Playing the Saz

~ Playing the Saz ~

At a gathering in the coffee house, they asked Nasreddin Hodja if he knew how to play the saz. Our Hodja, never one to disappoint his friends, said that he did. So, they gave him a saz and asked him to play. Nasreddin Hodja took the saz, placed it on his lap, then picked one string and started to play that string. He was not moving his fingers up and down, left or right; he was constantly plucking the same string, at the same spot.

`Hodja Effendi, what kind of music is this?', protested the patrons of the coffee house, `The real saz players move their fingers about, play different strings. You held on to one string and you are not letting it go!'

`They are moving their fingers about because they are all looking for this very spot,' was the Hodja's explanation, `I found it in my first attempt, why should I let it go?'