Panduri

The panduri is a three-stringed lute from the highland and lowland regions of eastern Georgia, usually played by strumming, and often for choral and rhythmic support of vocal melody.^[4][5]

There are two kinds of panduri in Georgia: one is the traditional "folk" panduri, which typically has seven frets and more closely approximates the scale divisions in the non-Western Georgian scale system. The second kind is the "chromatic" panduri, which has the same tonal divisions as a guitar and is capable of reproducing all the half-steps of the tempered Western scale.^[4] It is also sometimes found in Western Georgia (Upper Imereti and Racha). The two-stringed panduri survives in Khevsureti.^[2]

Sometimes the panduri is also mistakenly called a "chonguri" - but the chonguri is a completely different instrument which comes from western Georgia; it is fretless, and it has a fourth, half-length drone string. Additionally, the chonguri is an instrument mainly played by women, while the panduri is usually played by men.^[4][5]

A similar instrument is found in Chechnya,^[6] where it is known as: phandar, pondar, ponder, pandir, pandur, dechig pondur, adkhoku pondur, dakhch pandr, or merz ponder.

• Phandar
• Chonguri
• Pandura