The Davul is a typical “party” drum, found across Eastern Europe and through Turkey to the Black Sea.  It is traditionally found the most in wedding celebrations, where it is accompanied by the double reed wind instrument Zurna, and produces an excellent, full bodied, driving bass sound.   This combination of bass drum and wind instrument (Turkey:  Davul & Zurna, Macedonia: Tapan & Zurna) plays an important role in all folk gatherings from Turkey and Southeastern Europe (Macedonia, Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, and Greece).  In modern music from Turkey, the Davul can be played with virtuosic technique in popular and folk music, and is often the only drum to accompany an ensemble. Historically, it was predominant in classical Ottoman music from 17th – 19th centuries, and was featured for special imperialist ceremonies along with the Nakara, creating enormous sound pressure for processions. 
 
      The traditional playing technique is with two hands on both sides of the drum, with a very thin stick playing on the thin skin side, and a thick stick to play the side with the thicker skin.  This creates a sound similar to a snare drum and a bass drum with one instrument. The drum is slung across the body with a harness, giving the player the freedom to move with the drum.  In generally every land where the Ottoman rule existed (typically in Greece and Macedonia) the combination of Davul and Zurna are always performed together.  Often there can be two Zurnas for one Davul, where one Zurna plays the melody line and the second plays the fundamental ground tone, thus creating a constant drone, similar to the concept of the Tambura in Indian music.  In this case, both Zurnas play in heterophonic intervals, or in octaves or thirds.  For this music, the Davul is featured, not only by providing the fundamental rhythmic pulse, both also by providing aggressive rhythmic phrasings, giving tremendous energy for dance and singing.