Descriptions of Persian Music Instruments:

Ney:

The Ney, which is probably the oldest pitched instrument known to man, is an oblique rim blown reed flute with five finger holes in front and one thumb hole in the back. One of the principle instruments of Traditional Persian Music, the ney has a range of two and a half octaves. The upper end is covered by a short brass cylinder which is anchored in the tiny space between the upper incisives of the player. Sound is produced when a stream of air is directed by the tongue toward the opening of the instrument. In this way, sound is produced behind the upper teeth, inside the mouth, which gives the ney a distinct timbre than that of the sound produced by the lips on the outside of the mouth.

Tar:

Belonging to the lute family, the tar appeared in its present form in the middle of the eighteenth century. The body is a double-bowl shape carved from mulberry wood, with a thin membrane of stretched lamb-skin covering the top. The long fingerboard has twenty-six to twenty-eight adjustable gut frets, and there are three double courses of strings. Its range is about two and one- half octaves, and is played with a small brass plectrum.

Setar:

The ancestry of the setar can be traced to the ancient
tanbur of pre-Islamic Persia. It is made from thin mulberry wood and its fingerboard has twenty-five or twenty-six adjustable gut frets. Setar is literally translated as three strings; however, in its present form, it has four strings and it is suspected that setar initially had only three strings. Because of its delicacy and intimate sonority, the setar is the preferred instrument of Sufi mystics.

Santour:

The Santoor is a trapezoid-shaped hammered zither, which is struck with light wooden hammers. Originating in Persia, it has traveled the world from North Africa to Spain, throughout Eastern Europe, and to China, Korea and Japan.

The santur has seventy-two strings which are arranged on adjustable tuning pegs in eighteen sets of four. The strings are made of bronze (9 in the low register) and steel (9 in the middle register). Each set of four strings creates one single tone. There are a total of 27 tones available covering approximately three octaves. The body of the santur is usually made of walnut but can be made of various types of wood depending on the desired sound.

The santur is played with two very fine wooden hammers, sometimes covered with felt, and held with 3-4 fingers. In contrast to the playing technique of the similar Turkish or Indian instruments, where heavy hammers create tremolo by "falling" on the strings, with the Persian santur, tremolo is created and directed by the musicians wrist.

The Santoor can be made from various kinds of wood (walnut, rosewood, betel palm, etc.) depending on the desired sound quality.
 The front and the back of the instrument are connected by soundposts whose positions play an important role in the sound quality of the instrument. Although the santoor is very old, it was neither depicted in miniatures, nor presented in any other medium until the nineteenth century. The secret of making the trapezoid-shape sound box lies in the quality and age of the wood, as well as in the arrangement of the soundposts which connect the table of the instrument to its back

Kamancheh:

Derived from the Persian words kaman, 'bow' or 'arc', and cheh, 'little' is an ancient spiked fiddle which is ancestor to most modern European and Asian bowed instruments. It can now be found throughout the area stretching from North Africa to China. The instrument's name varies from region to region (e.g. kamange, saz-e Keshmiri, joze, ghiczak), as does its shape (it can be spherical or cylindrical and have an open or closed back).

The Iranian classical kamancheh has a spherical shape, its bridge resting on the surface of a soundbox covered by a membrane of animal skin. The soundbox has no standard size and can be made entirely from one piece of wood or from many ribs. Its rounded body, made from different kinds of wood (e.g. mulberry, walnut, oak, or maple), has a spike on bottom to support the instrument.

The kamancheh's four metal strings are generally tuned in fourths or fifths. The instrument is held vertically and the bow, made of horsehair, moves horizontally, with the performer rotating the instrument when he or she moves from one string to another.

Tombak:

The Tombak is a goblet-shaped drum carved from solid mulberry wood and covered at the wide end with lamb or goat skin. It is held horizontally and played with both hands. The finger technique is extremely elaborate and consists of rolling and snapping the fingers in various ways which allow for a great variety of sounds.

The rich variety of tones and textures on this instrument allows the player to punctuate and ornament the melodic phrases as well as create rhythmical patterns. Tom and bak are onomatopoeias for two basic strokes, one low (tom) in the center, and one high (bak) on the side of the membrane.

Daf:

The DAF is a type of frame drum that is
depicted in many Persian miniatures and has reliefs from centuries ago. Although it appears at first sight to be a relatively simple instrument, the daf has the potential of producing intricate rhythmic patterns and sounds. The daf is equipped with metal rings on the inside which add a jingle effect to the sound. The frame is covered with goat-skin.

Damam:

The damâm is one of the most famous instruments in the south of Iran particularly in Booshehr. The bowl of the damâm has a cylindrical format covered by skin on both sides and fastened by straps and ropes on the sides. It is played by both hands while it is firmly held on the ground. It is sometimes suspended from the neck with straps during performances. Although it is particular to Iran, instances of it may be found in India and some certain Arabic and African countries.

Do-Tableh:

"Do" in Farsi means "two". This may help to understand that this instrument is made from a large and a small drum set side by side. It is a wartime instrument used by the Kurds, hung from the neck of horses and played to motivate the warriors. Similar to the tâs, the du-tablé consists of metallic bowls covered with skin fastened by belts on the sides by two short leather straps. The larger drum has a more base tone whereas the smaller drum has a sharper tone. Do-tablé is similar to the Indian Tabla, except in that the Tabla has a more diffused sound and is played with the fingers.

Tanbour:

The tanbour is the ancestor to most long-necked, plucked stringed instruments. Its pear shaped belly is normally carved out of one piece of mullberry wood with a long neck and fourteen gut frets. Some modern tanburs are made of bent ribs of mulberry wood. The sound board, 3-4 millimeters thick, is also made of mulberry wood which has numerous small holes for better resonance.

The tanbur has a unique playing technique by which the strings are strummed with the fingers of the right hand to produce a very full and even tremolo called shorr (literally meaning the pouring of water). This technique along with various kinds of plucking, usually with the index and pinky fingers, enables the musicians to produce different effects and various rhythmic accentuations which imitate the natural sounds of their environment such as a running stream, a water fall, a bird chirping or a horses' gallop, all translated into musical rhythms and sounds.

The ancient tanbur used to have two silk or in some instances gut strings tuned in 4th or 5th, similar to the dotar (meaning two stringed), its close relative widely used in Eastern Iran. It has also been regarded as the tanbur of Khorasan in literary texts. Although these two instruments share a similar history and are basically the same, they have developed their own repertoires, playing techniques and functions. According to the master instrument maker Ustad Mehdi Kamalian the name tanbur is taken from the word tandur or tanur, meaning clay oven, as early instrument makers dried tree trunks chosen to carve the belly in tanours for several hours in order to perfect the sound. Gradually the instrument took on the name tanbur.

The present tanbur has three strings and covers the range of one octave and two notes. The lower pair of strings, made of steel, are tuned in unison normally anywhere from a (flat) to b and are fingered together functioning as the melody strings. The top string made of copper or brass, slightly thicker, tuned in lower fourth or fifth, functions as a sympathetic string with occasional fingering by the thumb.

The tanbur has always been considered a sacred instrument associated with the Kurdish Sufi music of Western Iran and it is believed that its repertoire is based on ancient Persian music. Up until the last fifty years this instrument was used only during djamm gatherings (devotional or liturgic ceremonies) of the Ahle-Haqq (the people of truth), followers of a particular Sufi order.

Barbat:

The barbat, the ancestor of the European lute, and also known as the Ud, is a short-neck fretless lute with five double-courses of strings tuned in fourths and traditionally played with an eagle's quill. It may function as a bass instrument.

Dohol:

The dohol is one of the most broadly used percussion instruments in happy occasions by the Kurds, although it can be seen in other parts of Iran and other countries in the world. The dohol along with the sorna (a wind instrument) is played during group dances. It makes a very loud and sizable sound. It has a cylinder like build made of wood and both sides of the cylinder are skin-covered.The instrument is played by a stick-shaped cane in the right hand and a thin stick in the left. The cane like stick plays the strong beats of the rhythm, whereas the thin stick plays the ornaments and shorter beats.

Gheychak:

The ghaychak is a bowed fiddle of the Persian folk music played mostly in the south of Iran. There are two large holes on the upper side near the fingerboard and one on the lower tip covered with a skin membrane. There are four main strings and eight to sixteen sympathetic strings which have been eliminated in the context of Traditional Persian Music. The sound box resembles an upside-down anchor which is carved from a tree trunk and is placed vertically on the player's lap. The upper and lower sections are separated by two oval indentations on the right and left side which give the ghaychak a distinct nasal sound.

Tas:

The tâs is a percussion instrument of Kurdistan's Dervishes played alongside the daf at the climax of the Samâ. The tâs is made of a metal bowl and covered with skin, stretched tight by belts on the sides of the bowl. The tâs is placed on the ground and played by two wide leather straps.The daf is a type of frame drum that is illustrated in many Persian miniatures. It appears at first glance to be a relatively simple instrument. However, the daf can be played in such away to produce intricate rhythmic patterns and sounds. The daf is equipped with metal rings on the inside which add a jingle effect to the sound. The frame is covered with goat-skin