My Instruments : this is great, isn't it?

Tar means strings. It is the developed form of "Kopuz". Azerbaijani tunes are generally performed with this musical instruments. This instrument which is played by placing it on the man's chest, is widely practiced in Iran and Soviet Azerbaijan. It produces a beautiful sound peculiar to its own. The body of a Tar is made out of hollow tree. Its chest is tightly bound with a fine sheep's skin.Frets are fitted on its rather long handle. It carries nine strings on it. The steel strings of a Tar are tuned by intervals of 4 and 5. The lower strings are tuned to the key of "C" the middle one to "G" and the upper strings are tuned to the key of "C". Its plectrum is made out of an animal's horn.

Ghaval the Azerbaijani frame drum is played in Azerbaijani folk and art music. In folk music of Azerbaijan Ashigh (poet-musician) sings and plays on gopuz (nine-stringed long-necked lute) and sometimes composes poems in different festive occasions. The drum that usually accompanies the Ashigh is ghaval. In Azerbaijani art music a traditional ensemble contains a singer, which plays on ghaval and two instrumentalists, one plays on tar (long-necked lute) and the other plays on kamancheh (bowed spike fiddle).

Gopuz: Gopuz is the long-necked lute to be played by the Ashigh in Azerbaijan. It is called Saz too and Saz is generic name for musical instrument in Iran, Turkey and India. There is a similar instrument to gopuz in Turkey that is called Baglama.

Persian Tar

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