Hamzeh Taheri

Artistic career

Hamzeh Taheri is a tanbur player and teacher. According to the description of his book Daftarcheh-ye Tanbur (“The Tanbur Notebook”), the work is the result of more than two decades of experience in playing and teaching.

In summer 2022, tanbur courses at beginner, intermediate and advanced levels, as well as courses in maqam playing (maqams being the traditional melodic pieces of the tanbur repertoire) and ensemble playing, were held on the basis of his “Daftarcheh-ye Tanbur” teaching method. On 25 April 2025 Taheri was among the performers at a concert by the Kariz Ensemble at the Hilaj Theatre in Tehran.

Works

The video teaching series “Daftarcheh-ye Tanbur”, compiled by Hamzeh Taheri, has been published on YouTube since summer 2022: a preface, a table of contents and forty lessons, comprising five lessons of music theory, ten lessons of elementary exercises, twenty-one tasnifs (metrical songs) and four majazi (figurative) maqams.

The lessons include pieces by Gholamali Pouratayi, Keykhosrow Pournazeri and Seyed Khalil Alinejad, Khorasani and Azeri folk songs, and maqams such as “Jelowshahi”, “Chupi” and “Gol-o Khar” (“Rose and Thorn”). Notes and files for each lesson are available on the “Daftarcheh-ye Tanbur” Telegram channel (t.me/tanbourlearning). The series’ title music was composed by Taheri and Shoeib Kaminpour; its graphics are by Siamak Pourjabbar and its motion graphics by Ali Sadeghi.

The book and multimedia collection “Daftarcheh-ye Tanbur” was launched on 5 January 2024 at Shahr-e Ketab Markazi (the Central Book City), with Taheri and Ali Sadeghi present. Over sixty lessons, the 135-page book covers everything from the fundamentals of music theory and playing technique to the performance of pieces and maqams; its illustrations are by Siamak Pourjabbar and its graphic design by Shabnam Ghavidast.