A typical Shashmaqam performance has a small group of musicians sitting together. There is the dutar (two-stringed lute), the tanbur (a longer-necked lute), a tambourine called a doira and a singer or two. Sometimes there is also a small violin called a sato. They sit in a circle and listen carefully to each other.
Shashmaqam music does not have a 'big finish' the way pop songs do. Instead, it is a journey. A piece might start slow and quiet, build up to faster, more excited sections in the middle, and then settle back down. A whole Shashmaqam suite can last over an hour. Listeners often close their eyes.
The words sung in Shashmaqam are often old poems, hundreds of years old, full of pictures - flowers, gardens, friendship, far-away travellers, the moon. The singers are trained to give every word its proper feeling. Even people who don't speak Uzbek or Tajik can usually tell when the song is sad and when it is bright.
Today there are special schools and groups in Tashkent, Bukhara and Samarkand where children and teenagers learn Shashmaqam from older masters. UNESCO has added Shashmaqam to its list of important world cultural traditions, recognising it as a treasure shared by Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and the whole world.