For about a couple of weeks I have been visiting the forum, since Santa bought my wife a a Mangla Prasad Sharma for Christmas. Wal-Mart was out of electric woks, I reckon.
All kidding aside, my wife was one of those "violin child prodigies". She also played the banjo (yes, we live in Nashville), and she has been doing yoga for 20+ years and meditating for about 13. She went to a Yoga retreat in upstate New York, and one of the Yoginis did a Sitar program. She absolutely fell in love with it. As a matter of fact, she almost purchased a Sitar from a furniture store here in town. I went to see it, and it was in such sorry shape that either Vishnu dropped it from his flying vimana, or Ganesh mistook it for a footstool.
Anyways, tonight we we "playing" with her, tuning it and so forth, and she somehow found the opening notes of "Paint it Black" by the Rolling Stones. Next time Mick & co are in town, I'm giving them a call.
Now, for my first official question to the group: Do y'all know of a Sitar instructor in Nashville? We have the Harihar Rao book and the Batish video #1, but that ain't 'nuff.
Namaste
santos & rudrani
PS: If any of you want advice on how to christmas-wrap a Sitar and case, I can help.
Haven't seen a listing for a sitar teacher per se - but musicians of a given style tend to band together in any given community. Try phoning the tabla teachers in Nashville (http://www.keshav-music.com/teachers.htm). In a town so full of musicians, a tabla teacher is bound to know someone. When you find a teacher, please share his/her contact info with the forum.
Cheers,
K
Good luck with your search for Sitar teachers. You may find a good teacher in Atlanta (I have heard a lot of good things about Mr. Haresh Bakshi). I live in Charlotte NC. I am learning Sitar for about 3-4 years. Even though I am not to the level where I can call myself a musician, I would be happy to share what I know with a beginner.
