Tanbur

Tanbur (Tambour), another Persian musical instrument, is shaped from mulberry wood. It has a long neck and a pear-like shape. The soundboard is three or four millimeters thick, also made of a mulberry layer. There are some holes over it for a more qualified resonance. Tanbur has four strings and fourteen chromatic, gut frets.

The player needs to use all the fingers of the right hand to play Tanbur. Of course, there are different ways of strumming the strings, in which mostly the index and pinky fingers are involved. Tanbur enables the musician to make different rhythms and natural sounds including bird whistling, waterfall, and stream. Nowadays it’s more common for sacred music in the west of Iran.