Sitar tuner – Kharaj Pancham (C)
C-G-C-F-G-C-F · Standard
Press “Start tuner” – the browser will ask for microphone access. Sound is analysed on this device and never uploaded.
This free online tuner listens through your microphone and shows how close each string of your Sitar is to Kharaj Pancham (C) tuning (C-G-C-F-G-C-F). Play a string, watch the needle, and turn the peg until the meter glows green. If you prefer tuning by ear, tap any string card to hear its reference tone.
About Kharaj Pancham (C) tuning
Kharaj Pancham (C) is the reference tuning for the Sitar – the pitch the instrument normally ships at, and the starting point every other tuning on this page is measured from.
Played open, the strings sound C-G-C-F-G-C-F – from C2 at the bottom to F4 at the top, a span of 2 octaves and 5 semitones. Step by step across the neck the intervals are a fifth, a fourth, a fourth, a whole tone, a fourth, a fourth, and that is what decides how chord shapes fall under the hand.
Left open, the strings together spell Csus4. That is a by-product of how the intervals are laid out rather than the point of the tuning, but it does mean some chords need very few fingers here.
Kharaj Pancham is the most common sitar tuning for khayal-style playing, and the strings listed here are only the playing and drone strings – a sitar also carries a set of sympathetic strings underneath, tuned to the notes of the raga being played and never touched directly.
The reference pitch is not fixed. A sitar is tuned to the player, usually with C or C# as Sa, and the tuning is adjusted for each raga, which means a chromatic tuner is a starting point rather than an authority here.
History
Sitar
The sitar took shape in 18th-century North India at the Mughal courts. Its name comes from the Persian setar, “three strings”. A popular legend credits the 13th-century poet Amir Khusrau with its invention, but there is no evidence for it; the instrument descends from Indian long-necked lutes and from Persian models. Later came the movable curved frets, the gourd resonator and the set of sympathetic strings (tarab) that give the sitar its shimmering sound.
In the 20th century two great players defined its styles: Ravi Shankar of the Maihar gharana and Vilayat Khan of the Imdadkhani gharana. Shankar's collaborations with Yehudi Menuhin and his tours of the West in the 1950s and 60s, and George Harrison's sitar on the Beatles' “Norwegian Wood” (1965), made the sitar the best-known Indian instrument in the world.
Where the Kharaj Pancham (C) tuning comes from
Kharaj-pancham is the sitar tuning associated with Ravi Shankar and the Maihar gharana, with bass strings (kharaj) added. Vilayat Khan developed a contrasting gandhar-pancham tuning.
Other Sitar tunings
Standard
How do I tune my Sitar to Kharaj Pancham (C)?
Allow microphone access, pluck a string, and the tuner will detect it automatically. The needle shows whether the string is flat or sharp – adjust until the reading is within ±5 cents (C-G-C-F-G-C-F).
Which notes are used in Kharaj Pancham (C) tuning?
Kharaj Pancham (C) tuning for Sitar uses the notes C-G-C-F-G-C-F, listed from the lowest string to the highest.
Can I tune without a microphone?
Yes. Every string card plays a reference tone – tap it and match your string to the sound by ear.