Sitar.co.za

News and Events

2008 06 08

Sitar.co.za launches new Sitar Wiki

Sitar.co.za has launched a Sitar Wiki!  What is a wiki?  It is a database of information on a subject that is freely open to be added to and edited by anyone. There is so much wonderful information about the sitar and Indian music out there, but it’s so difficult to access or find.  A wiki is an organised repository of this information that all can access.

At the moment, the Sitar Wiki is almost completely empty! Click on the “Wiki” link to the left and you’ll see what we mean. So, we need all our readers to help contribute information. With your help, we can make this the internet’s best resource on the Sitar, Sitarists and Indian Classical Music. Create an account to add or edit pages.  This wiki is set up to allow image and audio uploads, so have fun! 

First, if you haven’t already done so, you need to register for an account on Sitar.co.za’s site, and then familiarise yourself with the wiki’s Getting Started manual.  With a bit of practise you’ll soon see how easy it is to create, link and categorise articles, images and sound files.

To create a page, simply type the topic name in “Create or Find Page.” and click “Go.” If the wiki finds nothing, it assumes you want to create page, and by clicking “Edit” you can start adding information.  To link to another page, you simply surround the topic name you want to link to with double square brackets, like this:

[[Topic Name]]

If you want to assign a certain topic to a general category, you use this

...Continue Reading Article

View/Add Comments (0)

2008 05 03

Feature Concert Video: Brigitte Menon

Sitar.co.za's first special video concert feature is Brigitte Menon's Homage to Vilayat Khan , performed on April 4 2008 at Chapelle St Roch, St Rémy de Provence. The concert is in 6 parts - click the "play" button in the viewer below to hear it.

View/Add Comments (2)

2008 05 03

Sitar.co.za launches video channel

There are a huge number of sitar and Indian classical music videos appearing on the internet on a daily basis. In fact, YouTube and Google Video are currently the best sources of information on what's currently happening in the scene worldwide. Many are extraordinary for their musical and historical value, and others... not so much. To help separate the great from the terrible, Sitar.co.za has launched a new video channel which showcases some of the best and most interesting videos available. You can subscribe to the RSS video feed to be informed when new videos are added. You need an RSS reader for this, but most modern browsers and email clients come with these built in. Or, you can view the channel on YouTube directly . We've also installed a channel viewer on the Sitar.co.za home page (the top of this page) so have fun!

The videos on the channel are hand-picked by Sitar.co.za's editors. Although the focus is on the sitar and Indian classical music, great performances on other related instruments and from other genres will also be featured. Expect to see rare historical performances, new and unknown performers, dedicated students and experimental artists. Hopefully a few surprises and a bit of controversy as well! We encourage all readers who see something the like (or don't like!) to log and express their views - they always make for interesting and intelligent reading.

View/Add Comments (1)

2008 05 03

Kanailal and Brother

"Kanailal and Brother" were among the finest makers of sitars in the 20th century, and certainly the most influential. Steven Landsberg has written an insightful article on the contribution of Kanailal in the development of the modern sitar. The shop has long since closed down, and, although you can still buy a new "Kanailal" sitar today, it's just a label. Innovations developed by Kannailal, however, have been incorporated as standard design in the top sitars produced by Hiren Roy and Rikhi Ram to this day. You can download a pdf version of the article here (180kb). Deepak Raja has also written a great article on sitarist Vilayat Khan, part of which explains his contribution to refining the design of the sitar. This article is available here (pdf, 120kb).

View/Add Comments (21)

2008 05 03

Article by Arvind Parikh

An excellent article on sitar study and performance practices by Arvind Parikh was discovered hidden away in an obscure corner of the internet. It probably won't be of much use to beginners, as it's probably a little too general and too technical in nature to be of much practical use, but for intermediate and advanced players it's a great. Particularly interesting is the discussion of Taan Paltas and Alap Paltas, which is rarely expalined with such clarity. Also, the discussion "subject development" for building and developing phrases is very lucid. He makes it sound so easy, it's very encouraging! You can download a pdf copy (120kb) here.

View/Add Comments (0)

2008 05 03

Some new finds

A new motherload of rarely heard music and video has been quietly uploaded onto the net. Visit www.esnips.com and search for your favourite sitarist. You need to be a member to download the tracks. You can find an extensive (as in 12+ page long!) discussion of some of what's available, with direct links, at this monster thread at Chandra and David's sitar forum. There is another collection available here. None of this music is commercially available, and has languished, unheard, in archives for years. We applaud all those who have contributed to this remarkable collection.

There is also a superb collection of sitar videos available on Google Video, including this clip from the little known Sitar-Horror genre (just in case you needed even further confirmation as to just how important a good quality fibreglass really case is.) Thanks again to Nick Procter for uploading a huge number of these videos, many recorded from UK television on the 70's and 80's, all of which would be lost to history otherwise. Search for your favourite sitarist, and you'll be very pleasantly surprised. Thanks Nick!

View/Add Comments (3)

2008 05 03

New archival material

Thanks (again!) to UK based sitarist Nick Procter for the following items. First, a fascinating video of Irshad and Nishat Khan playing sitar from many, many years ago. Absolutely charming. Nick has also posted some extremely rare photographs from long out-of-print books (including one of Ali Akbar Khan as an 11 year old boy) and a selection of photos from his own personal collection of surbahars. Amazing looking instruments!

View/Add Comments (0)

2008 05 03

Deepak Raja’s blog

If you haven't yet seen Deepak Raja's world of Hindustani Music, you're in for a pleasant surprise. It's a treasure trove of articles on Indian classical music, including rare interviews with many instumentalists. Deepak Raja seems to adding a new article every day, and they're fascinating reading. Like this article by Shujaat Khan, and this one, and this by Kalyan Mukerjea about his lifelong study of the sarod. There's lots more, and all the articles are superb.

View/Add Comments (1)

2008 05 03

The best, and the worst…

Here's a quick, eclectic selection of two of the best and worst pieces of music you'll ever hear. Let's start with the best: Sahba Motallebi playing the Persian Tar. The Tar (or, more properly, chartar - "four string") is a relative of the sitar. And, Sahba Motallebi is amazing!

Next, the worst sitar recording you'll ever hear: Rajput and the Sepoy Mutiny's "Ragadelic" from their 60's era album Flower Power Sitar. If that's not bad enough for you, maybe their rendition of Up Up and Away is?

View/Add Comments (0)

2008 05 03

Electronic Tabla Samples

Sitar.co.za has just added a collection of Electronic Tabla Samples. Either click here or look for them in "Learning Materials." Each of the samples are in C#, about 10 minutes long, and come a variety of taals and tempos. They are no substitute for a good tabla machine or taal software (or a real tabla player, for that matter!), but will do just fine in a pinch.

View/Add Comments (1)

Page 8 of 9 pages « First  <  6 7 8 9 >