Dum.The open palm at the centre, where the skin is loosest.
A round, low note that names the downbeat. In a long muqam the dum is sparing — three or four to a phrase — and every singer waits for it the way you wait for a door to close.
Tek.Fingertips on the mulberry rim, near the bone inlay.
A bright, short report — what the Kashgar players call the answer. Tek fills the air between two dums and lets the rawap keep its melodic line uncrowded.
Halqa.The iron rings inside the frame, shaken without striking the skin.
A wash of small bells used to colour the long held notes of the chong-nağma. Forty to seventy rings, fitted by ear, never tuned by number.
Söz.The silence the drum leaves for the singer's first word.
The hardest of the four. A young player learns dum and tek in a season; söz — the courtesy of stopping — takes a winter or two longer.