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majnuunNavid
Oud Junkie
Posts: 622
Registered: 7-22-2013
Member Is Offline
Mood: Dude, where's my Oud?
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I would also recommend playing along to recordings of the tunes you are working on, because that will allow your ear to hear the difference between
the recording and what you are playing... and you will naturally have a chance to adapt your playing to match the record.
The trick is getting your Oud in tune with the recording... Next week I'm posting a video tutorial on how to properly tune your Oud by ear. You can
sign up to receive news of its release at http://www.oudforguitarists.com.
My girlfriend didn't mind your Oud playing. I guess that makes me very lucky. 
Good luck! You're well on your way.
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Brian Prunka
Oud Junkie
Posts: 2916
Registered: 1-30-2004
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Member Is Offline
Mood: Stringish
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Of course everyone should be able to tune the oud by ear, but a more efficient solution for the issue of playing along with recordings is to get a
program like Transcribe, which allows you to retune the recording rather than your oud. Sometime the recording is a half step or even a whole step
low, I don't know about you but I am not going to retune my oud up and down a whole step that often.
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NeighborOud
Oud Lover
Posts: 16
Registered: 11-26-2013
Location: Toronto, Canada
Member Is Offline
Mood: In the mood...
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I am glad I live in a musical house! My spouse plays the piano and the clarinet, and also sings. I play various stringed instruments, diatonic
accordion and drums. No conflict here!
But I know many musicians who have issues with their partner who dislikes their music...
François
Toronto, Canada
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Alfaraby
Oud Junkie
Posts: 796
Registered: 9-18-2009
Location: Holy Land
Member Is Offline
Mood: Cool
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Maybe it's the player from whom the wife is running away 
Don't give up:
A youngman went to an old clairvoyant ...
She said: 20 Lean years are ahead of you !
He wondered: and afterwards ?
She said: You'll get used to ...
So play more & don't be deterred. You'll get better or she'll get accustomed.
Mine did 
Yours indeed
Alfaraby
alfarabymusic@gmail.com
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ALAMI
Oud Junkie
Posts: 643
Registered: 12-14-2006
Location: Beirut
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
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My wife loves the music (as long as it is not some savage Maqam like Segah or Mustaar"). She has a fine ear and when I try to compose a piece and ask
her for an opinion, she can be of great help with comments and suggestions, but let's be frank and put ourselves in their shoes
Sometimes it is not really about the music, even if stated as such, it is about the time we spend with our oud, all those visits to relatives,
shopping, going to movies etc... for which we invent twisted excuses in order to skip while the truth is that we prefer staying home playing our oud.
The room filled with ten ouds does not help either. married men should know that a hill can hide a mountain...married oudists should be aware how they
are sometimes like teenagers with a playstation.
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Eric Stern Music
Oud Maniac
Posts: 88
Registered: 7-15-2013
Member Is Offline
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Thanks guys.
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majnuunNavid
Oud Junkie
Posts: 622
Registered: 7-22-2013
Member Is Offline
Mood: Dude, where's my Oud?
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Quote: Originally posted by Brian Prunka  | [/ rquote]
Of course everyone should be able to tune the oud by ear, but a more efficient solution for the issue of playing along with recordings is to get a
program like Transcribe, which allows you to retune the recording rather than your oud. Sometime the recording is a half step or even a whole step
low, I don't know about you but I am not going to retune my oud up and down a whole step that often. |
It seems I am quite behind the times. That is awesome! I agree, better to change the pitch of the record than the Oud. If this program existed back in
the day when I was doing this a lot, it would have saved me a lot of trouble. I will mention this program in the video. Thanks Brian! However doing it
manually is still good ear practice for beginners.
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jack
Oud Junkie
Posts: 116
Registered: 4-5-2010
Member Is Offline
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| Quote: Originally posted by ALAMI |
Sometimes it is not really about the music, even if stated as such, it is about the time we spend with our oud, all those visits to relatives,
shopping, going to movies etc... for which we invent twisted excuses in order to skip while the truth is that we prefer staying home playing our oud.
The room filled with ten ouds does not help either. married men should know that a hill can hide a mountain...married oudists should be aware how they
are sometimes like teenagers with a playstation. |
Love it.
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jdowning
Oud Junkie
Posts: 3485
Registered: 8-2-2006
Location: Ontario, Canada
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
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.... and it is even worse if one also makes these things (ouds or lutes etc.)!
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Fritz
Oud Junkie
Posts: 246
Registered: 6-14-2012
Location: Northest Germany
Member Is Offline
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I just saw a bit of the video... and after a few seconds I noticed that the Oud-sound hearable isn´t matching the way to play of the actor ! These
are completely different things... audio and video isn´t the same !
Hmm...
Music is the food for the soul
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Eric Stern Music
Oud Maniac
Posts: 88
Registered: 7-15-2013
Member Is Offline
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The movie? Yes I think someone said it was John Belizikian who is actually playing in the movie.
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hussamd
Oud Junkie
Posts: 117
Registered: 12-18-2013
Location: Bartlett, IL
Member Is Offline
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Find a song that she likes and play it. My wife runs to the sound-proofed basement when I am in my metal tirade. I don't take it personal. I am
getting my first oud soon after 28 years of heavy metal and she is looking forward to it - I think!
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Eric Stern Music
Oud Maniac
Posts: 88
Registered: 7-15-2013
Member Is Offline
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So there is a coda to this story. It is, I think seven or eight years later. During these years I have practiced for hours a day, read this forum
extensively, traveled and studied oud and maqam with some amazing master teachers. During the pandemic here in Portland, we also had smoke from
wildfires and so, instead of practicing alone in my studio every morning upstairs I practiced downstairs in the living room. After a few days, my wife
came to me and said, "I know you practice every day but I never hear you upstairs. I'm so glad you have been playing downstairs. It's sounds soooo
beautiful." It's funny...back when I started this thread I thought I was pretty good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A6l-FaGUKo&feature=youtu.be
Nope. I sucked (and apparently didn't know how to flip the video either). Here's me now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl_w-zJnynw&feature=youtu.be
Thinking that I was pretty good was the Dunning-Kruger effect where people who are newbies don't know how bad they are because they don't know enough
to discern between what is good and what isn't. I've learned much (A LOT from this great forum) and practiced much. Now that I know more I can say
that I suck less. Anyway, more oud and less blender around here. Love to this wonderful forum. It's made a happier home for me. My wife thanks you.
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Brian Prunka
Oud Junkie
Posts: 2916
Registered: 1-30-2004
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Member Is Offline
Mood: Stringish
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Hey Eric, I remember this thread from years ago! Hard to believe it's been 7 years . . . it's great to see the huge improvement between the two
videos.
I think that music is a good example of why the Dunning-Kreuger effect is not necessarily a bad thing. After teaching for years, I've come to realize
that most students would give up if they truly understood how bad they sound early on and how much they need to learn. Even intermediate students
often have a large gap in their awareness. As long as one doesn't become complacent as a result, being slightly delusional about how much you still
have to learn helps keep people from feeling completely overwhelmed. One reason (among many) why I think kids have such an advantage over adults in
learning music — kids are incredibly ignorant! They don't have much experience and so they tend not to judge their playing as much and just have fun
with it.
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Doc139
Oud Junkie
Posts: 173
Registered: 2-23-2013
Location: Winterthur Switzerland
Member Is Offline
Mood: oud-sick
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Hi Eric,
what a beautiful surprise to read and hear from you again after all these years!!
I remember well your first video in 2013. It was the same year I had started with playing the oud! Replying to your post we all tried not to
discourage you too much but still be honest about the relativ lack of enjoyment when listening to your improvisation on this instrument we all love...
What a difference from then to now, after these seven years of practice! Your hair got grey but your playing improved quite a bit. :air guitar:
Congratulation to your discipline and commitment and to the progress you made! I like this new video a lot and what you do with the loop-machine, you
sound like a whole band, great! And nice to see how much fun you have with it all! And the best: congratulations on convincing your wife to like oud
music!!!!!
greetings to Portland, and keep the ball rolling, man!
Alexander
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Aldana02
Oud Lover
Posts: 12
Registered: 9-14-2020
Member Is Offline
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Hello Eric and thank you for your update.
You give me good hope that, maybe one day, my wife will not chase me from the living-room when I try to start playing the oud there
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Eric Stern Music
Oud Maniac
Posts: 88
Registered: 7-15-2013
Member Is Offline
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Aldana: 
Brian, that means a lot coming from you as I studied carefully many of your posts and learned a lot. Alexander, I appreciated everyone's honest
reponse initially, no matter how hard to swallow. Turns out I should have listened to my wife.
Thanks all. Again, much gratitude for this forum. I've learned so much here.
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ChanningPDX
Oud Maniac
Posts: 96
Registered: 10-15-2016
Member Is Offline
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When I first saw this, I thought, "What?! Why would Eric's wife say that? He plays really well!" Then I saw it was a thread revival from 2013. Ha!
Lovely playing in your recent video, Eric. The taqsim was gorgeous! A nice balance of musicality and technique.
To pile on to the other comments, I just celebrated my third "oudiversary", and so far I've been incredibly lucky. My wife has always loved hearing me
practice the oud and says it is by far her favorite among the instruments I play, even though it is the one I have the least experience with.
Then again, the other instruments I play are Scottish bagpipes, Irish uilleann pipes, and wooden flute. Those (especially the first) can get a bit
loud...
Here's a clip of me playing the Scottish pipes, an instrument I've played for more than 20 years. These dial in at somewhere around 100-110 dB,
BTW:
https://soundcloud.com/channing-dodson/march-strathspey-reel-71st-hi...
And here's a clip I did on my Turkish oud about a month ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7SXaVaKJIE
Yeah, I know... Like most musicians (with the possible exception of Prince), listening to recordings of myself makes me cringe. All I can hear on the
oud are the mistakes and imperfections. Though given the difference in volume, I don't blame my wife for preferring the latter to the former.
I still have a very long way to go with the oud before I'd call myself even a competent player, but my wife's encouragement coupled with the
Dunning-Krueger effect mentioned above have done much to keep me going these past three years.
I often think that learning a musical instrument as an adult, you're constantly having epiphanies--they often just happen to be the same epiphany you
had six months ago and then promptly forgot about.
I've also had a lot of acquisitions to keep me motivated: I got hold of the recent reprint of Mutlu Torun's "Ud Metodu" (excellent!), some great new
mizraps from Turkey, and a few weeks ago, I received a great new oud in Arabic tuning from Kamil Gül. It's much easier and more comfortable to play
than the older used Zeryab oud I'd previously wrestled with in Arabic tuning, so that has me listening to more Arabic players again, even though I
plan to remain focused more on the Turkish side of the spectrum for the foreseeable future.
What I really need to do now is find myself a teacher again, specifically one who will mercilessly get me to hammer through more exercises... I had
some incredibly helpful lessons in Arabic oud from Nat Hulskamp for a few months when I was first starting out, but it's been all Youtube, books, and
trial and error ever since. Sadly, there aren't any teachers locally who focus on Turkish oud. Lots of great teachers online, of course. I'm a bit
damned by choice, really.
But as long as I can play my wife's favorite song, "Erev shel Shoshanim", on the oud, I think the wife will be happy.
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Eric Stern Music
Oud Maniac
Posts: 88
Registered: 7-15-2013
Member Is Offline
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Thanks Channing. As you know I come from an accordion back round so my sympathies to your wife. Once this pandemic is over, if you can scrape the money together I'd highly recommend attending Makam NY and studying
with Yurdal Tokcan if he's teaching. Adam Good (an old high-school buddy and member of this forum) recommended me to do this, some years back. I came
to class with all sorts of books on makam (Ederer, Signell) and anticipated discussing all sorts of arcane knowledge, but instead what I got was boot
camp. Exercise after exercise for hours a day and during it I wondered sometimes in low moments, if I had wasted my money, but I tell you about a
month out of it, after continuing at home and integrating it all I was miles ahead of where I started. Anyway, that's a stop on the path to Turkish
music that I recommend, but of course there are many.
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