Resources / Tunings / Tuning catalog

Tuning catalog

All tunings shipped in the prototype, with sourcing and confidence. Strings listed low → high.

Family A — oud-type: bam plus fourths

Five or six courses in fourths with a separate low bam course beneath. The Turkish approach.

Bam Mi

E2 · A2 · B2 · E3 · A3 · D4

Intervals: 4th, 2nd, 4th, 4th, 4th

Uncertain The most widely circulated "standard Turkish cümbüş tuning" online, and the prototype default. Coherent — it's the Turkish oud layout with a low E added — and in common use, but I could not match it to a primary source. Treat with more caution than its ubiquity suggests.

The low E functions as a drone, not a melody course.

Bam Re

D2 · A2 · B2 · E3 · A3 · D4

[attested / practice] Same neck, bam dropped a whole tone. This is the practical convention: the bam moves to the karar of the piece. Gives an open D drone under a D-tonic makam.

Use this for D-karar material — Hicaz on dügâh, Nihâvend transposed to D, and the Şurmat repertoire discussed in 06-repertoire/.

Cümbüş "Pes" (tuner preset)

E2 · F♯2 · B2 · E3 · A3 · D4

Attested The low cümbüş preset in a Turkish ud/tanbur/cümbüş tuner app. It is the classical Turkish oud layout with an extra low E beneath.

Cümbüş "Tiz" (tuner preset)

A2 · B2 · E3 · A3 · D4 · G4

Attested The high preset from the same app, identical to the Turkish oud's bam-La setting. Brighter; the top G opens the upper register.

Türk Klasik (bam Fa♯)

F♯2 · B2 · E3 · A3 · D4 · G4

Attested The classical Turkish oud tuning as given by Turkish sources.

Transposition warning: Turkish sources name these strings Fa♯–Si–Mi–La–Re–Sol while an electronic tuner reads roughly a fourth lower. Both are correct — they're different reference frames. See 03-theory/turkish-vs-arabic.md on the ahenk system. This is the single most common source of confusion when cross-referencing Turkish and Western sources.

Türk Klasik (bam Mi)

E2 · B2 · E3 · A3 · D4 · G4

Attested Same family, bam on E. The wide gap between the bottom two courses takes adjustment but gives a deep pedal.

Family B — all fourths

Every interval a perfect fourth. Symmetrical, so a shape transposes across courses without adjustment — the advantage that makes all-fourths tunings popular on any instrument.

Cümbüş standart

B2 · E3 · A3 · D4 · G4 · C5

Attested What Turkish reference works actually give for the cümbüş: Do–Sol–Re–La–Mi–Si read from the thinnest string. Sources note it sits a fourth above the oud's Sol–Re–La–Mi–Si–Fa♯.

If you want the textbook answer, this is it — and it is not what most online sources say, which is the whole point of this document.

Arap düzeni (Arabic oud)

C2 · F2 · A2 · D3 · G3 · C4

Established The common modern Arabic oud tuning. Warmer and lower than the Turkish layouts. Note the major third between the 2nd and 3rd courses — not purely all-fourths despite the family label.

Worth having if you listen to Egyptian repertoire; much of that material assumes these open strings.

Farid el-Atrache

D2 · G2 · A2 · D3 · G3 · C4

Attested A well-known Arabic variant associated with the player. The D bam under a D–G–C stack suits taqsim that keeps returning to D.

Family C — conversions

Gitar düzeni

E2 · A2 · D3 · G3 · B3 · E4

Practice The cümbüş neck detaches, and the instrument gets converted to guitar, mandolin, saz and tanbur setups. Standard guitar tuning is the most common conversion.

Recommendation: avoid. If you already play guitar you inherit guitar fingering habits, and those habits fight makam phrasing — they push you toward chord shapes and Western voice leading, which is precisely the wrong instinct for this music. Useful as a bridge, harmful as a destination.

Selection guide

Physical notes

Established All six courses are doubled in unison, not octaves. A drifting pair produces beating rather than a chime — which is also how you tune it. Bring the two strings of a course together until the beating stops.

Practice The prototype's synthesis models this by playing each note twice at ±4 cents, 7 ms apart. Small detail, large effect on realism.

Practice Skin heads and long scale lengths mean many players tune down a semitone or whole tone for comfort and to reduce tension on the head.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Oud — Bolahenk and Arabic tuning reference points
• Wikipedia: Turkish makam — the ahenk (transposing pitch-level) system
• Karl Signell, Makam: Modal Practice in Turkish Art Music (rev. ed., Usul Editions, 2008)
• Murat Aydemir, Turkish Music Makam Guide (Pan Yayıncılık, Istanbul, 2010)