Play Classical kemençe online
A pear-shaped, three-string bowed instrument held upright on the knee; it is also known as the Istanbul kemençe.
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 Classical kemençe
In brief
- Family: Bowed, fretless (lyra family)
- Origin: From the Byzantine lyra; in the 19th century it became the main bowed instrument of Ottoman classical music
- Body and materials: Pear-shaped body carved from a single piece of wood; two D-shaped sound holes
- Dimensions: About 40–41 cm long, 14–15 cm wide; vibrating string length 25.5–26 cm
- Strings and tuning: Three strings (gut, the lowest wound); yegâh, rast, nevâ
- Playing: Held upright on the knee; the strings are touched from the side with the base of the fingernails
- Other names: Armudî kemençe, Istanbul kemençe, Politikí lýra
- 16th–17th centuries: The name kemençe appears in Revani's İşaretname; the kemençe described by Evliya Çelebi had three or four strings and was played on the knee, the strings touched with the fingernails[1, 2, 3]
Getting started: types, sizes, tuning
- Dimensions: It is 40–41 cm long and 14–15 cm wide; the vibrating string length is about 26 cm.
- Tuning: The three strings are tuned to yegâh (low D), rast (G) and nevâ (D).
- Playing: Notes are found by touching the strings from the side with the fingernails; the bow is held with the palm facing up.
- Difference from the Black Sea kemençe: The Black Sea kemençe is 56 cm, its strings are tuned to E, A, D, and they are pressed with the fingertips.[1]
History
Also called the armudi (pear-shaped) kemençe; it has been played in Istanbul since the 17th century and in the 19th century became the main bowed instrument of classical Turkish music. Masters such as Vasilaki Efendi and Tanbûrî Cemil Bey turned it into a great performance tradition.
Construction
It consists of a small pear-shaped body, a short neck and three strings; the body has two crescent-shaped sound holes.
How it's played
It is held upright on the knee and played with a bow; the sound is produced by touching the side of the string with the base of the fingernails, which makes very fine intervals and slides possible.
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 Classical kemençe
How do I play the virtual kemençe?
In the realistic view, the kemençe stands upright and the pitches are marked as finger positions on the strings; you play by tapping, clicking or sliding your finger. On the keyboard, A–K gives the first octave and Q–U the second. From the “View” menu you can switch to a simple row of keys, and on a phone you can enlarge the instrument by turning the screen sideways or going full screen.
How are makams played on the virtual kemençe?
On a real kemençe, the player finds the commas with the nail, shifting the finger position millimeter by millimeter. On the virtual kemençe, all you need to do is choose a makam from the makam strip: the pitches are laid out with that makam's comma values for two octaves starting from its tonic. The tonic and dominant are marked in color, so you can compare the scales of makams from Uşşak to Hüzzam by ear.
Who is behind the virtual kemençe's sound?
The sounds were cut one by one from the “Scale of Ussak Makam” recording shared on Freesound by Ajay Srinivasamurthy for the CompMusic project and played on the kemençe by Neva Günaydın (CC BY 4.0). Each pitch is tuned with comma precision from the nearest recording. Until the recordings load, synthesized sound plays; you can also switch to the “Synthesis” option.
How do I practice a piece on the virtual kemençe?
Open a peşrev or şarkı in the sheet music archive and choose the kemençe in the “Play it yourself” step of the “Learn this piece” section; the virtual kemençe opens with the piece's makam. Listening to the piece at a slowed-down tempo and finding the pitches phrase by phrase on the virtual kemençe prepares your ear before you move to the real instrument.
Sources
- TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi
- Wikipedia
- ozanyarman.com