# NBD - Turkish Content



## Goatfork (Apr 1, 2012)

New baglama saz day! After getting really into Nile and Karl Sanders' solo stuff, I thought I'd delve a little into this kind of stuff.



























This thing is great! I bought a bunch of single guitar strings to figure out what to do with it and how I'd tune it and what not. So far, I have it set up GG-DD-GG and it's so fun to plink around on.


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## JamesM (Apr 2, 2012)

Saz are really cool and surprisingly very difficult to play well.

Sweet man.


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## Xiphos68 (Apr 2, 2012)

Very cool!

Very interested into hearing what it sounds like?

What could you compare it to?


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## Goatfork (Apr 2, 2012)

Xiphos68 said:


> What could you compare it to?



It's quite odd. I don't know if I can compare it as a whole to anything, but I can do it in parts:

Tuners: Very much like a violin. Getting it in tune takes patience and a good ear, but once it's in tune it'll stay there for quite some time.

Frets: The whole instrument is microtonal. Since the frets have to be able to move, they're essentially wire wrapped around the neck. It's bazaar at first because it's very much different than the smooth-piece-of-wood kind of neck we're familiar with on guitars, basses, and the like.

Neck: It's really skinny (width) and almost equally thick, so it's like playing a fretted dowel. Since it has 3 sets of strings, I find my hand wanting to go up or down to nonexistent strings as if I was playing a guitar.

Body: Due to the tear-drop shape it doesn't like to rest on your leg, so 'classical' position is what's most stable. The body is really deep and totally rounded, so it's kinda like playing a small watermelon with a neck. It takes some getting used to for sure. Standing up and playing is quite a feat.

Overall: It's really light and feels really delicate, even though I know first hand from dropping it and accidentally smacking it into walls, desks, and other assorted furniture that it can take a beating. It's really fun to doodle around on. I want to start actually writing stuff on it and getting some recordings down, but I have a ways to go before it feels completely comfortable.


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## Trypios (Apr 2, 2012)

It sounds a bit like bouzouki (if that's more familiar)



Happy taqsims!


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## Mr. Big Noodles (Apr 2, 2012)

Cool, dude. I got a good book on maqams from the library at school, and I was going to copy it out over Spring break. If you need some stuff to learn that takes advantage of the microtonal nature of the instrument and want me to send it your way, I'll let you know when I'm finished.


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## Goatfork (Apr 2, 2012)

SchecterWhore said:


> Cool, dude. I got a good book on maqams from the library at school, and I was going to copy it out over Spring break. If you need some stuff to learn that takes advantage of the microtonal nature of the instrument and want me to send it your way, I'll let you know when I'm finished.



That would be amazing, thanks man!


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## vampiregenocide (Apr 3, 2012)

I would love to get one of these. I really want to experiment with other instruments.


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## Guitarchitect (Jun 4, 2012)

Congrats on the purchase - it's cool that it's got a pickup in it as well!

A couple of quick thoughts.

Turkish music works on a system called Makam - which is a completely different intonation system than Arabic Maqam. So there are a couple of things I can recommend.

Karl Signell's Makam book was out of print for a while but you can get it here:

http://www.amazon.com/Makam-Modal-P...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338820978&sr=1-1

a DEEP reference book - there's a digital version I bought that had some mp3s but they may or may not be helpful to you.

The Saz is a Turkish folk instrument - so you may want to find some recordings of turkish folk music (and/or folk dance music) that features saz and learn stuff by ear (this was my first step- and it's a good one to take).

This is a nice recording of solo kemence taksims in the style that you could adapt as well.

The single best investment you could make - IMHO - is the Mus2okur PC software:

Mus2okur

it's got midi files of thousands of tunes - with the proper intonation - and rhythm tutorials and samples to play along to. I have a MAC - but installed windows on it just for this program.

The tunes are mostly classical though - but it's an amazing reference for turkish music.

Also on the same page they sell a microtonal music software notation program Mus2 - that if you have the Signell book - you can enter the music into to hear it with the relatively proper intonation.

I hope that helps! you can pm me if you have other questions about it as well.


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