joseph
Oud Maniac
Posts: 62
Registered: 6-22-2004
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
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Oud Method by Charbel Rouhana
A while back I put an update on the forum that I bought the above series of books, and was looking on a way to implement the higher tuning (An
additional f' jaharkah string). I ended up ordering the separate strings. I aslo traditional pyramid sets which I intend to combine with the
higher f' string, so that solved that technical problem. It is early days still going through the exercises, but there are some new ideas in
these books which are worth some discussion.
1) The higher tuning : That does bring out a new colour of sound in the Oud, but I'm not sure if I'll end up sticking with it for good
yet. The problem is that traditional Oud pieces can be played quite comfortably on five strings FADgc. There is rarely a need to go below the low F,
or to use a high f' string, so is a sixth course really required at all in either direction? I'm sure there will be various opinions and
tastes, but I wish there is some standardisation on this for the Arabic Oud as has happened in the Turkish Oud. I tend to be weary of just adding
strings to the Ouds in both directions as that makes tuning and buying strings a little more complex, and we loose standardisation (The history of the
Lute suggests it was a bad idea) but it would be interesting to hear what everyone thinks.
2) Another idea mentioned in the book is the wish to have Luthiers make Ouds with different tuning such as bass Ouds, and treble Ouds similar to the
violin family. Actually lot of the ideas in the method, and the higher tuning as well is similar to violin methods. I find this idea intriguing and
wish it is taken up. The idea of a full Oud ensemble sound is very exciting. I guess having each Oud type made for a paritcular sound range means a
better sound, and the various sounds and shapes will attract more people to play the instrument. It would be interesting to hear comments especially
from Luthiers if these ideas are practical and can be taken in the future.
3) Another thing I picked from the book confirmed my suspicion that musical pieces as notated in Arabic theory need a lot of interpretation and
additions. The way that I learned was to follow them exactly as written, and that always seemed to me a little empty the way they were written in
other books. This book adds ornamentation, harmony, and more instructions in terms of finger positions, plectrum style of playing some notes in the
piece (example tremolo, or the playing the plecturm in an up or down direction). That makes each piece somewhat more difficult to learn, but the final
result is more satisfactory.
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Elie Riachi
Oud Junkie
Posts: 582
Registered: 4-9-2004
Location: Kansas
Member Is Offline
Mood: Gebran Tueni Lives For Ever, 12-12-05.
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Hi Joseph,
You bring up interesting points. My views are:
1. We should be able to have the benifit of exploring the instrument and expanding its potential. At the same time we should also persue the
preservation and exploration of the classical. These could be two tracks and that doesn't mean that the two schools cannot coexist in harmony.
I know that Charbel had been under a lot of criticism from the traditionalist camp. The traditionalists are not playing the original Oud anyway so it
had to go through changes any way.
2. Why not? I think Mr. Ghadban makes Bass Ouds (I think he is a friend of Charbel's and may be a collabration)?
3. There is an improvement through change while preserving the past in a better way than the traditional way.
Regards,
Elie
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