A düzen is a relationship, not a set of notes
This is the single thing that makes tuning a bağlama different from tuning a guitar, and almost every page about it gets it wrong by publishing a chart of note names.
A düzen names how the three courses sit against each other. It does not name a pitch. The instrument is built across a whole family of sizes — the small cura, the mid-sized bağlama, the long-necked divan sazı — and they are not tuned to a common reference the way violins and violas are. A player brings the instrument up to a tension that suits its scale length and string gauge, and then makes the relationships exact.
So a set of absolute note names quoted for a saz is one instrument size’s convention. It is not wrong for that instrument, and it is not the tuning.
The two düzens
| Düzen | Written as | Where it is used |
|---|---|---|
| Bağlama düzeni | La–Re–Mi | Closely associated with the aşık tradition and with Alevi repertoire — the tuning most people mean when they describe the characteristic sound of that music. |
| Kara düzen (also bozuk düzen) | La–Re–Sol | The older and more general-purpose setting, and the one most method books start from. |
Those solfège names are movable, in the same sense that “do re mi” is movable. They label the relationships. They are not instructions to tune the melody course to a concert A.
Seven strings, three courses, and an octave pair
A bağlama is normally strung with seven strings in three courses rather than six in three, and at least one course is an octave pair rather than a plain unison. That is the reason a dial will refuse to settle on it: it is being handed two pitches an octave apart and reporting whichever the microphone finds louder, which changes from pluck to pluck.
Damp what you are not tuning. A fingertip on the other strings of the course is enough, and it turns an unreadable course into an obvious one instantly. It is also the quickest way to find which string is causing a beat you can hear but cannot locate.
The tension is low and the top is light, so expect movement. Bringing seven strings up pulls the instrument, and the first course you tuned will have dropped by the time you finish the third — go round twice as a matter of course, not as a check.
The frets are tied on, and some of them are microtonal
A bağlama’s frets are tied nylon or gut wrapped round the neck, and they include positions a twelve-note instrument does not have. That is not ornament: it is what makes the makam repertoire playable. Turkish theory divides the octave into 53 commas, and the intervals that matter most for this music — the two sizes of mücenneb, the neutral degrees — fall between the semitones a guitar fret would give you.
Because they are tied, they move. An instrument restrung, transported, or set up by someone playing a different repertoire will genuinely be in the wrong place, and no amount of tuning the courses will fix a fret. Fret the note, watch the cents readout, slide the fret.
| Interval | Cents | From the nut | Why there |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bakiye | 90.2¢ | 36.6 mm | The diatonic semitone, 256/243. Where a guitar’s 1st fret would be — nearly. |
| Küçük mücenneb | 113.7¢ | 45.8 mm | The chromatic semitone, 2187/2048. 23 cents above the bakiye, and a fret of its own. |
| Büyük mücenneb | 180.5¢ | 71.3 mm | Two bakiyes. The flat second of Uşşak lives near here. |
| Tanini | 203.9¢ | 80.0 mm | The whole tone, 9/8. Bakiye + küçük mücenneb, exactly. |
| Minor third | 294.1¢ | 112.5 mm | 32/27 — 13 commas. |
| Segâh | 384.4¢ | 143.3 mm | 17 commas. A flattened major third, not a quarter tone. |
| Fourth | 498¢ | 180.0 mm | 4/3 — 22 commas. Check this against your open courses. |
| Fifth | 702¢ | 240.0 mm | 3/2 — 31 commas. |
| Octave | 1200¢ | 360.0 mm | Exactly half the string. |
The tell that a fret rather than a peg is your problem: the open courses check out, the octave checks out, and one degree of the mode sounds sour wherever you play it. Pegs move whole strings; frets move single notes. The tuning-systems pagesets out what the comma system actually claims, why “53 equal commas” is not what it says, and where measured performance departs from the codified theory.
Tuning routine
- Melody course first, to a tension that suits the instrument.Read the note it lands on and treat that as your reference — do not drag a cura up to a bağlama’s pitch to match a chart.
- One string at a time, damping the rest of the course with a fingertip.
- Set the other two courses by the relationships your düzen calls for, using the cents readout to make each one exact.
- Do the octave pair last within its course, and check it by ear as well as by dial — an octave that is a few cents out beats in a way the needle will call fine.
- Round again. Seven strings at low tension on a light top means everything moves.
- Then check a fret or two, if the mode rather than the instrument is what sounds wrong.
Frequently asked questions
What notes do I tune a bağlama to?
That question has no single answer, and the reason is not that the information is hard to find. A düzen — bağlama düzeni, kara düzen and the rest — names a relationship between the three courses, not a set of pitches. The instrument is built in sizes from the small cura up to the divan sazı, and they are not tuned to a shared reference: a player brings the instrument to a tension that suits its scale length and string gauge, and then keeps the relationships between the courses exact. An absolute set of note names quoted for a saz is one size’s convention, not the tuning.
So how do I use a chromatic tuner on one?
As a relationship meter rather than a target list. Bring the melody course up to a tension that feels right and read what note it lands on — that note is now your reference, whether or not it is the one in the tab you are reading. Then set the other two courses against it by the intervals your düzen calls for, using the dial to make each one exact rather than to tell you what it should be. This is the same way a bağlama teacher does it, and it is why a saz sounds right at a pitch no fixed chart would have predicted.
What is the difference between bağlama düzeni and kara düzen?
They put the three courses in different relationships to each other, which changes which chords fall under the hand and which repertoire is playable. Bağlama düzeni is closely associated with the aşık tradition and with Alevi repertoire — it is the tuning most people mean when they talk about the distinctive sound of that music. Kara düzen, also called bozuk düzen, is the older and more general-purpose one. Turkish sources write them as movable solfège triples: La–Re–Mi for bağlama düzeni, La–Re–Sol for kara düzen. Those are labels for the relationships, not concert pitches.
Why does this page not print the exact intervals?
Because we have not verified how the three courses are octave-placed against each other, and that placement is what decides whether a given gap is a fourth or its inversion a fifth. The solfège triples are not in doubt; the octave layout is, and it varies with how the instrument is strung. Printing "a fourth and then a whole tone" would be asserting something we cannot check, on a subject that is already full of confidently stated numbers that turn out to be one region’s convention. Tune to the düzen your teacher or your tab specifies, and use the dial to hold it.
One of my courses will not settle on a reading.
A bağlama has seven strings in three courses and at least one course is an octave pair rather than a plain unison, so the dial is being handed two pitches an octave apart and reporting whichever is stronger. That is not a fault. Damp the strings you are not tuning with a fingertip and read one at a time. It is also the fastest way to locate a warble you can hear but cannot place.
My saz plays a makam wrong even though the courses are right.
Move the frets. They are tied nylon or gut, they slide, and a bağlama neck carries microtonal frets that a twelve-note instrument does not have — that is precisely what makes the makam repertoire playable on it. An instrument set up for one repertoire is genuinely in the wrong place for another, and one that has been restrung or transported will have shifted on its own. Fret the note, watch the cents readout, slide the fret.