This long term course is designed to teach students popular indian stringed instrument, sitar. This course looks to create a strong foundation in Hindustani classical for students wishing to learn the sitar. It begins by training students on the correct posture to be followed when sitting with a sitar.

Sitting posture is important for all sitar players because of the size of the instrument and the length of time they play music. Right posture ensures students are at ease and comfort when playing the sitar so that it does not impact the performance. This course teaches students on the right placement of fingers of the left hand on the fretboard of the sitar, similarly it educates them on how to hold the striker, pluck, otherwise known as mizrab. Once students show confidence in terms of the sitting posture and the finger placement on the sitar, they teacher then introduces them to the first musical lessons on the sitar. They are taught to play the basic notes in Hindustani classical music, sa, re, ga, ma, pa, dha, ni on the sitar. The basic notes are followed by teaching the students to play varied combinations of the basic notes such as sa, ,re, ga; re, ga, ma; ga, ma, pa etc. Further on students are taught the different types of ornamentations, such as meend which means a glide from one note to the other. Students also get to learn jhala known as the alteration of main melody string, ghasit, murchona, krintan and jomjoma.Here on students are introduced to rhythmic cycles in Hindustani classical music known as tala. For the purpose of this course students will train and learn about a 16 beat rhythm cycle known as teen tala. Students further in this course will learn the basic concepts of ragas, their structure and other information related to them, such as the specification of ragas that states that they be played at specific times in the day. In simple terms in Hindustani classical music there are ragas that are meant for early mornings, evening and night. Students in the guidance of the teacher get to practice the raga compositions in ascending and descending order. Students through this course learn basics of yaman, bhagyashree, bhairav, kafi ragas.

After successful completion of this course, students can gear themselves for the next course by Supratik Sengupta: Ragas on Sitar | Hindustani Classical

About Supratik Sengupta: Supratik Sengupta born in a family of musicians, was fortunate to find his first teacher in his father Shri. Kuber Sengupta, who helped him step into the world of music at an early age. Ever since, Supratik has taken confident strides towards becoming an exponent of sitar. Soon after, Supratik started his formal training in the guidance of Biswanath Das and Debaprasad Chakraborty. Then on, Supratik took tutelage from Sangeet Acharya Ajoy Sinha Roy and Dr. Pradip Chakraborty for long, before deciding to enroll at the ITC Sangeet Academy to train under Pt. Buddhadeb Dasgupta and Pt. Partho Pratim Chatterjee. His time at the academy was spent as a musician scholar under his respected gurus mentioned earlier. Surpratik was destined to shine as a musician and the training he underwent ensured that his destiny was not impacted. Supratik’s talent was recognised by the ministry of Travel, Tourism & Culture that bestowed on him a national scholarship. He is recognised an A grade artist by All India Radio and has performed at multiple locations both in India and Abroad.