FW: why a sitar sounds like a sitar

Hi Folks,

A friend of mine who plays Carnatic veena sent me the following email
(and gave me permission to forward it to the tuning list).

Cheers,
Christopher

-----Original Message-----
From: L Ramakrishnan [SMTP:ramakris@uts.cc.utexas.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, February 29, 2000 5:44 PM
To: Christopher J. Chapman
Subject: why a sitar sounds like a sitar

IMO it has to do with the threads (usually
silk) that are placed at the region of
contact between the string and the bridge.

That and the sympathetic strings.

I can make my veena sound suspiciously like a
sitar by making those two changes. In
fact a Karnataka state-based veena player
added sympathetic strings to his veena to lend
it a sitaresque tone.

--------------------------
L Ramki Ramakrishnan
Integrative Biology
124 Patterson labs
ramakris@uts.cc.utexas.edu
---------------------------

"Christopher J. Chapman" wrote:
>
> From: "Christopher J. Chapman" <christopher.chapman@conexant.com>
>
> Hi Folks,
>
> A friend of mine who plays Carnatic veena sent me the following email
> (and gave me permission to forward it to the tuning list).
>
> Cheers,
> Christopher
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: L Ramakrishnan [SMTP:ramakris@uts.cc.utexas.edu]
> Sent: Tuesday, February 29, 2000 5:44 PM
> To: Christopher J. Chapman
> Subject: why a sitar sounds like a sitar
>
> IMO it has to do with the threads (usually
> silk) that are placed at the region of
> contact between the string and the bridge.
>
> That and the sympathetic strings.
>
> I can make my veena sound suspiciously like a
> sitar by making those two changes. In
> fact a Karnataka state-based veena player
> added sympathetic strings to his veena to lend
> it a sitaresque tone.

That's right. The thread. What's your point?

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