He was called by the nickname "Dabbakh (tanner) Mammadgulu" because he was engaged in tanning like his family.
Mammadgulu, who received his first education in the cell of Kor Khalifa in Shusha, joined the troupe of the tarzen Shushulu Grikor.
Mammadgulu, who was sent by his father to the school of Mir Mohsun Navvab, studied mugham for three years there, and at the age of 19, he began to sing in Karabakh music gatherings.
When he was 20 years old, he participated in parties with the tarzen Grikor, the accordion player Isi Bey, and sang "Karabakh Shikastasi" in his own way.
[1] In 1913, Mammadgulu, who was invited to Kyiv by the "Ekstrafon" joint stock company together with Shakili Alasgar, Kechachioghlu Muhammed, Islam Abdullayev, Seyid Shushinski, accompanied by tarzen Arsen Yaramishev and kamancha player Moses Quliyans, recorded the mughams "Bayati-Kurd", "Zabul-Segah", "Kurdu-Shahnaz", "Qatar", "Hasar", "Mukhalif", "Karabakh Shikastasi, "Heyrati" and "Akhsham oldu" classification on the gramophone shafts.