Where the notes lie
There is no fingering chart for this instrument, and that is not an omission. Here is the map instead, and how to use your ear as the chart.
Why there is no chart
The Hindustani classical sarangi has fingering tables that schools argue over in detail. The Nepali sarangi has nothing of the kind, for a reason that goes deeper than neglect: the instrument is not standardised. Sizes vary, string materials vary, and every player tunes to their own voice rather than to a fixed pitch. A chart of finger positions would only be true for one instrument in one player's hands.
What is fixed is the relationships. The middle strings are Sa. The thin string is the Pa above; the thick one is the Pa below. Every note is found as an interval from those, by ear, against the drone. That is the method, and it is the same on any sarangi anywhere.
The map
Each note is drawn where it physically falls on the string. Pick a scale and click any note to hear it.
The drawing is scaled to the part of the string a hand can reach; a real string carries on to the bridge well past the last note here.
The one thing the diagram is really showing
Look at the gaps. Between the open string and the first note there is a lot of room. Between the last two there is almost none. The spacing is not a drawing choice — a string sounds an octave higher at its midpoint, so each step up covers less distance than the one before it.
Two practical consequences:
- Low notes are forgiving, high notes are not. Near the nut a couple of millimetres barely matters. High up, the same slip is a semitone. This is why the top of a phrase is where beginners sound out of tune.
- The hand shifts rather than stretches. Once the notes are closer together than your fingers, spreading further stops helping. You move the whole hand up and re-reference. The arrow markers in the diagram are where that happens.
Which string for which notes
The two melody strings divide the range, and they overlap in the middle — which is a choice, not a redundancy.
| String | Open | Comfortable range | Use it for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thick, low melody | Pa below Sa | Pa. up to about Pa | The lower octave of a tune; the darker, heavier sound |
| Thin, high melody | Pa above Sa | Pa up to about Pa′ | The upper octave; brighter and more carrying |
Notes in the overlap — roughly Sa to Pa in the middle octave — can be played on either. Which you pick decides the tone, and more importantly it decides what slides are possible: a meend can only run along a string you are already on. If a phrase slides from Ni up to Re, both notes have to be on the same string, and that determines the fingering for the whole phrase. See Meend.
Learning the positions
Do this against the drone, and slowly. You are not memorising distances; you are training your ear to notice when a note locks and your hand to go straight there.
- Sa, then nothing. Find Sa on the thick string, lift the finger, find it again. Twenty times. It should stop being a search.
- Sa and Pa. Sa on the thick string, then the open thin string. Two reference points, no fingers needed for one of them.
- Sa Re Ga. Add one note at a time and check each against the drone before moving on.
- The full scale, one string. Then the same notes on the other string, and hear how different the same pitches sound.