<P> The instrument is balanced between the player's left foot and right knee . The hands move freely without having to carry any of the instrument's weight . The player plucks the string using a metallic pick or plectrum called a mizraab . The thumb stays anchored on the top of the fretboard just above the main gourd . Generally only the index and middle fingers are used for fingering although a few players occasionally use the third . A specialized technique called "meend" involves pulling the main melody string down over the bottom portion of the sitar's curved frets, with which the sitarist can achieve a seven semitone range of microtonal notes (however, because of the sitar's movable frets, sometimes a fret may be set to a microtone already, and no bending would be required). Adept players bring in charisma through use of special techniques like Kan, Krintan, Murki, Zamzama etc . They also use special Mizrab Bol - s, as in Misrabani and create Chhand - s even in odd - numbered Tal - s like Jhoomra . </P> <P> Vilayat Khan had been touring outside India off and on for more than 50 years, and was the first Indian musician to play in England after India's independence (1951) and to introduce the sitar to world audiences . In the late 1950s and early 1960s Ravi Shankar, along with his tabla player, Alla Rakha, began a further introduction of Indian classical music to Western culture . </P> <P> The sitar saw use in Western popular music when, guided by David Crosby's championing of Shankar, George Harrison played it on the Beatles' songs "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)", "Love You To" and "Within You Without You", recorded between 1965 and 1967 . The Beatles' association with the instrument helped popularise Indian classical music among Western youth, particularly once Harrison began receiving tutelage from Shankar and the latter's protégé Shambhu Das in 1966 . That same year, Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones used a sitar on "Paint It Black", while another English guitarist, Dave Mason, played it on Traffic's 1967 hits "Paper Sun" and "Hole in My Shoe". These and other examples marked a trend of featuring the instrument in pop songs which Shankar later described as "the great sitar explosion". Speaking to KRLA Beat in July 1967, he said: "Many people, especially young people, have started listening to sitar since George Harrison, one of the Beatles, became my disciple...It is now the' in' thing ." </P> <P> Before any of these examples, however, the Kinks' 1965 single "See My Friends" featured a low - tuned drone guitar that was widely mistaken to be a sitar . Crosby's band, the Byrds, had similarly incorporated elements of Indian music, using only Western instrumentation, on their songs "Eight Miles High" and "Why" in 1965 . </P>

Who is credited with the invention of the sitar