How To Hold a Persian Santoor Mezrab

The Santoor

The Santoor’s name comes from the name Shata-tantric, meaning a Veena of hundred strings. It consists of a hollow box with twenty five bridges, each having four strings resting on it. It is played with the help of two wooden mallets known as mezrabs. Santoor is an instrument originated in Iraq, Iran and India.

Persian Santoor In pre-Islamic Iran, people were definitely acquainted with it and used to call it Kunar. Variants of Santoor instrument can be seen in China, Eastern Europe and England and Germany and Austria as well as India and Americas. It can be found in Iraq, Egypt, Turkey and Armenia and Georgia as well. The shape of Persian Santoor is inspired by a ship, its strings like a fishing net and the sound it makes resembles the waves hitting the rocks at beach. 

The santoor has traditionally been used in the music of the Kashmir valley as an accompaniment to Sufi music. Also santoor is a predecessor of the piano because it is based on the same principle of a mallet striking metal strings.

Persian santoor consists of a trapeziform case made of walnut wood, approximately 90 cm wide at the broad end, 36 cm wide at the narrow end and 6 cm deep. The strings are fixed to hitch-pins along the left-hand side and wound round metal wrest-pins on the right by means of which they are tuned with a tuning-key. Santoor is played with plectrum or zahme. The person who plays Santoor is called santurî.

Now santoor occupies a material place in the traditional Iranian orchestra, it also has a place in motrebi (music for entertainmet) but never in folk music. The contemporary Iran santoor has has a case made of walnut wood in the shape of a trapeze.

How to hold a Persian Santoor Mezrab

Firstly, when we hit the persian santoor mezrab, we will use with the wrist. Because some people can make mistake like this "They are playing with their fingers and making mistakes. But after a while they can see that is wrong. Because it can not move, about well playing persian santoor mezrab. At first the persian santoor mezrab can be difficult to use. As time goes on you will start playing much better persian santoor mezrab. 

In this video we explain how to hold a Persian Santoor Mezrab