the.com/sarod
the fretless cousin of the sitar, played by sliding nails across naked steel.
means A fretless plucked string instrument of North Indian classical music, with a smooth metal fingerboard and a bright, resonant sound produced by sliding the fingernails along the strings.
from The name comes from the Persian word 'sarod,' meaning 'song' or 'melody' — fitting for an instrument carried into India along Persian and Central Asian cultural currents. It's often linked to the older Afghan 'rabab,' a fretted lute thought to be its ancestor, which Indian musicians reshaped over generations into the smooth-faced, metal-fingerboarded instrument heard today.
- name origin
- From Persian meaning melody or song
- no frets
- Notes slide on a polished metal fingerboard
- played with
- A coconut-shell plectrum called a java
- sympathetic strings
- Up to 25 strings, most never plucked directly
- goat skin
- Resonator belly is covered in stretched hide
amjad ali khan — indian sarod master, 10th hereditary player in gwalior gharana, won padma bhushan in 1991
zia fariduddin dagar — sarod virtuoso from dagarvani gharana, performed at world music festivals including lincoln center
buddhadev dasgupta — bengali sarod player who pioneered fusion with western classical music in 1960s-70s