Random and not of much significance, But I want to learn how to play the sitar.

So I know this is pretty random and doesn't really relate much to class at all, but it still pertains to music so here goes.

 

I've been playing guitar for about 9 and a half years now and I'm absolutely in love with it.  I took lessons for about 4 years and now I just dabble. I'm very heavily influenced by styles of playing from the 60's and the 70's, although I love pretty much all styles in general. Some examples of musicians who have greatly influenced me are Jimmy Page, Joe Perry, Eddie Hazel, Lou Reed and George Harrison- The lead guitarist from The Beatles. 

 

Aside from wanting to somehow resurrect him from the dead , marry him and potentially bear some zombie george children, I just honestly loved his style of guitar playing. The thing I loved most about it was how much it evolved over time. You have Please Please Me, which is early, poppy, original-Boyband styles, then you have Revolver, which features a trippy, backwards recording of a guitar solo featured in Tomorrow Never knows- A song based on the Tibetan book of the living and the dying. During the time when Rubber Soul was being produced, george harrison became very interested in classicsal Indian music, bought a sitar and contacted Ravi Shankar to teach him.

 

Ravi Shankar is considered to be the most well-known contemporary music musician and a master of the sitar. He was born in 1920 in Varanasi, a state in india off the banks of the Ganges River. He met George Harrison in the sixties and was his Sitar teacher. Shankar and Harrison became great friends and collaborated with each other on various music projects, such as George Harrison's concert for Bangladesh in 1971. Here's a video of George getting a lesson from ravi <3 

 

This is a sitar. They're used mainly for classical Indian music, but have appeared in popular music. Bands in the sixties have featured the use of sitar in their music, such as the Kinks, the Yardbirds and The Beatles. They differ immensely from guitars in various ways. Sitars have moveable frets and can have up to 23 strings, whereas Guitars' frets cannot move and generally they have 6-12 strings. One of my goals in life is to have a basic understanding of all of the strung instruments, including violin, banjo, Mandolin, ukulele(I already play), Cello and , of course, the Sitar. The Sitar is my main goal because, from what I've heard, it requires an amazing amount of patience of dedication to play. So being able to play the sitar would feel like such a big accomplishment for me. Also, I very much love the sound of the Sitar. I would recommend listening to The Spirit of India, which is an album by Ravi Shankar that features simply beautiful and amazing Sitar playing. Sitar is very, very soothing and great to listen to when you're in deep thought, trying to concentrate or while you're just chilling out. 

Please take some time out of your day to listen to this