Sitar Fretboard Explorer — CGCGC

An interactive note map of the Sitar's neck in CGCGC: tap a note to light it on every string and fret, and watch the lattice this tuning builds — CGCGC — only two pitch classes ring open, a fifth apart: C across three strings and G across two.

Light Sa first, then Pa: the two pitch classes that ring open, a fifth apart, and the only notes this tuning gives you for free. Every other swara is fretted — and every position here is a 12-TET reference, not the meend a sitarist actually plays between them.

This map is the main playing strings only. A real sitar also carries a set of chikari strings off to the side, struck for a rhythmic drone rather than fretted for pitch, and often more sympathetic strings beneath the frets entirely — neither has a place on a fretted diagram, so neither is drawn here. What a thaat organizes is the raga vocabulary this board can only gesture at; see the thaats engine for that half of the instrument.