instrument gallery logo
Dombra

The dombra is a pear shaped long necked lute of the Kazakh people of Central Asia. It has a slender long neck with fourteen gut frets and two gut strings. The dombra was traditionally used to accompany epic poems and folk songs, but now virtuosic instrumental pieces are also common. As a result, dombra have become a popular instrument with non-Kazakh peoples throughout Central Asia, Russia and in dombra clubs in the United States. The dombra is played without a plectrum and is strummed quite rapidly with the index finger, or with the index finger and thumb.

Country: Kazakhstan, Russia
Region: Asia
Type: lute

Kazakh Dombra lute
Dombra
©  R. Raine-Reusch, May 2002