Can someone tell me what the musical instrument is..

[GilbertGrape]

that you always hear in movies when the scene is in the middle east. Almost sounds like de-tuned Violin.

[North West Tom]

IIRC it's a de-tuned violin.

HTH.

[Famous Graham]

Violin.

Possibly Viola, but more likely violin, just played with certain notes.

[Ganglandboss]

Rebab?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtE0DquEeAA&fea...

[pacman1]

Kamancheh?

Wiki

[GilbertGrape]

After some youtube searching, I think it's been a violin and Rabab I've been thinking of.

Thanks.

Edited by GilbertGrape on Monday 1st February 06:30

[ScottishSamurai]

If it's what I'm thinking of, it's a bagpipe cat

HTH

[Famous Graham]

Told you.

[drivin_me_nuts]

... possibly also the original form of the bagpipes played that often sounds like a stringed instrument.

Phonetic translation is; nay-ham-bu-neh

[fido]

It sounds detuned/out-of-tune because they use notes that are in between notes in a Western scale .. which you can easily play on a violin .. like the intro to ELO's Living Thing.

[pistonlager]

fido said:

It sounds detuned/out-of-tune because they use notes that are in between notes in a Western scale violin.

I borrowed a mates violin and found those notes quite easily, it was truly dreadful.
I admire any string player, it takes real skill.