I had a couple of questions that I had been thinking about for some time and was hoping that I could get professional help with this
My first question is how do I know when I'm supposed to pluck up or down with my risha? I just play and I do what feels comfortable but sometimes if I
play fast I get confused especially if I play on an open string and then I go down to the next string but I use my 3rd finger (eg open G then down to
F on the D string)
My next question is how do I know if I'm even supposed to try and play fast with my right hand rather than using my left hand to pull off or hammer
on?
thank you all for your timeBrian Prunka - 11-21-2020 at 02:17 PM
Hey Avi! Welcome.
Quote:
My first question is how do I know when I'm supposed to pluck up or down with my risha?
Play mainly with downstrokes as much as possible. You'd be surprised how fast you can get with downstrokes. Reserve upstrokes mostly for
ornamentation and for truly fast passages. My way of describing this is "use a downstroke unless you have a reason not to."
Usually this means that anything that is a half a beat or slower should be downstroke. If you're playing triplets or smaller subdivisions then you
will usually want to incorporate some upstrokes.
One big benefit of this approach is that your primary picking will mostly not change when you add ornamentation—you'll just be adding in some
upstrokes, hammer-ons and pull-offs in between the primary notes. This improves consistency and rhythmic accuracy. and reduces chances for confusion
and mis-coordination of the hands.
For fast passages, there are specific issues with crossing strings on upstrokes and downstrokes, and specific solutions for the left and right hands
depending on exactly what the phrase is. Generally, it's easiest to leave a string on an upstroke and easiest to start on a downstroke.
If I was going to rate the difficulty of various string crossings on a scale of 1-5:
option a: (either direction) end on an up, start on a down - difficulty 1/5
option b: down-down from a low string to a high string (e.g., A to d) - difficulty 2/5
option c: down-down from a high string to a low string - difficulty 3/5
option d: down-up from a low string to a high string - difficulty 3/5
option e: down-up from a high string to a low string (e.g., g to d) - difficulty 5/5
option f: up-up: not really used for successive notes due to the orientation of the hand and risha making it awkward.
Options a&b above cover about ~65% of playing
Option c covers another ~15-20%
Option d covers another ~10-15%
Option e covers the last ~0-10%
So 80-85% of your playing is covered byoptions a, b & c. Add in option d and you have 90-100% of situations covered.
For that reason, I don't advise students to spend a bunch of time working on option e. Since it is only useful about 10% of the time at most and will
require an disproportionate amount of practice time (and you will sound sloppy in the mean time), it's almost always better to spend that time
perfecting the primary movements. Once you have those extremely fluid, by all means work on perfecting option e.
Sometimes it is better to finger the notes d, g, or c' with the left hand (instead of playing an open string) because it makes the picking much
easier/more consistent.
Many complex ornaments have different versions depending on the position of the note in order to get the smoothest cooperation between left and right
hands (e.g., "turns" are not always full turns, there are many different varieties).
Quote:
My next question is how do I know if I'm even supposed to try and play fast with my right hand rather than using my left hand to pull off or hammer
on?
This is something you will figure out through time and experience. Partly it depends on the sound you want, how articulate you want the notes, if you
want the subtler sound of a hammer-on or pull-off. Listen to recordings and try to figure out which they are doing.
To get any more detailed than the above, you really need to be looking at specific examples to make sense of the possibilities—this is best done
with a teacher who can walk you through the options.
avi4527 - 11-21-2020 at 04:00 PM
brilliant I'll give it a try thanks so much!Aldana02 - 11-23-2020 at 01:05 AM
Thank you so much Brian for making such detailed replies.
You have no idea how valuable it is for people trying to learn oud on their own.
avi4527 - 11-23-2020 at 09:26 AM
agreed! Brian Prunka - 11-24-2020 at 10:01 AM
Thanks, guys, I'm glad if it's helpful.
Just to clarify, when I say that it should be mostly downstrokes — this is obviously dependent on the tempo of the tune. For most music this is
true, but faster tunes (for example, most longas and many modern instrumentals like Parfum de Gitane etc.) will use a lot more down/up picking.
