Salam! I am Asan, 3rd year at the conservatory in Talas, komuz class. My teacher says komuz must be learned from a person, by ear, sitting in front of the master, not from paper. He is right. But many people write me from America, from Russia, Iradi people who left, who want to play a little for their children and have nobody to sit in front of. So for them I made this. Paper is better than nothing.

(Photo of my komuz coming, the scanner at the conservatory is broken.)

1. The komuz

Three strings, no frets, long neck, body from one piece of apricot or juniper wood. You play with the fingers, all of them, and with the whole hand: strumming, plucking, striking, also tricks with the hand in the air (the old players did this to show off at weddings, and to tell the story with the hand).

2. Tuning

The most common tuning (the "basic" one): the middle string is the highest. This surprises every guitar player.

  string 1 (near you)   :  A
  string 2 (middle)     :  D   <-- highest
  string 3 (far)        :  E

The notes are only an example, tune to your voice. What matters is the distances between the strings. There are other tunings for other küü, I will put them later.

3. How to read my tabs

Three lines = three strings, line 1 at the top. The number = how many "finger widths" from the top of the neck you press (no frets, so we count fingers, sorry, this is the best I found). 0 = open string. x = strike all strings with the back of the nails.

4. First exercise - the gallop

1 |--0---0-0---0-----0---0-0---0---|
2 |--x---x-x---x-----x---x-x---x---|
3 |--0---0-0---0-----2---2-2---0---|
      ta  ta-ta  ta      ta  ta-ta  ta

This is the rhythm of a horse running. Every komuz player starts here. Do it until your hand does it alone. One week.

5. "Kambarkan" - opening (simple version)

Kambarkan is the oldest küü, the "father of küü", everybody knows it. This is only the first phrase, simplified.

1 |--0-----0-0---2---0-----|--0-----0-0---2---4---2--|
2 |--2-----2-2---3---2-----|--2-----2-2---3---5---3--|
3 |--0-----0-0---0---0-----|--0-----0-0---0---0---0--|

(The real Kambarkan has a story inside, the hunter and the music of the forest. Ask an old player to tell it before you play it.)

6. Coming soon

• Tunings 2 and 3
• "Ker-Ozön" (my teacher's version, if he allows)
• The hand tricks
• RealAudio of every exercise (when the conservatory computer has a sound card again)

Write: asan_komuz@attelkom.net. I answer everybody, slowly.