[1] He was born in 1913 in the village of Yağmurlubüyükoba in Ankara Vilayet (present-day Kırşehir Province) as one of five children to Kara Ahmed, a Zurna player, and his wife Ayşe.
He taught Muharrem mostly the poems of the folk poet Aşık Sait (1835–1910) in addition to the anonym melodies of the region.
Muharrem accompanied his uncle by his tours in neighboring villages to make music at wedding parties, circumcision ceremonies and bayrams.
[1][2] Muharrem Ertaş had a wide repertoire of the traditional folk music specific to Central Anatolia.
In addition to Bozlak, he played and sang examples of the halay genre and vocalized the phrases of folk poets and ashiks Karacaoğlan, Sheikh Galip, Pir Sultan Abdal and Dadaloğlu.