Kazakh music is rural, and is closely related to Uzbek and Kyrgyz folk forms. Travelling bards, healers and mystics called akyn are popular, and usually sing either unaccompanied or with a string instrument, especially a dombra or kobyz as well as kyl-kobyz, sherter, sybyzgy, saszyrnay and shankobyz; the most common instrumental traditions are called kobizovaia, sibiz-govaia, and dombrovaia. WHAT IS A DOMBRA?The dombra is a Kazakh stringed musical instrument played by plucking. It has a wooden frame and two strings.
Many traditional songs are played with dombra, which is closely linked to nomadic life. It evokes the first pages of Kazakhstan’s history and became a link stretching across generations. As famous poet Kadir Mirzaliev said “real Kazakh is not Kazakh, real Kazakh is dombra!”. Kazakh people still respect and play this instrument. In any Kazakh home you will find at least one dombra player. Dombra varies in length, neck, shape of corpus and amount of frets according to the region. In western Kazakhstan you will find long, thin neck, pear-shaped dombras with 13-14 frets. Dombra in Central Kazakhstan has a wide and short neck, a triangle form, with 6-8 frets.
WHAT IS A DOMBRA?The dombra is a Kazakh stringed musical instrument played by plucking. It has a wooden frame and two strings.
Many traditional songs are played with dombra, which is closely linked to nomadic life. It evokes the first pages of Kazakhstan’s history and became a link stretching across generations.
As famous poet Kadir Mirzaliev said “real Kazakh is not Kazakh, real Kazakh is dombra!”. Kazakh people still respect and play this instrument. In any Kazakh home you will find at least one dombra player.
Dombra varies in length, neck, shape of corpus and amount of frets according to the region. In western Kazakhstan you will find long, thin neck, pear-shaped dombras with 13-14 frets. Dombra in Central Kazakhstan has a wide and short neck, a triangle form, with 6-8 frets.