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Hello Dear Friends,This gig came and went already, but it was a joy to get this short video last week from someone who was there:





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Too bad the video didn't capture the loud interruptions of the cookaburra bird in the cage right behind me. What fun!!!BTW: The text in the video says that the event occurred in the Summer of 2008 but it really happened this Summer.Cheers,Allen

Nice work Allen!Thanks for sharing...

I finally get to hear that beautiful Sitar! Thanks for posting Allen, great playing. It was fun to watch you in action.B

Simon and Garfunkel were right...it is all happening at the zoo!

Cool!

Very cool Alan!!Judging from the reactions of the Kangaroos, I'd say you guys were right in the pocket!! Mazz

Oh ..... very cool to get to see you in action on the sitar Allen.. .. I couldent help but wonder as that long neck passed by the camera lens.... what it might be like to smash one of those onstage!! I saw a guy playing solo at trade show once, he had some programmed background music and it was really mezmorizing to watch him go at it..... I had no idea you guys 'dig' into the sculpted frets so much for expression & bends .... (push in rather than up) Chris

Thanks friends, it was a fun little gig. And the place was hoppin' (that's a wallaby joke)! Yeah those sitar necks are long and note bending is the opposite of guitar: you pull the string toward the palm rather than push like on guitar. All of the strings are at the far half of the fret surface and the main melody string is closest to the fingering hand right in the center with nothing in the way for a good long pull. The frets are tall arched bent metal so - compared to guitar - it's like you're playing in the air with nothing but string tension and the fret tops to push against. That's awfully hard on the fingers, so you build up calluses pretty fast. If I didn't love it so much I'd probably notice it hurts. The instrument is very breakable. Been there, done that! Both of my sitars have been smashed once in their lives. The one I'm playing in the clips is a cheap old one from the mid 1960s that isn't valuable so I modified it with a pickup. This was my first time playing out with it and it sounded great through the PA!The guy who shot the video clips is coming over for a music recording session tomorrow and he agrees to think about producing a short professional video for me. I'll share that with you all someday if it happens! Fun-Fun-Fun!Allen