Home › Saba

Maqam Saba on guitar, bouzouki and bağlama

Saba is a maqam with a unique, distinctive sound, sometimes described as sad in character. Its second degree is lowered by a quarter tone and its fourth degree is lowered further (b4), and together they create its special sound.

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

Instrument Category Maqam / Scale Root View Position size

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 - ½b2 - b3 - b4 - 5 - b6 - b7

Notes on D: D E↓ F F♯ A B♭ C

Notes on C: C D↓ E♭ E G A♭ B♭

Quarter tones

In maqam Saba the quarter tones are on degrees 2. On D these notes are E↓. On the fretboard they are marked in yellow, and the symbol ↓ marks a note lowered by a quarter tone (half-flat).

How to practice

Turn on the drone on the root to hear each note's relation to the tonic.
Choose one position (three frets) and play it note by note at the metronome's tempo.
Use the tuner in quarter-tone mode to check the notes marked in yellow.
Try the same maqam on other instruments, guitar, bouzouki, bağlama and bass, and hear the difference.

What users and teachers say

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).

Tuner

—

— Hz

— cents

±50 cents

♭●♯

Play a string to start

Settings

Input source Instrument Mode Short beep when the pitch is accurate CalibrationHz

Input level

Diagnostics (if the tuner does not work)

Press "Run diagnostics", play a string during the test (about 3 seconds), and send me the report that appears.

Info

On a phone the tuner listens through the built-in microphone. On a computer, choose your sound card or audio interface from the "Input source" list. Automatic audio processing is turned off so the measurement stays accurate. If the metronome plays while you tune, its click may be picked up by the microphone.