Tofig Guliyev’s first experiences on poems began in the beginning of the 1930s. In 1931, being the student at the Asaf Zeynally Music School in Baku, Tofig Guliyev wrote a song to Mirza Alakbar Sabir’s poem – “About a schoolboy” according to his teacher’s advice. Beginning from 1935, Tofig Guliyev began to work as a conductor at Azerbaijan Drama Theatre named after Meshadi Azizbekov. Tofig Guliyev’s activity as folklorist, which was begun in the 1930s had a great importance not only in creative biography of the composer, but also in musical-social life of Azerbaijan. Tofig Guliyev was one of the creative personalities, who had great services to development and popularization of Azerbaijani folklore. He is one of the first composers of Azerbaijan, who accomplished note records of mugham. In 1936, mugham recordings “Rast”, “Segah”, “Zabul”, “Dugah” were released by him (jointly with composer Z. Bagirov).