Bağlama / Saz - Instrument Introduction

Bağlama / Saz - Instrument Introduction. In this video I give some information about the bağlama or saz because you might have seen me playing this instrument on this channel. This instrument is mostly played in Turkey, Azerbeycan, Türkmenistan, but also in Syria, Iran, Iraq... This is a family of instruments but the three most common are the longneck, the short neck and the cura. The name 'bağlama' is derived from the Turkish verb 'bağlamak' which means 'to bind' and it refers to the nylon frets because they are bound around the neck of the saz. Bağlamas have 7 strings, except the cura, the cura has only 6 strings. The strings are divided in 3 groups, and the top and bottom group is tuned in an octave. There are many ways of tuning, but nowadays, the most common tuning is the 'Aşık' tuning which is A-G-D (for short neck saz), however saz is a transposing instrument, so the actual notes are usually B-A-E or even 1/2 step higher.

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