How To Tune A Persian Tar

Tar is an Iranian long-necked, waisted instrument, shared by many cultures and countries including Iran, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, and others near the Caucasus region. The older and more complete name of the tār is čāhārtār or čārtār, meaning in Persian "four string". In these musical instruments a stretched vibrating string produces the initial sound. They are called Chordophones as well. Persian Tar is also called as "Târ-e Shirâz", the Tar from Shiraz. Persian Tar is a plucked string instrument, so it means that a plectrum is used to pluck or strum the instrument. Persian Tar is a fretted string instrument, thus the instrument has frets that have been tied on the neck.

It was invented in the 18th century and has become one of the most important musical instruments in Iran and the Caucasus, especially in Persian classical music.

The body of the Persian tar is in the shape of a double bowl carved from mulberry wood, with a thin membrane of stretched lamb-skin covering the top. The smaller bowl is called “Naqareh” and the bigger one “Shekam”. After putting together the two half of the bowls, the neck and then the Sarpanje or peg box will be added to them as well. The length of the neck is 45 to 50 cm, and it is usually decorated by two parallel rows of bones with a dark wooden ribbon between them.

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Persian Tar has three courses made up of two metal strings each. The two strings in the first course (the first and second string from down to up) are named the "White Strings", are tuned in harmony and made of steel. The two strings in the second course (the third and fourth string from down to up) are named the "Yellow Strings", are tuned in unison and made of Bronze or Phosphor-Bronze. The two strings in the third course (the fifth and sixth string from down to up) have different names and are tuned in an octave or to different tones. The thiner string of the third course is named the "Drone String" and made of steel and the thicker string of the third course is named the "Bass String" and made of Bronze or Phosphor-Bronze. Persian Tar strings are used in different thicknesse or gauges. These gauges are chosen in thousandths of a meter.

The tar can be tuned in different ways. However, some tunings are more preferable than others for especial dastgahs. The range of the tar is almost two and a half octaves. The fingerboard has twenty-five to twenty-eight adjustable gut frets. These frets indicate the location of the notes and made of the sheep gut. The tar is played by a plectrum which is usually made of brass with the length of 3 cm. The half of the plectrum is covered by wax so that the player can hold it easily. Recently some plastic plectrums have been produced too.

How to tune a Persian Tar?

In the Persian Tar, the bottom pair strings( called white strings) are tuned in C. The middle pair of strings (known as yellow strings) are tuned in G. and the fifth and sixth strings from the bottom (called Zang and Bam, respectively) are tuned C. This is the same with Setar, with this difference that in the Setar the bottom and middle strings are single. In the Setar, the third string from the bottom is called Moshtagh. With this tuning, the names of the frets in lower (Bam) string are the same as those of the white string(s).

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Please see our recommendation on how to tune a Persian Tar in the youtube video below.