Editor's note: Chasing Muqam is a CGTN Digital documentary series that explores the legacy of Muqam, a traditional Uygur art form that blends song, music and dance. Nadim Diab travels across Xinjiang to meet the people carrying this tradition forward – listening, learning, and ultimately attempting to capture the soul of Muqam in a performance.

In Urumqi, CGTN's Nadim Diab spends a day learning, not just about the modern history of the Twelve Muqam, but also about the challenge he's taken on. A group of masters comes together to put him through his paces, teaching him dance, singing (in Uygur language, no less), and even traditional instruments, if he can manage to get a proper grip on the dap, the ancestor of the tambourine. But as our host struggles through his first lesson, a new mission is revealed – one that will take him thousands of kilometers away, on a journey deep into the roots of the Muqam and its past.