ArmoOudist - 1-22-2021 at 04:16 PM
Not sure if anyone here has tried playing along to music from John Bilezikjian's music from the Armenian diaspora, but I've noticed something odd
about the tuning. It feels like everything is done a half step up.
For example, here's his rendition of the Armenian Laz Bar (2:17 in the video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJjFsV_5Y0c
This may seem like a weird thing to nitpick over it, but it just feels weird when I sit down and try to play it. On the one hand, when I play what
"feels natural" fingering wise on Armenian tuning, it sounds off, but when I try to play along on my oud in the original tuning, the fingering is all
weird.
I guess I could just tune my oud a half step up, but it's sort of been driving me crazy for whatever reason. Don't get me wrong, I love his rendition,
I think I just needed a place to vent about it... 
)
Here's Hagopian's version as a comparison
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-jDPjOIr1M
yavaran - 1-22-2021 at 09:44 PM
In these cases, I download the mp3 from YouTube and change the key in an audio editing program I’m not skilled enough to play in an awkward position!
paulO - 1-23-2021 at 04:50 PM
Yep, it's 1/2 step up - not sure why John chose to do this. Everytime I saw him, he was tuned EABead, it's puzzling.
It may have been that one of the ouds he used on the album sounded exceptional tuned up a 1/2 step, so that's where everything ended up.
I'm with yavaran on this - grab an mp3 of the tune, and run it through something like "amazing slow downer" to adjust the pitch.
Have fun.
Regards - Paul
ArmoOudist - 1-23-2021 at 05:12 PM
It's funny how simple something like tuning can affect a song. When I first started playing the oud, I used an Arab oud from Syria that my grandfather
had lying around. Playing Armenian songs always felt "off." Once I got a Turkish oud of higher quality and set it to Armenian tuning, it's amazing how
many of the songs just naturally fit.