The Art of Strings

Interactive fretboards for guitar, bouzouki, bağlama and bass, with quarter tones

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Maqam Nawa Athar on guitar, bouzouki and bağlama

Nawa Athar is built from a Nikriz-style lower part (with a raised fourth degree) and a Hijaz-style upper part, so it contains two augmented seconds. It has no quarter tones.

Choose an instrument and a root above to see Nawa Athar on the fretboard.

RootQuarter tone (half-flat ↓)Other notes (including regular flats and sharps)

Note: a regular flat (like E♭) is a semitone, so it is blue. Only a half-flat (↓, e.g. E↓ or B↓) is a quarter tone, shown in yellow. Each quarter tone is drawn inside the fret box above it, and if that box also holds a regular note, both are shown side by side. Play it by bending the string or on a fretless guitar.

Structure and notes

Degrees: 1 - 2 - b3 - #4 - 5 - b6 - 7

Notes on D: D E F A♭ A B♭ D♭

Notes on C: C D E♭ F♯ G A♭ B

Quarter tones

Maqam Nawa Athar has no quarter tones, so it can be played on instruments with regular frets without any change.

How to practice

Instrument sounds are based on open-source recorded samples (Karoryfer Samples: Black And Green Guitars and Black And Blue Basses; University of Iowa Electronic Music Studios; tonejs-instruments).