Behroozinia: I sold my lutes to play barbot.

When we talked about barbat , unconsciously remember hossein behroozinia and his activity in this field, a player who play slute but it is nearly 2 decodes after centuries introduced again this musical mstrument to Iran music by the help of Mr. ghanbari mehr.

Our conversation deals with more the details of playing this instrument since we believe that playing barbat needs a technique rather than lute, and the player should play his own technique unfortunately it is so common that musical instrunment players use other techniques to call their instrument , and this way has no advantage just repetition and boredom.

My first question is in this way, where did you know this musical instrument originally?

I had a narimani lute with a problem that needs repairing everal years ago, I brought that to Mr. ghanbari mehr , while he was visiting that to find the prolem , I looked at the place and found a lute with special characteristic in a corner , I asked him about its special characteristics , and he answered it is not a lute , it is a barbat , an old musical instrument, I played it and enjoyed it very much , I asked him to borrowit but he told me it is made for museum. After a while , I gave him my performance CD, and after listening invited my to his place , gave me barbat and told me have a common way, I remade this musical instrument and you replayed it . I worked with that instrument for a while in order to used it, it was at the same time of one of my concert abrood , I decided to play barbat there , but he told me you are not used to this instrument. It would be bether to bring a lute with you there. I didn’t like that, I played barbat there and it was so joyful for mewithout any trouble.

I had some first – grade lutes , sold them to have nothing for playing.

One of the barbat problems is that it didn’t have  regular rhythm as lute , did you try to write a regular rhythm forit ?

I have worked with mirza abdollah rhythm for years and made some notes for using both barbat players and lute players , I think 2 years later they are ready for publication.

I knew that you formed a training class in your short trip to Iran this summer, please tell us a little about this .

I am living in Canada, I received some calls and e- mails sometimes that these instrument player wish to participate in my training class. Most of them don’t know that I am not living in iran and promise thern to form a class in my trip to iran, in last two years , I didn’t have any opportunity to do this unfortunately , however , this time I decided to form a class for those who are interested . what is the level of your class ? it is for players who played several years.

One of problems that we face as around the world players is the physical problems during playing. There is a solution for this problem around the world and it has special remedy, even by the first days they taught him some techniques to prevent aches such as bachache , neckache , shoulder drop, wrist ache and ….. , some of them use yoga techniques for solving this problem , but in iran there isn’t any special plan.

In barbat playing, wrist is mostly involved and after several minutes it contracted and had a slow movement , so wrist cant move easily on wires and you cant hear left and right plectrum well , do you have any solution for this problem as a player andteacher ?

This problem refers to the way of taking plectrum , there are a lot of ways for taking lute plectrum around the world , and unconsciously influenced our ways. My students who participate in my training class are all good players but most of them have problem with plectrum taking . if a player learn a wrong way , if will b so difficull for him to change it and learn something new .

According to wrist ache , we hend wrist when weare playing lute and barbat .

Some don’t know how much it should bend , and bend it more , this hurts their wrist and all hand nerves and after some minutes makes him fired , in left hand it should be paid attention.

Why do we use our first , second and third fingers more I barbat?

The forth finger and also three other fingers used more in Arabic style and it is because their playing melody. Accidently one or two yong players have the same problem in iran , since think that arabs have high technique and the problem is just putting fingers in right places , and put their finger like arab and it is generally wrong because of our special melody. Mr . nariman way of playing and his melody uses forth finger less and it has no problem: I believe that the way of using fingers refer to melody.

So doesn’t using forth finger hurt this musical instrument playing?

No , players should have the ability of using all fingers around the world .

How notewriting for barbat is different from notewriting for tar ?

There isn’t any difference here , as it is not known to all players , we use the same far techniques and it is not a correct way.

How can barbat players perform a high – technique part quickly ?

There are two factors in playing par: 1) sometimes the player performs the part quickly , at that moment you should ask him perform that part clearly and slowly. When you play quickly , you may lose some notes and just hear a sound volume. I believe that a successful player is a player who can play slowly and little by little increase his pace 2) the practice duration and accuracy is very valuable , you should at first play slowly and with accuracy focus on notes then increase your pace , in this way you can learn each separate notes easilyand gradually. What do you mean by gradually? One month , two months, six months , a year?

H doesn’t depend on year and month.

Finally , we should know that music is not a driving match or horseriding, and pace is not just important in playing.

If a player was ordered to play quickly but he didn’t pay attention to play quickly , what is his responsibility?

I believe that the layer should improve his techniquesand play hard parts because in every situation you need a special technique and ability

How should a barbat player practice daily?

It depends on the artist stage of playing.

I mean a person who is completely involved in music.

It depends on training method more. I ofter that if students want to have daily practice, it will be better to heat their hand slowly and initially play right and left plectrum , then change their plectrum, generally start slowly and then increase their pace.

How do you practice as a professoned person? Do you practice in this wayer practice differently?

Nowadays. My practiceis different from 30years ago practice , I practiced at least 8 hours those days , my time duration decreased now or basically didn’t practice for 3 days, but in the forth day practice 5 hours; however always for playing at first make my hand worm just by playing various plectrum

You know that there isn’t special wire for barbat and players are forced to use lute wires, what should they do? Do you offer special wire that is either nice- sound or regular?

Well , there is special wire for special musical instrument , we should try an various wire to get good sound nd also the way of putting wire for barbat is various from lute. If you use mr. ghanbarimehr way, it wont lead to a problem.

Iran barbat and lute playes mostly use different plastic cans, is it right?

Nowadays, there are diffent kinds of plectrum in playing shoping, but I myself never use his kind of plectrum and always suitable plastic materials and are enough flexible .

Are you considering make a special barbat council?

Accidentally , it is my suggestion to every organization whose responsibility is to regulate our country music ( I think music home) invite various people and consider about this musical instrument training and decide which one belongs to Iranian and select he Iranian one and a special method for this what is the supreme part of barbat playing? Is it different with lute?

Playing lute is not so old in iran, it was so common in low level around 30 – 40 years ago , so we cant select a criterion and decide it is the supreme part of lute or barbat playing. When a player reaches to a special performance stage exatly , he concludes that I pass the primary playing part and should pass the high level and the most salient difference between lute and borbot playing is that barbat has high performance quality and it is beause of its long handle.

Do your foreign students get our music? Can they make a relationship with our rhythm?

I had a lot of foreign student, I have a Canadian guitarist who comes for learning lute and rhythm . his is so close to us that if you har his recorded playing, you will sense it is an Iranian one. One of my student is  20 years old boy, his mother omes from iran and his father is a Canadian, he speaks farsi hardly but plays all parts and know all rhythm .

How do you assess iran music conditions?

Iran music changed recently and turned to a scientific one and moves forward . iran musicians view improved because of their travels for concert to abroad. Music development pace increased as people lives. Musicians ues various rhythm and generally it has a clear future.