitrali... so how can u say that v belong 2 pushtoons.... but v love pushtoons it dznt mean that v hate them :) .... letz tok abt territories if u'll pass the lawari then u'll never find ny pushtoon living there in chitral....

[OmegaGuitarFreak]

OMG! What an instrument! Plays awesome, and looks awesome!! Kinda funny looking really :D

[hamya111]

@fathaykhankharotti09

Glgit n chitral also share sme common histry sme of the mehtars of chitral ruled parts of gilgit e.g Raja gohar aman. And thre r peple in balochistan who r pashtoon(they call themselves balochi pathan)i agree but al of the balochis r not pashtoons .Thre is no CHITRALI PASHTOON in chitral ,there might 1 or 2 pashtoon familys in chitral who r ur original pashtoons not the rest of chitralies.thre r also pashtoon families in gilgit to they speak shina wid us and pashto at home

[hamya111]

@fathaykhankharotti09

and there are alot of common words in khowar and the languages of gilgit. Khowar also has a lot of influence from farsi but i dont know if it is dari aur persian farsi or tajiki farsi. i dont know from where the original khow came from(but i can assure u they are not pashtoons) but alot of the families migrated from iran and tajikistan so thats the reason why khowar has the farsi effect. my own ancestors migrated from iran to chitral and then to gilgit area.