This is the first formal baglama saz instructional compendium that I have tried out. Living in Iowa, you can understand how master class opportunities on Turkish folk instruments might be limited. The book has a good 25 pages or so on the basics of music, what makes Turkish music different from western music, and anatomical analysis of the instrument itself. When I first started out, I had been fiddling around with tuning the instrument in 5ths, but the book is written in a different tuning (A, G, D) which seems rather odd to someone used to guitar or orchestra stringed instrument tunings. (Yes, that's A on the first string, down a whole step to G on string two, and up a fifth to D on the highest string).I went ahead and tuned my instrument the way the book suggested, and I later found out that the YouTube user Greg Socolofsky has some beginner videos using the same tuning intervals as the ones in the book, so perhaps this tuning is not as uncommon as I previously thought. I am currently about 5 songs into the book after reading all of the instructional material, and I must say that the instructional intro is a must-read to fully understand how the music is written in the rest of the book. Reading the introductory pages has made reading the music a heck of a lot easier. However, it is certainly different than what most western players of instruments that look like this are used to. There are no tabs in here, but like I said, I think the preliminary training on how the book is composed is super helpful, and honestly, a pretty healthy thing for musically-minded people who are used to tabs.The only reason I've docked a star is because some of the translations are not always easy to understand, and, while this is clearly intended to be a basic fundamentals book, I found recordings of some of these songs, and the songs in the book are drastically simplified at times. This can sometimes make it challenging for western ears to play along to the recordings. It might be helpful if the folks at Sala could upload some accompaniments to their YouTube channel for a few of the songs in here just as an instructional supplement. Otherwise, this is a solid foundational volume for beginners to the baglama saz.