The dombra, also known as dombyra, is a long-necked musical string instrument used by the Kazakhs, Hazaras, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Nogais, Bashkirs, and Tatars in their traditional folk music. The dombra shares certain characteristics with the komuz and dutar instruments, such as its long, thin neck and oblong body shape. It is a popular instrument mostly among Turkic communities in Central Asian countries.
The bağlama or saz/ساز is a family of plucked string instruments and long-necked lutes used in Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkey. It is commonly used by the ashiks.
The bouzouki is a musical instrument popular in the West Asia, Europe and Balkans. It is a member of the long-necked lute family, with a round body with a flat and a long neck with a fretted fingerboard. It has steel strings and is played with a plectrum producing a sharp metallic sound, reminiscent of a mandolin but pitched lower. It is the precursor to the Irish bouzouki, an instrument derived from the Greek bouzouki that is popular in Celtic, English, and North American folk music. There are 3 main types of Greek bouzouki: the trichordo (three-course) has three pairs of strings the tetrachordo (four-course) has four pairs of strings, & then the pentachordo (five-course) with 5 pairs of strings. The instrument was brought to Greece in the early 1900s by Greek refugees from Anatolia, and quickly became the central instrument to the rebetiko genre and its music branches. It is now an important element of modern Laïko pop Greek music.
The cümbüş is a Turkish stringed instrument of relatively modern origin. It was developed in 1930 by Zeynel Abidin Cümbüş as an oud-like instrument that could be heard as part of a larger ensemble.
Tamburica or tamboura refers to a family of long-necked lutes popular in Southeast Europe and Central Europe, especially Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, Serbia, and Slovenia. It is also known in Burgenland, Austria. All took their name and some characteristics from the Persian tanbur but also resemble the mandolin and guitar in the sense that its strings are plucked and often paired. The frets may be moveable to allow the playing of various modes. The variety of tamburica shapes known today were developed in Serbia and Croatia by a number of indigenous contributors near the end of the 19th century.
The musical traditions of Central Asia mirror the immense diversity found in the cultures and populations residing in the region. Principal instrument types are two- or three-stringed lutes, the necks either fretted or fretless; fiddles made of horsehair; flutes, mostly sige at both ends and either end-blown or side-blown; and jew harps, mostly metal. Percussion instruments include frame drums, Tam origin of the bowed string Use of the bowed string is thought to originate with nomads who mainly used the snake-skin, covered horsetail-bowed lute. In Mongolia instruments like the morin khuur or horse-head fiddle survive today.
The šargija, anglicized as shargia, is a plucked, fretted long necked lute used in the folk music of various Balkan countries, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia. The instrument is part of a larger family of instruments which includes the Balkan tambura and the saz, tamburica, and the tambouras.
The pandura or pandore, an ancient Greek string instrument, belonged in the broad class of the lute and guitar instruments. Akkadians played similar instruments from the 3rd millennium BC. Ancient Greek artwork depicts such lutes from the 3rd or 4th century BC onward.
The buzuq is a long-necked fretted lute related to the Greek bouzouki and Iranian and Turkish saz.
Plucked string instruments are a subcategory of string instruments that are played by plucking the strings. Plucking is a way of pulling and releasing the string in such a way as to give it an impulse that causes the string to vibrate. Plucking can be done with either a finger or a plectrum.
The yaylı tambur is a bowed long-neck lute from Turkey. Derived from the older plucked mızraplı tambur variant of the Turkish tambur, it has a long, fretted neck and a round metal or wooden soundbox which is often covered on the front with a skin or acrylic head similar to that of a banjo.
Kurdish tanbur or tanbour a fretted string instrument, is an initial and main form of the tanbūr instrument family, used by the Kurds. It is highly associated with the Yarsan religion in Kurdish areas and in the Lorestān provinces of Iran. It is one of the few musical instruments used in Ehli Heq rituals, and practitioners venerate the tembûr as a sacred object. Another popular percussion instrument used together with the tembur is the Kurdish daf, but that's not sacred in Yarsan spirituality and Jam praying ceremony.
The tambur is a fretted string instrument of Turkey and the former lands of the Ottoman Empire. There are two variants, one of which is played with a plectrum and the other with a bow. The player is called a tamburî.
The tanbūra or "Kissar" is a bowl lyre of East Africa and the Middle East. Tanbūra traces its etymology to the Persian tanbur via the Arabic tunbur, though this term refers to long-necked lutes. The instrument probably originated in Upper Egypt and the Sudan in Nubia and is used in the Fann At-Tanbura in the Persian Gulf Arab States. It also plays an important role in zār rituals.
The tambouras is a Greek traditional string instrument of Byzantine origin. It has existed since at least the 10th century, when it was known in Assyria and Egypt. At that time, it might have had between two and six strings, but Arabs adopted it, and called it a tanbur. The characteristic long neck bears two strings, tuned five notes apart.
The bulgari or boulgari is a string instrument that originates from Turkey, especially from Anatolia among the Oghuz Turks living in the Taurus Mountains, similar to the bağlama and the çağür, especially to Egypt and Crete. belonging to the 'tampoura' family and closely related to the 'tzoura', it is played with strings plucked with a pick. This long-necked lute first appeared towards the end of the 18th century and became well-known after 1915 through the Greeks of Asia Minor. It was mainly played in Rethimno during the mid-war and owes its popularity to Stelio Foustalieri. It is rarely come across in Crete today.
The tambura is a stringed instrument that is played as a folk instrument in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey. It has doubled steel strings and is played with a plectrum, in the same manner as a mandolin.
Lutes are stringed musical instruments that include a body and "a neck which serves both as a handle and as a means of stretching the strings beyond the body".
