I thought I would try this every few months or so - I am a beginner sitar player looking for a teacher in the Charleston, Huntington, Beckley West Virginia area or in Ashland KY area - is there anybody out there?:-)??
Just a thought. .If you truly want to learn. Locate a teacher wherever and travel 3-4 times a year for an extended weekend of lessons. I am sure you can find a teacher within an hours plane ride. .
Might want to start with a local Indian restaurant, if you have one. At ours, I found a poster for the "Friends of India" group in my area and contacted one of the members via email, who referred me to another member, who referred me to my teacher. I thought I'd have a heck of a time finding someone in Iowa, but it worked out nicely. Keep looking - something is bound to turn up.
As I don't know your part of the country I would suggest also looking at teacher listings at the following link, as you may see someone appropriate to your needs. Even if you see a tabla teacher that is close - call him! He will generally know where the nearest sitar teacher can be found. Good luck!
http://www.keshav-music.com/teachers.htm
If you are a beginner, you need lesson a week. Hope you will find a teacher near by. If not, you might want to try out some thing that I do. I live in Charlotte NC and take lessons from Pt. Habib Khan over phone. He lives in San Jose. Looks like its working because my friends are telling me that I have improved a lot in past few months.
Earlier, I tried flying to San Jose every 2-3 months and it was not working for me. So I asked my Guruji if he could teach me over phone. Luckily for me, he was willing to try it.
That is very interesting. Could you explain how that works - do you have a speaker phone? Do you have any trouble communicating with him - like when you are playing something back. How much (if you don't mind me asking) does this cost??? Does he fax you written exercises?
