Tuning the Sitar: Playing Strings, Chikari, and Taraf

Tuning a sitar is a genuinely different exercise from tuning a guitar, mostly because a sitar isn't really "one set of strings" — it's several different string groups doing different jobs, each tuned with a different purpose in mind. Understanding the groups makes the whole process click.

The main melody strings

The primary playing strings — the ones the right hand plucks with the mizrab (a wire plectrum worn on the index finger) to sound actual melody — are usually tuned relative to the chosen tonic, Sa, and to the specific raga being played. Because Hindustani classical music is built around a movable "Sa" rather than a fixed pitch standard, there's no single universal tuning here the way there is for, say, a standard-tuned guitar — the tonic is chosen to suit the performer's voice range or the instrument, and everything else is tuned relative to it.

Chikari: the rhythmic drone

A separate small set of strings, the chikari, are tuned to fixed drone-like intervals — typically the tonic and a higher octave — and are strummed rhythmically rather than used for melody. They give a sitar performance its persistent rhythmic pulse and harmonic grounding, functioning a bit like a rhythm-guitar strum layered under a lead line, except here both are coming from the same instrument and often the same hand motion.

What the standard tuning actually is

A concrete example makes the groups above real. The most common setup — the kharaj-pancham style associated with Ravi Shankar — tunes the seven playing strings like this, with Sa set to C# (a typical tonic; anywhere from C to D is normal):

#	String	Tuned to (Sa = C#)	Job
1	Baj tar	Ma, middle octave (F♯)	the main melody string
2	Jor	Sa, middle octave (C♯)	drone / melodic support
3	Pancham	Pa, lower octave (G♯)	low fifth
4	Kharaj	Sa, lower octave (C♯)	bass tonic
5	Pancham chikari	Pa, middle octave (G♯)	rhythmic drone
6	Badi chikari	Sa, upper octave (C♯′)	rhythmic drone
7	Chhoti chikari	Sa, two octaves up (C♯′′)	rhythmic drone

Note the pattern: almost everything anchors to Sa or Pa — the same fixed points the swaras piece describes. The main melody string sits on Ma, a fourth above Sa, which keeps it clear of the drone strings around it.

Taraf example: the sympathetic strings are tuned ascending to the raga's own notes. For a Kalyan-thaat raga like Yaman that's roughly Sa Re Ga Ma♯ Pa Dha Ni across two octaves; for Bhairav it'd be Sa re Ga Ma Pa dha Ni. The taraf literally spells the raga — which is why retuning it per raga matters.

Practical notes: set Sa with an electronic tuner, then tune everything else relative to it by ear — that's the skill the tuner can't replace. Work from the lowest strings upward, turn pegs gently (a forced peg is a broken peg), and use the fine-tuning beads for small corrections. New strings stretch: expect to retune constantly for the first week or two. And retune the taraf every time you change raga — a taraf set tuned for Yaman will fight a Bhairav phrase, not support it.

Taraf: strings you never touch

Beneath the frets sits the largest string group by count: the sympathetic strings, or taraf. These are never plucked directly. Instead they're tuned to the specific swara positions used in whichever raga is being performed, and they resonate on their own in response to the melody strings above them — which is a large part of why a sitar sounds different tuned for one raga versus another, even if a listener couldn't consciously say why. Retuning the taraf strings for a new raga is a routine, expected part of preparing to perform that raga properly, not an occasional adjustment.

Why this matters even if you'll never tune a physical sitar

If you're just getting started with the Virtual Sitar, none of this tuning complexity is something you need to manage yourself — the tonic selector on that page handles the equivalent of choosing Sa, letting you hear how the same key layout produces a different set of swara names depending on where Sa is set. The string-group relationships laid out above — Ma a fourth up, Pa a fifth down, chikari and taraf anchored to Sa and Pa — stay fixed regardless of tonic; the dropdown moves where Sa sits, not how everything else relates to it. But knowing what's happening on a physical instrument behind that simple dropdown is part of understanding why the sitar sounds the way it does.

Practice this: open the Virtual Sitar and switch the tonic selector between two different settings — notice the swara names shift while the string-group relationships above stay exactly the same.