Major Middle Eastern Musical Instruments

Why This Matters

Understanding Middle Eastern instruments isn't just about memorizing names and shapes—you're being tested on how sound production methods, cultural context, and musical function intersect to create distinct regional traditions. These instruments demonstrate core concepts like organology (instrument classification), timbral variety, and the relationship between instrument design and musical scales. When you see questions about maqam systems, microtonal tuning, or the role of improvisation in non-Western traditions, these instruments are your concrete examples.

Each instrument falls into broader categories: chordophones (strings), aerophones (wind), and membranophones/idiophones (percussion). But more importantly, you need to understand why certain instruments dominate melodic roles while others provide rhythmic foundation, and how construction materials affect the sounds that define Middle Eastern music. Don't just memorize that the oud has 11 strings—know that its fretless neck enables the microtonal inflections essential to maqam performance.

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Plucked Chordophones: The Melodic Foundation

These string instruments form the harmonic and melodic backbone of Middle Eastern ensembles. Their construction—particularly the presence or absence of frets—directly determines their ability to produce the microtonal intervals that distinguish Middle Eastern scales from Western tuning.

Oud

• Fretless neck allows players to produce the microtonal pitches essential to maqam—this is the instrument's most exam-relevant feature
• Pear-shaped body with 11 strings in 5 courses, played with a plectrum called a risha
• Considered the "king of instruments" in Arab music and the direct ancestor of the European lute

Qanun

• 78 strings in triple courses stretched over a trapezoidal soundboard, plucked with finger picks called kaffa
• Small metal levers (mandal) allow rapid retuning to access different maqamat during performance
• Provides both melody and harmony, making it essential for establishing the tonal framework in takht ensembles

Saz

• Long-necked lute with moveable frets, central to Turkish and Anatolian folk traditions
• Multiple varieties exist (bağlama, cura, divan saz) distinguished by size and string number
• Tied frets can be repositioned to accommodate different makam scales, unlike the fixed frets of Western guitars

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Struck and Hammered Chordophones: Resonant Textures

Unlike plucked instruments, these chordophones use mallets or hammers to strike strings, producing sustained, shimmering tones that add textural depth to ensembles.

Santoor

• Trapezoidal hammered dulcimer with 72 strings struck by lightweight wooden mallets
• Persian origin but widely used across Iranian, Iraqi, and Indian classical traditions
• Bright, bell-like sustain creates a distinctive texture that contrasts with the warmer plucked tones of oud and qanun

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Bowed Chordophones: Sustained Expression

Bowed instruments provide the sustained, vocal-like tones that complement singers and carry melodic lines in slower, more expressive passages.

Rebab

• Two-stringed spike fiddle with a body often covered in animal skin, played with a horsehair bow
• Highly expressive tone mimics the human voice, making it ideal for accompanying vocal performances
• Found across multiple traditions—from Arab classical music to Javanese gamelan—demonstrating cultural diffusion of instrument types

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Aerophones: Breath as Expression

Wind instruments in Middle Eastern music range from intimate and meditative to loud and celebratory. Their breath-driven sound production creates timbres impossible to replicate with strings.

Ney

• End-blown reed flute requiring the player to blow across the open top—one of the world's oldest instruments still in use
• Breathy, haunting tone is central to Sufi devotional music, where it symbolizes the soul's longing for the divine
• No mouthpiece or reed mechanism—pitch control depends entirely on breath angle, lip position, and finger placement

Zurna

• Double-reed conical oboe producing a loud, penetrating sound designed for outdoor performance
• Paired traditionally with the davul drum for weddings, festivals, and military contexts
• Projection over volume—its piercing tone cuts through crowd noise, making it functionally distinct from indoor chamber instruments

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Membranophones: The Rhythmic Engine

Drums provide the rhythmic cycles (iqa'at) that organize Middle Eastern music. Their varied tones—achieved through different striking techniques on the same drum—allow a single player to articulate complex patterns.

Darbuka

• Goblet-shaped drum (also called doumbek or tablah) producing distinct doum (bass) and tek (treble) tones
• Ceramic or metal body with a synthetic or fish-skin head, played with bare hands
• Primary timekeeper in both folk and classical ensembles, responsible for articulating rhythmic cycles

Tar (Frame Drum)

• Large circular frame drum with a single head, often featuring metal rings inside the frame for added resonance
• Held vertically and struck with fingers, allowing for subtle dynamic control and ornamental techniques
• Ancient origins—depicted in Mesopotamian art, making it one of the oldest documented percussion instruments

Riq

• Small frame drum with jingles (similar to a tambourine but with heavier brass cymbals)
• Virtuosic finger techniques produce rolls, accents, and intricate subdivisions that ornament the basic rhythm
• Elevated from folk instrument to classical ensemble member in the 20th century, now essential to takht groups

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Quick Reference Table

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Self-Check Questions

1. Which two instruments share the ability to produce microtones but achieve this through completely different mechanisms (fretless neck vs. mechanical levers)?

2. Compare and contrast the ney and zurna: What acoustic and cultural factors explain why one dominates indoor mystical contexts while the other dominates outdoor celebrations?

3. If asked to identify instruments by their role in a traditional takht ensemble, which instrument provides the rhythmic foundation, and which adds ornamental rhythmic complexity?

4. A free-response question asks you to explain how instrument construction reflects musical scale systems. Which instrument's moveable frets versus another's fretless design would best illustrate this relationship?

5. Which percussion instruments demonstrate the Middle Eastern approach of achieving multiple timbres from a single drum through varied striking techniques, and what are those distinct tones called?