Tuning the Persian Santoor can be very difficult and is often times the biggest hurdle for a beginner on the path of learning Santur. With the right approach and information, however, you will manage to get your instrument properly in tune and unlock its magical sound.

This guide will offer you a solid overview of how to tune the Persian Santur for traditional Persian music or adapting it to Western styles, Keep in mind that while I'll cover key steps here, truly mastering Santur tuning—especially with precise bridge adjustments and advanced scales—often requires deeper instructions that cannot be given properly in a single text article. For that, my comprehensive Santoor Tuning Online MasterClass provides the detailed video lessons to teach the skill of tuning the Santur in detail.

What is the Persian Santoor and how is it tuned?

The Persian Santoor (or 'Santur') is a hammered dulcimer with a trapezoidal wooden body and plenty of metal strings (usually 72 or 96) struck by lightweight hammers. Its origins trace back to ancient Persia, with the oldest evidence of a Santoor-like instrument dating back 3000 years ago. In nowaday's Iran, it still plays a major role in music, especially in classical music. Its sound is magical and unique and the instrument can be played melodically or rhythmically, for solos or for accompanying.

Because of its origin, the Santur is usually tuned in a "Persian way", according to Persian musical theory. The "scales" in Persian music differ significantly from what we are used to in Western music, as instead they have a so-called "dastgah" system that does not feature fixed scales but rather serve as what we know as a musical mode with some fixed and some variable notes.

However, it is possible to tune the Persian Santoor in a "Western way", adapting the instrument's tuning to the scale system of Western music.

I have dedicated years to this instrument, and have explored many different tuning possibilities, particularly in Western scales, but also more 'exotic' scales like Middle-Eastern, Gypsy and others. As a musician focused on healing music, I know that proper tuning is essential to the instrument's magic.

The Challenges of Tuning the Persian Santoor

Tuning the Santur is almost like an art in itself, thanks to the instrument's 72 to 96 strings grouped into courses over movable bridges. Tuning 72 strings alone is a laborious task (equaling to tuning 12 guitars in a row!). The trickiest aspect, however, is that those bridges (called 'kharak') are movable and need to be positioned very accurately since even small misalignments can cause dissonance.

This is why the first tuning of a Santoor will usually take several hours - once it's in tune, the retuning will take half an hour or less, since then the bridges usually don't need to be replaced.

Furthermore, with all those strings on the board, it happens easily to confuse one of them and accidentally break strings by turning the wrong pegs. In order to tune the Santoor successfully, you will have to be focused and patient.

If you happen to break a string while tuning, this can bring another challenge: even replacing strings on this wonderful instrument can sometimes be a bit tricky.

If you want to tune the Persian Santoor in traditional Persian tunings you will need to incorporate quarter tones, which are hard to nail without experience - a normal chromatic tuner or tuner app will not cover those notes by default.

There's a few more tricky aspects to tuning the Santoor, but let me spare you with those for now .. Believe me, it can be done and it can be learned from scratch - but you will need a bit dedication and a good portion of patience.

How To Tune the Santoor - A Hidden Secret?

Finding in-depth resources on how to tune the Persian Santoor is tough. Most online guides touch only on basics, sticking to standard Persian dastgahs like Shur or Homayoun without much troubleshooting or detail. I have also seen a few instructions that were listing wrong steps or "scales" that wouldn't even work on the Santoor. Also AI chatbots and the automated Google Summary usually provide very wrong information on tuning the Santur.

It seems like, this skill has maintained its privileged position of a hidden secret that would only be passed from teacher to student... at least, I'd like to see it that way. If you do understand Farsi or Arabic, you will be able to find in-depth information, in forms of books or videos.

There's even less information out there on adapting the Persian Santoor to Western tuning - like diatonic scales as G Minor or A Major - and to avoid quarter tones for a more familiar sound. This gap leaves many players experimenting alone.

As I do wanna pass on the art and skill of playing and tuning the Santoor, I have also decided to develop the Santoor Tuning MasterClass, making the skill generally available to people around the world. I have decided, however, not to release that course publicly on platforms like YouTube or such, to keep that knowledge only to those sincerely interested in this magical instrument. I assume that if you found your way here, you are one of them. Let's try to keep this instrument sacred and pass on this knowledge with respect and care.

If you are ready to dive deeper right away, you can check out the MasterClass here.

If you wanna get a rough overview of the technique for now, keep reading - and we'll get right into it.

Before you actually start tuning the Santur, you will need to decide for a specific scale or mode. There are actually quite a lot of possible tunings, ranging from the various Persian dastgah "scales", to pretty much any standard Western diatonic scale (with some limitations) to more "alternative" tunings like double-harmonic minors, Arabic scales and so on. Some scales, as A minor or C major, don't work very well on the Santoor, though. Also, forget about the idea of tuning the Santur in a pentatonic scale.

Traditional Persian music uses the dastgah system, where for each "scale" (it's not really a scale) you will have most fixed notes and a few variable notes, plus you'll find notes which we don't have in Western music. Those notes could be seen as "quarter notes", as they are more or less between a half and a full note in our music systems.

There is several such Dastgahs, with some being the fundamental ones, like Dastgāh-e Shur or Homayoun.

To ears accustomed to Western music, such a dastgah tuning might sound exotic and special, or even off-key or "wrong".

Here you see a diagram for the note arrangement for tuning the Persian Santoor in "Dastgāh-e Shur":

(My MasterClass features 23 more such diagrams for all different tunings.)

Overview of the necessary steps for tuning the Persian Santoor:

1- Choose Scale

Write down the notes that you need for each bridge. Use this paper as a reference during the whole tuning process, always making sure to tune the right string to the right note.

2- Prepare the Bridges

For the very first tuning of the Santoor, you might have to place the bridges (kharaks) in a roughly correct position. The fine-positioning will be done during the tuning process. The Bridges should be in a line with more or less the same angle.

3- Tune the Brass Strings

Tuning the brass strings on the right, responsible for the lower-pitch sounds of the Santoor, are relatively easy to be tuned as their tuning is adjusted merely by the corresponding tuning peg on the right. This process is similar to tuning a guitar, with the same steps and precautions to take care of (like finding the right pitch by tuning up and not down). Beware that the four strings on each bridge should be tuned exactly to the same pitch.

4- Tune the Silver Strings

Now, this is where it gets tricky. In order to tune the silver strings, you will not only have to use the tuning pegs on the right side of the instrument, but also position the bridges that are holding the courses of strings correctly - as the silver strings are played on both sides of the bridges. By turning the tuning peg, you will change the tuning of both sides. If plucking the string on the right side of the string is in tune but the left side isn't, then the bridge needs to be either moved left or right, or rotated slightly to adjust its angle. This is the step that simply is not possible to be explained properly in a text instruction. Please refer to my video course for understanding and learning this skill.

5- Check Tuning

Once you have completed tuning all strings and have brought the bridges in position, recheck the tuning starting from the first string. It's not uncommon that some of the strings might have "lost" their tuning already and require retuning. Like with most other instruments, you will have to retune again and again for a few days until the Santoor "accepts" its new tuning and holds it properly.

6- Maintain the Tuning

If you can store the Santoor in a place with consistent temperature and no humidity, then the tuning will usually hold one to three weeks (depending on quality of Santoor). As soon as you are moving around with the instrument and it undergoes changes of temperature or humidity, however, you will quickly hear it get out of tune. Then it will always require retuning, whereas the brass strings are usually more prone to losing their tuning quickly. For retuning, you will normally not have to readjust the position of the bridges (unless they were moved in transport).

If you change the tuning (switching from one scale to another), the time for retuning will depend on how big is the shift of tuning. In some circumstances you will also have to reposition the bridges then.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Tuning Your Santur

• Be patient and don't rush - tune gradually to prevent snaps. Always tune up, coming from lower pitch going up carefully.
• Make sure you are working on the right string and using the correct corresponding tuning peg to tune.
• If a string falls of a bridge, you should loosen its tension and lift it back up on the bridge.
• If a bridge falls over, loosen the tension of all corresponding strings and replace the bridge.
• If a string breaks, you may continue tuning without it and replace it when you have time.
• If the Santoor doesn't hold the tuning, or only single strings don't, it can have various reasons.

I address all of these potential issues and help you avoid / solve them in the video course.

The "Companion Booklet" of the Persian Santoor Tuning Masterclass grants you a comprehensive overview of the most important tuning aspects and includes visual diagrams for 24 different tunings - from original Persian tunings over a great variety of Western tuning to more alternative tunings.

As part of the tuning masterclass, you will be able to download this booklet as PDF, allowing you to open it on any device (like smartphone, computer, ebook reader), so you always have your tuning resource at quick hand.