A m i r
Oud Lover
Posts: 11
Registered: 12-6-2015
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Buying a qanun
Hello everyone,
first of all sorry for posting a qanun topic in here but there is really no qanun community that I could find (also not in arabic). In this forum you
have a great community and I also read some topics that cover qanun... (It would be great if we could have a qanun or "other instruments" subforum
here  )
Ok first of all let me introduce myself. My name is Amir and i'm playing (arabic) oud for some years now and I also started learning violin. However,
i'm curious and willing to also get myself a qanun... I really love the sound of the instrument. Now as I'm playing mainly arabic music, I thought of
buying an arabic qanun. However, what I have seen so far is that all arabic qanuns only have 4 mandals while each of them raises the tone by a
"quarter" tone. What I have been teached so far is that for instance in maqam bayati the note segah is slightly lower than for instance in maqam rast.
Or I also learned that in maqam hijaz, I assume now from D, the second note is slightly higher than Eb and the third note is slightly lower than F#.
It looks like you can't intone like that with this 4 mandal system.
I've seen that turkish qanuns have a larger set of mandals per string course in order to achieve the just mentioned settings. But when I listen to
turkish recordings I often find the sound of the turkish qanun a bit harsh and nervous rather than smooth. I'm not quite sure how to describe this...
I hope you know what I mean. Is this the player who creates this sound or the instruments are just built to sound like this?
Actually is there any well-known arabic qanun player who plays with a turkish qanun or with an arabic one but with more mandals? Or do the players
just not worry about these small detail problems anymore?
I know that turkish qanuns are tuned one note higher, but that is not a problem. A turkish qanun would also not be bad because there is a turkish
music school nearby where they also teach qanun... but an arabic qanun teacher is not in my area. At least I didnt find until now...
However in any case I want to buy a qanun - turkish or arabic - but I'm not quite sure who builds good quality qanuns. In general to find something
about qanuns is not an easy task.
About arabic qanuns, who creates good ones these days? I heard that Farabi qanuns from Aleppo should be the best arabic qanuns. But where the hell
should one get one of those right now?
About turkish qanuns, I heard about Saddetin and Mustafa Saglam. They both seem to be well known. Are their instruments of good quality? What are the
main names when it comes about turkish qanun manufacturers?
Sorry I'm asking lots of questions in a single post... Thanks for reading my post to the end^^ Any help is appreciated.
Keep up playing
Regards,
Amir
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Lysander
Oud Junkie
Posts: 410
Registered: 7-26-2013
Location: London, UK
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Yes, Turkish kanun, Arabic qanun.
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maran
Oud Junkie
Posts: 103
Registered: 9-23-2003
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i wrote a reply to this post and it came out empty for some reason. it seems like if you try to paste some text into the box it deletes
everything?
what i said was something along the lines of:
the more mandals the merrier imo. the turkish kanuns typically divide the equal-tempered half tone into 4 or 5 komas. this is how they can have a
garip hicaz which differs from a standard hicaz by 1 or 2 komas. in addition to the finer gradation in pitch, the additional mandals allow for a
richer palette of ornamentation, as turkish players can do things that would be impossible without the full set of mandals. aytac dogan is a turkish
player who has crossover appeal between turkish and arabic, yet a lot of what he does would not be possible on an instrument without the full set of
mandals. put "ussak oyun havasi taksim trio" into youtube and listen to the intro.
i was told by a forum member that Umit Bolu, Kenan Ozten, Mustafa Saglam, and Salih Kuru are good makers.
i didn't get what was meant by turkish kanun harsh, arabic more smooth. i wouldn't describe goksel baktagir's playing as harsh. can you give an
example?
anyway it's a great instrument, enjoy.
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maran
Oud Junkie
Posts: 103
Registered: 9-23-2003
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re: tuning
you could tune a turkish kanun a whole step lower but as with an oud, the sound of the instrument would probably lose its brightness under the lower
tension. maybe you could experiment with different string gauges but you really want to have the right string length for an arabic kanun.
alternatively, you should be able to tranpose, but i don't recommend that as a permanent solution because the mandal positions will be different for
each makam. imo it's better to learn the standard positions first, and later on learn how to transpose as needed for the situation.
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A m i r
Oud Lover
Posts: 11
Registered: 12-6-2015
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Hello maran,
thanks for your reply.
Yes you are right players like the master Goksel Baktagir are not playing harsh, I shouldn't have put this in general. However a lot of recordings are
like that. Watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5gpnO9RNzQ&feature=youtu.be&... where he talks about plectra (the whole video is worth watching by the way). So obviously the turkish like the sound to be a bit stronger as their
plectra are already harder.
Compare for instance this arabic qanun playing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=px9alEwBo48 to this turkish one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfu72YTBmkg
Sorry but the second sounds a bit "harsh" to me. Maybe its the style of playing rather than the "normal" sound of the instrument... actually this is
the question I had...
Thanks again for your help
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Jody Stecher
Oud Junkie
Posts: 1354
Registered: 11-5-2011
Location: California
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Yes the second example is harsher but that may be a function of
1) the recording technique used, especially microphone placement.
2) the type of music being played. The contexts of the two clips are different.
3) the personality of the player
4) the composition of the strings
5) the flexibility and thickness and shape of the plectrums.
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franck leriche
Oud Junkie
Posts: 175
Registered: 5-18-2011
Location: France
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A bit of the topic but for the love of music, here's a very nice video of the young Elie Ashkar in maqam sikah.
My understanding of arabic is very limited, but from what i can get, he's been playing the qanun since 4 years when it was recorded...not so
bad....
https://www.facebook.com/kabh01/videos/10156399146145574/?pnref=stor...
By the way, Elie is a very nice person and you may send him a message through his FB page, he might help you.
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CumbusOud
Oud Maniac
Posts: 70
Registered: 9-16-2014
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Hello Friend,
You can check this page: https://salamuzik.com/collections/kanun
Thank you
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