Hear kanun sheet music played back
Musaica is a free online sheet music reader with a kanun voice. The instrument goes by several spellings: kanun in Turkish, qanun or qanoon in transliterations of the Arabic, and kanoun in French and some other languages. Whichever you use, the process is the same: upload a PDF or photo of the music, choose Kanun, and the recognised score plays back on a sampled kanun rendered from a SoundFont, with a cursor following each note.
About quarter-tones and komas. Musaica plays standard 12-tone equal-tempered pitches. The recognition engine generally does not read maqam or makam accidentals such as the half-flat or the Turkish koma signs: they are usually dropped or read as an ordinary flat, sharp or natural. Playback then gives you the nearest standard pitch, so microtonal notes have to be placed by ear, from recordings or with your teacher.
About the instrument and its notation
The kanun is a trapezoidal zither played flat on the lap and plucked with picks worn on the index fingers. Its strings are usually grouped in courses of three, and instruments commonly have around two dozen courses, giving a range of about three and a half octaves, roughly from A2 to E6 depending on the instrument.
Under each course sit small levers, called mandal in Turkish and 'urab in Arabic, that raise or lower that course by a small interval while you play. Turkish kanuns typically have more levers per course, allowing finer steps, than many Arabic qanuns. The levers are how the kanun moves between maqams, and they are exactly where intonation slips happen.
Kanun music is written in different ways depending on the tradition and the editor. You will often see a single treble-clef melody that the player doubles in octaves with both hands, and sometimes a two-stave layout like piano music. Turkish scores generally follow Turkish makam notation, where the written pitch and the sounding pitch level (ahenk) can differ. Check with your teacher which convention your music uses.
Checking your tuning and mandal settings
Because every course is tuned before you play, a wrong note on a kanun is usually a lever in the wrong position or a string that has slipped, not a finger in the wrong place. The microphone intonation check is a quick way to catch both.
- Tune first. With playback stopped, the check behaves like a tuner and shows the nearest semitone. Use it to bring each course to its standard pitch.
- Play a passage slowly with the microphone on. Each note is compared with the written pitch on a tuner gauge and pitch trace. Octaves are ignored, so playing in octaves with both hands is fine.
- Look for steady offsets. If a note always reads about a semitone off, a mandal is probably in the wrong position for that passage. If it reads a little off every time, the course needs retuning.
- Use the end-of-session report to see which notes went wrong most, then loop those bars and practise the lever changes in place.
For maqams with microtonal steps, remember that the check measures against equal temperament. A lever set for a quarter-tone or a koma will show a deliberate offset from the standard pitch, and a quarter-tone note may be counted as a missed note. Use the readings to confirm that the same note is set the same way each time, and judge the interval itself by ear.
Learning a kanun piece with playback
| Goal | Tool |
|---|---|
| Learn how the melody goes | Play the whole piece in the Kanun voice and follow the cursor |
| Drill a fast run | Loop two bars and slow them to 40–70% speed |
| Practise lever changes | Loop the bar before and after the change until it is smooth |
| Hold steady through a long piece | Turn on the metronome |
| Understand an awkward rhythm | Use the rhythm counter ("1 e & a", bars or circle) |
Playback uses recordings of single plucked notes, so it does not reproduce tremolo, glissandi or ornaments. Use it for notes and timing, and listen to recordings for style.
What to expect from recognition
Typeset kanun music in a clean edition recognises well apart from microtonal accidentals. Hand-copied repertoire, faint photocopies and pages crowded with ornament signs recognise less well. If your score is on two staves, both are played. Arabic or Turkish titles, maqam names and rhythm names are not read. See our guide to scanning sheet music for best results.
Free, honestly. Uploading and playing scores is free and ad-supported. Without an account you get an instant preview; a free account (we email you a sign-in link, no password) unlocks the full score and saves it to your library. The paid plan, Musaica Basic ($5.99/month), removes ads and adds Smart Playback, Band Mode, MusicXML export and HD audio renders.
How to practise kanun music with Musaica
- Upload the score. Drop a PDF or photo of the kanun music onto the box above.
- Choose Kanun and listen. Pick Kanun from the instrument menu and play the piece through.
- Tune with the microphone. With playback stopped, use the intonation check as a tuner for each course.
- Play along and check your levers. Loop a passage slowly with the microphone on; steady offsets point to a mandal in the wrong position.
Frequently asked questions
Is it kanun, qanun or kanoun?
All three refer to the same family of instruments. Kanun is the Turkish spelling, qanun (or qanoon) is a common transliteration of the Arabic, and kanoun is used in French and some other languages.
Can Musaica play qanun music with quarter-tones?
No. Playback uses standard 12-tone equal-tempered pitches, and the recognition engine generally does not read half-flat or koma signs. Those notes play as the nearest standard pitch.
Can the microphone check my mandal settings?
It can help. The intonation check compares each note with the written pitch, so a note that is consistently a semitone off usually means a lever is in the wrong position for that passage.
What is the range of the kanun?
Commonly about three and a half octaves, roughly from A2 to E6, though the exact range depends on the instrument.
Does playback reproduce kanun tremolo?
No. Each written note is played once from recorded samples. Use playback for the notes and rhythm, and recordings for technique and style.