However, his family could not afford to send him to school, and after being orphaned by the death of his father when he was ten he became a day labourer, but later moved to Samarkand in hopes of a better life to live with his uncle, a wagon maker who kept him as an unpaid apprentice for over a decade.

Interested in music, he started learning to play the tambourine and doira in his little free time.

Eventually Komilov returned to Margilon to work as a craftsman, where he continued to improve his music skills and started teaching other Uzbeks to play the doira.

[4][5] He played his music at many prestigious events including the National Theater Olympiad in Moscow in 1930 and the International Dance Festival in London in 1935, where he played music for Tamara Khanum's dance routine.

[10] In 1935, he was awarded a personal medal from the Queen of England for his musical performance at the International Folk Dance Festival in London.