ANOUSHKA SHANKAR, SITAR PLAYER & COMPOSER

Anoushka Shankar, 30, is a sitar player and composer, the daughter of the Indian musician Ravi Shankar and the half-sister of the singer Norah Jones. She lives in east London with her husband, the film director Joe Wright, their son, Zubin, and their dog, Kansas Brown. She grew up between India, California and London. Her seventh studio album, Traveller, is out now (anoushkashankar.com)

Father My father taught me to play the sitar when I was seven years old. He and his elder disciples oversaw my teaching from the beginning, looking after my scale work, the poor things. My father had a sitar made for me that was half the size of a normal one. The upbringing I had was simultaneously normal and magical. I couldn’t not be aware of who my father’s friends were… George Harrison, Yehudi Menuhin, Mehta. As a child I’d sit at dinner parties with artists, authors and musicians, some of the best people in their fields. I couldn’t avoid the path I took having grown up in such an artistic environment.

Sitar The sitar is a really difficult instrument to play. Physically it’s taxing because of the cross-legged sitting position, the length of the neck on the shoulder, the thinness of the strings. There’s a lot of pain, especially at the start. You do get strong fingers, although they go soft if I take lots of baths. I have to make peace signs in the bathtub to keep my fingers dry. My sitar is called the ‘Anoushka’ and it was made especially for me. It’s the first sitar that is an acoustic instrument with an internal miking system. In big Indian concert halls, that’s important.

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