The
Sarod

The sarod is, with the sitar, one of the two great plucked instruments of North Indian classical music — but where the sitar is bright and buzzing, the sarod is rounder, weightier, more vocal. It has no frets: the strings are pressed against a smooth steel plate, so the player's fingers can glide continuously from one pitch to the next. Beneath the main strings runs a set of sympathetic strings, never plucked, that ring in resonance and surround every note with a faint glistening halo.

Because there are no frets, the sarod thinks in glides rather than steps — the meend, the expressive slide between notes, is the heart of its expression. A raga performance typically begins with the alap, a slow, unmetered unfolding of the mode with no rhythm at all, where the instrument simply explores, breathes, and deepens. This is the sarod at its most meditative: a single melodic line gliding through a mode, with the sympathetic strings shimmering underneath and no hurry anywhere in it.