thefsb
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Tuning the oud - Oak by Rahim Alhaj
I'm loving this solo recording from the Home Again album.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aK157l9uH4
At 6:33 Rahim introduces the D as bass pedal and I believe it's played open. To my ear the note sounds quite colored so I checked the tuning. An equal
temperament keyboard tuned to the F, A and Bb base notes in this recording produces a D much sharper than the D Rahim plays. This raises lots of
interesting questions.
Does he use only this tuning or do different songs call for specific tunings?
How common is this tuning?
How does Rahim tune his oud? i.e. methods.
How do you teach someone (e.g. me) used to equal temperament to tune their oud like that? What about tools? e.g. an electronic chromatic tuner that
shows pitch relative to a note in equal temperament.
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Jody Stecher
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All oud players, regardless of nationality, musical style, or type of oud will have at least 4 courses tuned a 4th apart. No oud players, when playing
solo, have any reason to tune to a fixed-pitch reference such as A440. What I hear in this recording is an oud of 6 courses tuned a bit higher than
the theoretical reference A440. What I think I am hearing as open strings from low to high are F A D G C F, except that each of these are slightly
elevated above the (not-really-relevant) reference of 440.
FADGCF is a common Iraqi tuning that has become popular all over and is now used in various kinds of Arabic music that is not of Iraqi origin or
influence.
When a course is retuned to create a desired resonance it usually one or two of the lower courses. The 4 highest courses of any oud of any type,
playing any kind of music, typically are not changed from being a 4th apart. GADGCF would be an example of this.
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thefsb
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When listening I had the impression that the open D, used quite dramatically in this performance between 6:30 and 6:40, was deliberately detuned a
little from the perfect 4th above the A. I checked my impression by re-tuning a guitar's A and D to the recording.
Now, after reading your reply, I checked again more carefully and I think I got that wrong. Something else is responsible for that impression, which I
still have. I don't know what but I have a couple of ideas. Clearly I should be more careful about spreading my confusion around in online forums but
your answer is valuable to me nonetheless, so thanks for that, Jody.
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Brian Prunka
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In addition to Jody's excellent info and advice, I think it's helpful to understand a few things about pitch references and equal temperament (ET).
First: pitch references such as A=440 are a pretty modern phenomenonon, even in western music. For a long time, the reference might have been
different in every town, based largely on the tuning of the organ in the main local church.
In Persian/Arabic/Turkish music, the pitch names were relative and based on strings and finger positions. These are relative and based on standard
tuning in 4ths but without regard to any pitch reference.
The first string pair is Kirdan/Gerdaniye, the second is Nawa/Neva, the third is Dukah/Dugah, the fourth is 3ashiran/Asiran or Husayni Asiran. This
kind of relative thinking and note names is more relevant than the modern absolute note naming. Instruments were and are often tuned relative to
each other (particularly the qanun) or the preference of a singer.
Second: Equal temperament exists to allow harmonic modulation between distant keys, particularly on instruments with fixed pitch (such as keyboards
and guitars). It's not really necessary for vocal music, or fretless instruments like violins and ouds. Even wind instruments such as flutes,
clarinets, trumpets etc. don't typically stick to it (even in Western music). It's a complicated subject but for the purposes of the oud, you can
rely on a couple pieces of information:
1) ET perfect fifths (and by extension, perfect fourths) are quite close to the non-tempered versions and within the range of four strings are
close enough that it is fine to use them as long as everyone is using G as the starting point. It gets progressively farther 'out' the farther you go
from your central starting pitch.
2) If we use G as the starting point, C and F in ET are very slightly too high. If you get them exactly in ET they are close enough but as we
all know it is often difficult to get the oud to exactly match the tuner. So it is helpful to know that one should err on the side of being
a bit lower than the tuner says (~1.8 cents for C and ~3.7 cents for F). Same for D and A, but in the opposite direction (the ET versions are low,
you can err on the side of being a bit high: ~1.8 cents for D and ~3.7 cents for A).
It's actually very difficult to 'hear' equal temperament, our ears gravitate towards more pure intervals. ET intervals are all based on the 12th root
of 2, an irrational number. An ET perfect 4th is the twelfth root of two to the fifth power. By comparison, the ratio of vibrations in a pure
perfect fourth is simply 4:3, a resonance our ears are naturally primed to perceive. So tuning by ear, you will likely gravitate toward pure tuning
regardless. You can also check by comparing the harmonics at the 5th and 2nd octave and make them match: the node at the neck-body joint produces a
pure 5th up (3rd harmonic). The node where the 4th would be played produces 2 octaves up (4th harmonic) So if you play the 3rd harmonic on C and the
4th harmonic on G, they will be the same pitch (G).
There is a lot more info in this old (somewhat controversial) thread: http://www.mikeouds.com/messageboard/viewthread.php?tid=17959
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majnuunNavid
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The intonation in the section between 6:30 and 6:40 is just off.
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thefsb
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This Rahim Alhaj recording of Oak is about 40 cents sharper than A440. Its A4 is around 450 Hz.
Given what (little) I understand of the oud's traditional musical uses I wouldn't expect ET except when it has to play with a modern keyboard
instrument or something similarly rigid in ET.
The difference between a just 4th and an ET 4th (i.e. 500 cent) is small but as you point out, the just 4th is flatter, around 498 cent. This makes it
all the more surprising that Rahim Alhaj's D at 6:33 in this recording sounds distinctly sharp. I originally assumed this must be something the
musician deliberately tuned into the instrument, hence my OP. I'm now not so sure. I think interesting psychoacoustic phenomena may be involved.
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Brian Prunka
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The recording is about 55 cents sharp of ET if you go by the open A. It's about 37 cents sharp if you go by the open D.
So by ET standards, the D is about 18 cents flat. By just standards it would be about 16 cents flat. This is pretty big.
Notably, the fingered D that he plays an octave up is in tune with the A, which is why the open D is so noticeable - the octaves are out of tune.
He does the same thing earlier, around 4:05.
I agree with Navid that this is just out of tune and not some intentional effect. The oud either was not quite tuned properly or it went out of tune
while he was playing.
There is a small psychoacoustic effect with the overtones; the overtones sound slightly sharper than the fundamental but that is at most 2-3 cents.
The other factor is that pitch standards and tunings are ultimately arbitrary and if you listened to this recording a bunch and got used to it, you
could just have created a new expectation and category around this detuned fourth. This is basically the same thing that allows many of the other
microtonal inflections in Arabic music (they are not based on harmonic ratios) - you just hear them a lot and get used them as intentional notes. In
this case, it seems to be an idiosyncratic anomaly, not a cultural practice.
Further evidence is that he recorded this piece another time and here the D appears to be tuned normally:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHWqlzp4w6I
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thefsb
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One of the effects that I believe is at play here is that an oud's bass strings when plucked hard are significantly sharper on the attack than a
moment later on the decay. Moreover, higher overtones decay more quickly than lower and this also influences perception of pitch. For example, it's
harder to judge the pitch of bass note with no overtones, e.g. a pure sine tone, than one with. This makes measuring if the sound an instrument makes
is sharp or flat quite tricky. The perception of a given string's pitch can, with some instrument, including the oud, depend, among other things, on
how loud and how fast the the performer is playing.
So, for example, when I tried to measure the pitch of the D in Rahim Alhaj's oud, the measurement showed it was flat but when I listen to it together
with my music teacher, who has an unusually well trained ear, we both very clearly perceived it as sharp. That, I'm inclined to believe, is because
when I was measuring the pitch, I used the decay when the pitch stabilizes and is and easier to measure, but when I'm enjoying the melody, my
perception is affected by the attack.
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