The Sarangi

The sarangi is an Indian instrument. It is a fretless bowed fiddle with four main strings and sympathetic strings. The main strings include the drone string, main, secondary, and tertiary playing strings. The main, secondary, and tertiary strings are tuned to Sa, lower Pa, and the low Sa. The tuning of the drone can be to either Sa, Ma, or Pa. The sympathetic strings, on the other hand, do not have one set way of tuning. However, the most common way is either chromatically or to the rag. [The rag is the modal system of India that represents the seasons time of day, etc.]  One bank of the side sympathetic strings is tuned chromatically and the other bank is tuned according to the rag. The rag is also used to help tune the upper sympathetic strings. [It also has three octaves.]  

A musician will play the sarangi with their fingernail to give pitch, but a bow is used to play. A musician's desire to play the sarangi has decreased due to its difficulty. However, the people who play the instrument will either play the dance style kathak or a variety of vocal music.

In the following video, the man demonstrates how to tune the sarangi. He uses a cylindrical-shaped metal tube to twist the tuning pegs. Also, he explains what pitches the strings are tuned to.

 

 

The video is not in English, but you can hear the different techniques a player can use while playing the sarangi. There is also singing. 

 

 

In this video, a man will show how to make a sarangi. It is very interesting to watch how quickly he does it. 

 

This is the second part to the previous video. He will show what you do after you have cut the shape out of the wood.

 

 

This is a video of the first sarangi ensemble in India. It shows the instrument being played Also, it shows how much the other players rely on the direction of the leader  

http://chandrakantha.com/articles/indian_music/sarangi.html
http://chandrakantha.com/articles/indian_music/sarangi/sarangi_parts.html
http://chandrakantha.com/articles/indian_music/sarangi/sarangi_tuning.html
http://chandrakantha.com/articles/indian_music/sarangi/sarangi_fingering.html