Editing Sitar (section)

==Physical description==
[[File:sitar parts.jpg|thumb|left|170px|Anatomy of a sitar]]

A sitar can have 18, 19, 20, or 21 strings; 6 or 7 of these run over curved, raised [[fret]]s and are played strings; the remainder are [[sympathetic strings]] (''tarb'', also known as ''taarif'' or ''tarafdaar''), running underneath the frets and resonating in sympathy with the played strings. These strings are generally used to set the mood of a [[raga]] at the very beginning of a presentation. The frets, which are known as {{IAST|pardā}} or [[thaat]],<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Thāṭ (Instrumental) |encyclopedia=The Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Music of India |author=Saṅgīt Mahābhāratī |url=http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195650983.001.0001/acref-9780195650983-e-4974?rskey=LEF1wZ&result=4974 |access-date=5 September 2018 |language=en |url-access=subscription |isbn=9780199797721 |date=2011}}</ref> are movable, allowing fine tuning. The played strings run to tuning pegs on or near the head of the instrument, while the sympathetic strings, which have a variety of different lengths, pass through small holes in the fretboard to engage with the smaller tuning pegs that run down the instrument's neck.

The instrument has two [[bridge (instrument)|bridges]]: the large bridge (''badaa goraa'') for the playing and drone strings and the small bridge (''chota goraa'') for the sympathetic strings. Its timbre results from the way the strings interact with the wide, rounded bridge. As a string vibrates, its length changes slightly as one edge moves along the rounded bridge, promoting the creation of [[overtones]] and giving the sound its distinctive tone.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=The Sitar String, a Vibrating String with a One-Sided Inelastic Constraint |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2101114 |access-date=2022-05-29 |journal=SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics |jstor=2101114 |language=en|last1=Burridge |first1=Robert |last2=Kappraff |first2=Jay |last3=Morshedi |first3=Christine |year=1982 |volume=42 |issue=6 |pages=1231–1251 |doi=10.1137/0142086 }}</ref> The maintenance of this specific tone by shaping the bridge is called ''[[jivari|jawari]]''. Many musicians rely on instrument makers to adjust this.

Materials used in construction include [[teak|teak wood]] or ''tun'' wood (''[[Cedrela toona]]''), which is a variation of mahogany, for the neck and faceplate (''tabli''), and [[Calabash|calabash gourd]]s for the resonating chambers. The instrument's bridges are made of deer horn, ebony, or very occasionally from camel bone. Synthetic material is now common as well.