bedouin54242
Oud Admirer
Posts: 1
Registered: 1-21-2023
Member Is Offline
|
|
Questions from a true beginner
Hi everybody here,
I am very excited to see an active forum in 2023 for Ouds!
I am a non-Arabic speaker who permanently lives in the Middle East. I went to a Yemeni part of town and bought a cheap Oud so I could gain some
practice of this magnificent instrument. I just have some questions:
The guy at the store tuned it for me. I don't know how he tuned it but I assumed it was to his native Yemeni ears. Does this mean
that I shouldn't bother with Turkish learning materials?
I read once that you should really refrain from tuning your ouds again and again. The more that the strings and wood are cemented, the more
richer the sound. is that true?
I need some true beginner materials for oud in English. This includes how to play as well as the basics of Oud music theory. I had to spend 45
minutes researching was a maqam was and I'm still not sure. A crash course where I can just absorb the knowledge. Additionally, because of my
location, delivery is not often viable. I am looking for PDFs and videos online. I have already seen some nice videos from OudForGuitarists on
YouTube.
Lastly, if you have anymore information I would be very happy to listen and learn from you all.
Thank you!
|
|
|
nassic_zhd
Oud Admirer
Posts: 8
Registered: 11-8-2018
Member Is Offline
|
|
Glad you are getting started with oud! I had a similar experience to you about five years ago.
1. If your oud is an Arabic oud, it will be much easier to learn with Arabic materials than with Turkish, because Turkish ouds use a different
(higher) tuning. It's a bad idea to tune your Arabic oud to Turkish tuning because the tension will be higher than what the instrument is designed
for.
2. You should always keep your oud in tune, this piece of advice you've heard is about changing the tuning. For example I usually play CFADGC, but
sometimes I will change the bottom two courses to CG, DF, DG or BbF, depending on what is comfortable or useful for specific pieces. My impression as
an amateur player that this advice holds true for people with extremely oud-sensitive ears who can hear what year and in which part of the world an
oud was made just by listening to a few seconds of playing. I think for an amateur player on their first (cheap) oud, the benefits of sticking to one
tuning are unlikely to outweigh the benefits of experimenting with, and using, different ones.
3. I'm sure there are many other options but I learned from zero with Tareq Jundi's beginner Arabic oud course on izif.com. Most of the materials are
in English, a few advanced ones are Arabic-exclusive. It costs a bit of money, I can't remember how much.
4. Practice slower than you think you need to, restring your oud regularly, listen a lot, play a lot, have fun.
|
|
|
|
![[*]](images/xmbprobrown/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
