Hey Sammy,
I'll try to do my best in explaining the half-flats, though I don't think I'll be able to do it any justice, and I hope that the other players on the
forum will be able to provide you with a much clearer and more understandable explanation than I will be able to provide.
In certain maqamat, there exists something called the half flat. Essentially, one can think of it as a note that is somewhere in between two notes
that one can play on the piano. For example, between E flat and E (two notes that can be played on the piano), there is a note E half-flat, which
cannot be played on the piano. As a result, it's a bit difficult to instruct online where the note is to be found exactly (unless you talk about
mathematical divisions between the notes, which I won't go into).
Let us start with Bayati on D for our example. The notes in Bayati on D are... D E(half flat) F G A B(flat) C D. Go to http://maqamworld.com/maqamat/bayati.html and click on each of the notes in order to hear them all. The second note is the one that we are
concerned with here. Click on that one several times to get it engraved in your ear, pick up your oud, and try playing it. Click, and then play...
click, and then play. Do this until you get comfortable with the positioning.
On the right side of the page mentioned above, there are several sound files. I'd focus on listening to the Doulabs, maybe just pick one, and listen
to it say... 20 times. Then try to play along with it. Believe me, it will be a bit strange when you start playing it in the beginning, because the
finger spacing that you are probably used to will be different now.
Also, one of the things that will help you the most is something that Mike has graciously provided for us on his site:
http://www.mikeouds.com/video/bayati.html
I recommend only focusing on bayati right now. The E(half-flat) is just SLIGHTLY different, but that will come later. For now, just focus on Bayati,
and try to do what you can. Watch those videos that Mike has posted, and try to play along.
Most importantly, make sure that your oud is tuned absolutely correctly. When one is learning the maqamat, it's best if the oud is tuned correctly in
the beginning so that you don't form a bad habit of playing the note incorrectly later on.
Learning this maqam may take some time, but don't give up. Just try your best, and we here at Mike's forums support you, and will try to help out
however much we can.
Best of luck,
TP21
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