What is Tambur?

The tambur is a instrument, which has two types, bowed and stringed(pick), which are widely used in Turkish music. It was more commonly used as the name of long-handled instruments with a body resembling a watermelon slice or pear. The tambur, which is one of the speared and string instruments of Classical Turkish Music, has a special importance because it has the most pitch in terms of sound. As a structure; The face consists of three main parts: the neck and the body. The semicircular body section of the tambur is made of fruit trees or hardwood; the stem part is made of linden, hornbeam and beech; The face is made of spruce.

TAMBUR TYPES

There are tambur types in different sizes, including children’s tambur, girl tambur, boy’s tambur and square’s tambur. Different sizes have been made to provide convenience to the person playing the instrument.

Bowed Tambur

Tambur with a spear, which is the classical type in Turkish music, is a long-neck instrument. The tambur with a spear, which is mostly used in this form today, has a pick made of a very hard substance. The length of the pick varies at the request of the performer between 9.5-13.5 cm. Both ends of the pick, which is an inflexible stick, are used. But the two ends are made slightly different from each other in order to achieve different timbres.

String Tambur

Cemil Bey, who radically changed the technique and style of playing the Turkish tambur, also played the bow by holding the tambur he played with the bow upright on his knees and placing a matchpiece between the two steel wires at the bottom and the threshold so that the bow would not touch the other strings. The bowed tambur has become a sought-after instrument, especially in record world. In the construction of the trunk of the spring-loaded tambur, various trees such as mahogany, elm, sycamore, maple, juniper are used. Spring tamburs with wooden face give a sound between tambur and cello. Tamburs with metal bodies are cheaper and are used in market music due to their loud sound. A velvet sheath is passed into the bodies of such tamburs to reduce the resulting mineral noise. Zeynel Abidin Cümbüş, the inventor of the metal body and metal string instrument named Cümbüş, introduced the cümbüş-tambur to the market by attaching a tambur handle to the metal body.

STRUCTURE OF TAMBUR

Body

The reservoir that reproduces the sound is called a body. The body is the main part, which houses the parts. The body part consists of the curling and joining together of thin pieces of wood in the form of watermelon slices. These trees are hard and precious trees such as plums, mulberry walnuts, pelesenk, roses, butterflies, juniper and ebony. This large semicircular boat is 35 cm wide by 30 in length. The tambur has a depth of 15 cm and a stem length of 80 cm.

Face

It is the most sensitive part of the instrument. It has a primary effect on the quality and power of the sound produced. In other words, the face should be well dried. The face is a rather thin (1.5-2 mm.) spruce or fir plate. Sensitivity must be shown when using it.

Neck

It is the massive (non-coating or filling) part that gives different sounds when pressed at different points of the wires passing over it. Curtains are wrapped on the stem with intestinal threads or fishing lines and sound intervals are determined with these curtains. The neck, which is about 1 m. long, is joined to the stem by burying it in a small slot opened in a wedge that is glued into the body. There are also tamburs whose handle is shorter and longer.

Keyboard (Finger Tapping)

It is the area where the keyboard notes are located, where there are more than fifty pitches located on the long handle of the tambur. The keyboard that you can see in the Wood working, mother-of-pearl embroidered way adds an aesthetic beauty to the tambur.

Tuning Pegs

For augers, ebony, pelesenk and hornbeam are used. Especially ebony and pelesenk trees are recommended. The augers are rotated over the conical opened auger holes, tightening or loosening the wires.

Tunes and Strings

The tambur has 5 or 7 wires. However, this number has changed from past to present. The winding strings are tuned to the instrument with the keys called auger at the end of the handle. Depending on the conditions, the tuning may be distorted, in which case you can adjust the correct tuning setting by adjusting the augers. Each set of strings is tuned according to its rule and gives different sounds and allows the tambur to reach its own sound.

TAMBUR MAINTENANCE AND PROTECTION

Carrying it in a sheltered way should be a priority. The instrument should be kept in the footrest, tilting it on a plane such as a table, hanging it on the wall or in a tambur box. Especially it is necessary not to leave it near the heaters. Particular attention should be paid to the cover when transporting. It is necessary to protect the part of the arm that touches the lid from sweat, this is important in body maintenance. The other sensitive part in tambur maintenance is the neck. The tambur neck consists of a rather long piece of 78cm from the bottom of the handle to the first bridge, about 104cm with the auger part. The wires have a total force tension of 78.5 kg. As a physical behavior with the tension of the wires, the handle tends to constantly pull forward. After a while, this creates a warp in the tambur handle, that is, the handle bends forward. For the care of the tambur neck; Keeping it away from heaters, avoiding excessive moisture and very dry environments, controlling the chord in cold-hot transitions and not exposing them to these transitions as much as possible, not hitting them violently, which can cause damage to  the body. In order to protect the tree from external factors, it is necessary to prevent damage to the polish made to the surface of the body.