Play Cümbüş online
A string instrument with a fretless neck that resembles a banjo, with its metal body and skin-covered face.
Dizi
On a keyboard, the keys A S D F G H J K play the eight pitches of the scale.
We welcome your ideas.
Turn your phone sideways or switch to full screen to see the instrument larger.
Keyboard keys
Add it to your home screen as a separate app: opens with one tap and works offline too. Free.
Keyboard: the up and down arrows select a course, Space or Enter plays it, plus and minus move the selected course's mandal by one comma.
Tap or swipe on the right side; tap the labels on the left to select a course. No sound on iPhone? Turn off silent mode.
Mandals
Lower or raise each pitch one comma at a time with the mandal levers. The setting applies to every course that has no setting of its own.
Course mandal
Tune a single course separately from the pitch setting. Courses you don't adjust follow the pitch setting.
About the Cümbüş
In brief
- Family: Plucked string instrument (fretless; banjo-like body with a membrane)
- Origin: Developed in 1930 by Zeynelabidin Bey (later Cümbüş)
- Name: With the 1934 Surname Law, the instrument's name became its maker's surname
- Body and materials: Aluminium body with a stretched skin or plastic head on the front; detachable neck
- Strings: 12 strings in six courses on the ud cümbüş; it can also be tuned like an ud
- Types: Versions with saz, cura, tanbur, mandolin and guitar necks
- Music: Fasıl, Romani and Balkan music, folk music; later Anatolian rock
Getting started: types, sizes, tuning
History
A Turkish instrument developed in the 1930s by Zeynelabidin Cümbüş, after whom it is named. It became widespread in gazino and fasıl music and in Romani and Balkan music.
Construction
A stretched skin or plastic membrane is fitted over the front of a metal (aluminium) body; the neck is attached separately and is fretless. The most common type has twelve strings like the oud; mandolin and bağlama necks can also be fitted.
How it's played
It is played with a plectrum; thanks to its membrane body its sound is loud and piercing, so it stands out in crowded settings.
Useful while you practice
Project notes
- Pitch system: Arel-Ezgi-Uzdilek pitches are shown on a scale dividing the octave into 53 equal parts (the Holder comma, ≈22.6 cents), a close approximation of the theory's Pythagorean-ratio pitches. Each pitch is computed as its letter position plus the mandal shift; reference A4 = 440 Hz.
- Interval abbreviations: B = bakiye (4), S = küçük mücenneb (5), K = büyük mücenneb (8), T = tanini (9), A = augmented second (12–13 commas).
- Sound: real kanun recordings, retuned to comma precision for each pitch. With the synthesis option, each course is generated as three slightly detuned strings.
- Mandals: per-pitch tuning is the default; any course can also be tuned separately. Makam presets are per pitch.
- Known limitations: pitch names are referenced to Rast (G); makam presets are awaiting expert review.
Frequently asked questions about the Cümbüş
How do I play the virtual cümbüş?
On this page, the cümbüş's neck and round metal body are drawn; the pitches appear as finger dots on the strings. You play by tapping or sliding your finger; on the keyboard, A–K plays the first octave and Q–U the second. From the “View” menu you can switch to the simple view, and on a phone you can enlarge the instrument by turning the screen sideways.
Which makams can I play on the virtual cümbüş?
You can play all of the more than 150 makams in the makam strip. Since the cümbüş neck is fretless, on the real instrument too the commas are found with the finger; the virtual cümbüş gives the pitches of the makam you choose directly at their comma values. The tonic and dominant are marked in color, so you can easily follow the scales of fasıl pieces and dance tunes.
Is the virtual cümbüş's sound real?
Yes. The sounds were cut one by one from the “cumbus-2.wav” recording shared by Xavier Serra on Freesound and played by Hamza Zeytinoğlu (CC BY 4.0). The sharp, bright timbre of the metal body is preserved in the recording; each pitch is tuned with comma precision from the nearest note recording. If you like, you can switch to generated sound with the “Synthesis” option.
Can I compare the same makam with the virtual oud?
Yes. The cümbüş and the oud are two fretless instruments tuned the same way; by choosing the same makam on both virtual instruments and playing them one after the other, you can hear the difference in timbre. If you change the instrument in the “Play it yourself” step of a piece in the sheet music archive, both open with the piece's makam.
Source: Wikipedia