While My Sitar Gently Weeps...

Is it a total coincidence that sitar and guitar are similar-sounding words? It's not, in fact. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, guitar comes to English from the Spanish guitarra, which in turn comes from the Arabic qitar, which comes from the Greek kithara, which comes from the Persian sihtar, which is where the Hindi sitar comes from as well. Still with me?

Anyhow, in their modern incarnations, guitar and sitar don't have a whole lot in common. They both have strings and resonating bodies. They're both made of wood. George Harrison knew how to play both of them. That's about it. The sitar has lots of crazy features that are seem totally off-the-wall for people who are only familiar with Western music, and I imagine that Classical Indian musicians might find the guitar sort of limited, as it can only really play Western-style scales.

Okay, okay, I can't fake it anymore. The real reason I wrote a blog about the sitar is not because I wanted to babble about linguistics or comparative ethnomusicology (although I love babbling about both of those things). It's because I wanted an excuse to show you this: Sitar Hero. I know it's just a joke for now, but if they make it, I'm so playing it! Haha! (Ahem - if you don't get the joke, find the nearest eighth-grader - they'll explain it to you!)