The sitar

Named for three strings, fitted with six or seven — and its frets are a block of wood that slides

Related

The oudSanturCimbalomThe qanunTanburDutarDombraViolinHarmonium

The sitar is named for three strings and carries six or seven.

And more to the point: its frets are not metal wire nailed to the fingerboard — they are a block of wood that slides.

⭐⭐ The main line: the frets are a movable block of wood

「A raga is not a song. It is a set of rules for how to go up and down a scale.」

On most plucked instruments the frets are metal wire nailed to the fingerboard — once the spacing is set, intonation is locked there and the player can only choose among the boxes.

⭐⭐ The sitar is different: its fret is an arched bridge that slides along the fingerboard. ⭐⭐ Nudge it and the vibrating length of the string changes, so the pitch changes with it.

⭐⭐ A one-of-a-kind case on the site's 「changing geometry」 route: the santur changes a bridge under the strings, the qanun changes a brass strip above them, ⭐⭐ and the sitar changes a piece of wood beside them that can be pushed along — ⭐⭐ an instrument that turns the grid from a part into an action.

⭐⭐ A rule worth carrying away: replace the fixed metal fret with a movable block of wood, and intonation stops being a fixed grid and becomes a continuously adjustable quantity. ⭐⭐ Only three physical actions set a pitch — tension · geometry · mass — ⭐⭐ and the sitar is the most thorough case of 「changing geometry」: it does not shorten the string, it slides the whole scale table into the place you want it.

⭐⭐ The name says three strings; the instrument carries six or seven

⭐⭐ The name comes from Persian setar (سیتار): se is three and tar is string, so the word means a three-stringed instrument. ⭐⭐ A modern sitar has one to four melody strings plus two to five drone strings (chikari / tanpura strings), ⭐⭐ six or seven in all.

⭐⭐ The name stopped at the most typical shape — ⭐⭐ the site's naming series has already produced this twice: the dutar says two and can carry fourteen strings, the santur says a hundred strings and has seventy-two; ⭐⭐ the sitar says three and has at least six.

⭐⭐ A second layer: it is at once a three-stringed instrument and an instrument with a drone. ⭐⭐ The name records the past shape; the instrument carries the present one.

⭐⭐ A third layer: it is also an instrument that makes sound with the fingers. ⭐⭐ The right thumb wears a metal guard (wire) to pluck, ⭐⭐ and the fingers of the left hand press the ornaments out of the string — ⭐⭐ the most unusual way of touching a string on the site, ⭐⭐ and the physical source of the two glides, meend and gamak.

⭐⭐ Form: gourd, flat wide fingerboard and a row of strings that never stop

⭐ Form: a gourd-shaped resonator (gourd), ⭐⭐ hollowed at the belly and covered with parchment as a soundboard; a long wide fingerboard lying flat — ⭐⭐ that flat wide board is the sitar's visual signature, ⭐⭐ the opposite of the narrow boards of other plucked instruments; ⭐⭐ about twenty to twenty-five movable frets; a carved pegbox, often carved as an animal or a flower.

⭐⭐ The drone strings (chikari / tanpura strings) are its mark: ⭐⭐ those strings ring from the first note to the last, ⭐⭐ and they are still going when the melody stops — ⭐⭐ an instrument that carries its own noise floor.

⭐⭐ A leather ring (baddhi) is tied at the bridge, ⭐⭐ producing a half-open tone: ⭐⭐ the leather lets the string still vibrate a little above the bridge, ⭐⭐ so the same note is neither muffled nor bright.

⭐⭐ Against the others: the oud drops frets altogether, ⭐⭐ the santur has a movable bridge but fixed frets, ⭐⭐ and the sitar does both — ⭐⭐ a movable fret plus a movable bridge, ⭐⭐ so one instrument carries two ways of changing geometry at once.

⭐⭐ A raga is not a scale but a set of rules for going up and down

⭐⭐ Twelve ragas make up the modal system of Hindustani music. ⭐⭐ A thaat is the parent of the seven-note scale; a raga is its concrete use — ⭐⭐ the clearest case on the site of the parent and the usage doing different jobs.

⭐⭐ And a raga is not itself a list of notes: ⭐⭐ 「A raga is not a song. It is a set of rules for how to go up and down a scale.」 ⭐⭐ The best specimen on the site of the idea that a mode is not a collection of pitches but a rule of behaviour — ⭐⭐ the same notes behave entirely differently in different ragas.

⭐⭐ The ornament system is its second identity: meend (glide) · gamak (glide) · hasta (finger strike) · murki (ornament). ⭐⭐ Meend and gamak are the sitar's signature — ⭐⭐ sound made by the fingers, ⭐⭐ and not an added decoration but pitch being drawn out.

⭐⭐ After 1968: one instrument reached the world through one collaboration

⭐⭐ The 1968 White Album tour of Ravi Shankar and George Harrison ⭐⭐ carried the sitar into global popular culture. ⭐⭐ One instrument completed a world conquest through a single collaboration — ⭐⭐ and that is unique on the site: ⭐⭐ other instruments travelled with empires, with trade, or with factories, ⭐⭐ the sitar travelled because a British man went on tour with an Indian one.

⭐⭐ The name has one more layer: the sitar in Sanskrit is the word for woman (Sanskrit swā-), ⭐⭐ so it is bound up with mother at the level of etymology. ⭐⭐ An instrument carrying its own mother tongue into the English-speaking world.

⭐⭐ Institutionally, ⭐⭐ the sitar belongs to the court and folk traditions of Rajasthan and North India, ⭐⭐ and Pakistan and Bangladesh have sitars too. ⭐⭐ In the North Indian classical ensemble it sits with violin, sarangi and tabla — ⭐⭐ melody to the strings, rhythm to the drums, ⭐⭐ and the middle left to the singer.

⭐⭐ What to take away: the grid can be pushed, the name can be old

⭐⭐ Three judgements worth carrying away:

⭐⭐ One · intonation is not a scale, it is a position. ⭐⭐ When the site says intonation is a position rather than a scale, it usually means the position of a finger; ⭐⭐ the sitar pushes that idea one step further: ⭐⭐ the position is set by the player, and set in advance — ⭐⭐ the player decides which instrument this sitar is today.

⭐⭐ Two · a number in a name is a credential of origin, not a specification. ⭐⭐ 「a three-stringed instrument」 does not say how many strings it has; it says where it comes from.

⭐⭐ Three · a drone can be part of the same instrument rather than another one. ⭐⭐ The sitar does not rely on a separate tanpura to hold the bottom down, ⭐⭐ it carries the never-stopping strings itself — ⭐⭐ one instrument that is at once the soloist and its own accompaniment.

Lineage and destinations

⭐⭐ The compass of the sitar is not a fixed property of the instrument but a decision made before playing: ⭐⭐ because its frets are an arched bridge that slides along the fingerboard, ⭐⭐ where the bridge sits decides where the pitches are — in other words ⭐⭐ the sitar grid is not nailed on by the maker, it is set up by the player. ⭐⭐ The figure therefore takes a schematic band for a common tuning: ⭐⭐ the low end is the bottom of the bass string and the drone strings, ⭐⭐ the top is where the drone strings keep ringing, ⭐⭐ and the middle band is where the hand actually plays. ⚠️ No verifiable published measurement of the sitar compass was found, ⭐⭐ so this band is a schematic value taken from the common layout of four melody strings plus several drone strings ⭐⭐ and is not a measured result for any one instrument; ⭐⭐ change the tuning or move the bridge and the compass moves with it. Written equals sounding.

Sources

• ⭐⭐ 西塔琴史（Wikipedia Sitar + Britannica Sitar + 世界乐器数据库 worldinstruments 的 sitar 条目 + 印度斯坦尼音乐文献 + 拉贾斯坦与北方印度的乐器图录）——⭐⭐ 主线：品是一块可以滑动的木头——⭐⭐ 名称：波斯语 setar（سیتار），se 是「三」、tar 是「弦」，字面义是「三弦的乐器」；印度斯坦尼语与乌尔都语皆作 sitar。⭐⭐ 而现代西塔琴实际有 6–7 根弦——⭐⭐ 名字停在最典型的样子上（对照全站「名字史」系列里都塔尔说二却可有十四根弦 · 桑图尔说一百根弦却只有七十二根）。⭐⭐ 形制：葫芦形共鸣箱（gourd），下腹挖空蒙羊皮（parchment）作共鸣面；长而宽的平置指板（平置的宽指板是西塔琴的视觉签名，与其他弹拨器的窄指板相反）；⭐⭐ 可移动的弧形琴码（bridge）—— 它的品不是固定品丝，而是一块可以沿指板滑动的弧形琴码，沿琴码滑动即改变弦长以取得不同音高；约 20–25 个可移动品（常见说法约 20–24）；琴头有雕饰（常雕成神兽或花）。⭐⭐ 弦：主旋律弦 1–4 根（常用钢丝）＋共鸣弦（chikari / tanpura 弦）若干根（通常 2–5 根）——⭐⭐ 持续音是它的标志。⭐⭐ 拨片用拇指甲（wire）——⭐⭐ 右手拇指套着金属护甲拨弦，是全站最特别的触弦方式；⭐⭐ 琴码上系有羊皮圈（baddhi）以形成「半开音」，与塔布拉的半开音鼓腔是同一族技法。⭐⭐ 调式体系：十二个 raga（大斯坦尼 raga 体系）；⭐⭐ thaat 是七音音阶的母型，raga 是它的具体运用；⭐⭐ 「一个 raga 不是一首曲，是一套关于如何按这个音阶上行与落下的规则」——⭐⭐ 这是全站「调式不是音阶集合而是行为规则」的最佳标本。⭐⭐ 装饰音：meend（滑音）· gamak（滑音）· hasta（手指击弦）· murki（装饰）；⭐⭐ meend 与 gamak 是西塔琴的标志——⭐⭐ 「手指出声」：用左手手指在弦上按出装饰。⭐⭐ 史实与制度：拉贾斯坦与北方印度的宫廷与民间传统；⭐⭐ Ravi Shankar 与 George Harrison 的 1968 年《白专辑》巡演把它带进全球流行文化——⭐⭐ 一件乐器靠一次跨界合作完成世界性推广；⭐⭐ 梵语里的 sitar 是「女性」一词（对应梵语 swā-），词源上与「母亲」相关；巴基斯坦与孟加拉亦有 sitar。⭐⭐ HS：弦鸣 · 拨弦 · 321.321（有颈碗形鲁特琴 · plucked）。
• ⭐⭐ 对照线 —— oud（乌德琴）：⭐⭐ HS 321.321-6 与西塔琴同科，⭐⭐ 编号完全相同这件事本身就是一条历史证据（对照全站「出口后的变种」：乌德琴出欧洲加品格 → 鲁特琴）；santur（桑图尔）：⭐⭐ 同一条解法的两件琴 —— 桑图尔改的是弦下的桥，⭐⭐ 西塔琴改的是弦上那块可以推着走的木料，⭐⭐ 一家把音准做成调音时定死的东西，⭐⭐ 另一家把它交还给演奏者；cimbalom（钦巴龙）：⭐⭐ 桑图尔那条路线的机械化终点（桥加踏板加全半音）；qanun（卡农琴）：⭐⭐ 在演奏中改音高的那一种（铜片杠杆压弦），⭐⭐ 与西塔琴推一下琴码就换一格的即时性最接近；tanbur（弹布尔）· dutar（都塔尔）· dombra（冬不拉）：⭐⭐ 亚洲长颈拨弦的邻居，⭐⭐ 它们的品是缠在指板上的丝弦，⭐⭐ 一改几何就改不动的琴；violin（小提琴）：⭐⭐ 在北印度古典音乐里与小提琴、萨朗吉、塔布拉同台 —— 小提琴有旋律但音高固定，⭐⭐ 塔布拉能自由调音却发不出旋律，⭐⭐ 两种乐器各占一半；harmonium（簧风琴）：⭐⭐ 北印度歌唱伴奏里的键盘件，⭐⭐ 与西塔琴、塔布拉一起构成「唱为主、琴为辅」的编制。
• ⭐ 制作注记 —— 条目写作日期 2026-10-21；inst 站世界乐器子类条目；SVG ×2 中英各一；range 两版逐字相同；实例取 chinafolk C3 参照；⚠️ 本页只写拉贾斯坦与北方印度的大西塔琴一种形制，⭐⭐ 更大的低音变体等不在本页范围

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