SamirCanada
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transposing on the oud.
I have a question concerning playing oud and transposing Maqamat on it.
I have been playing in a orchestra for about 3 months now and Iam runing into trouble when I need to play a peice that is in a maqam that Iam familiar
with but in a different key that Iam used to play it in.
For example Iam comfortable playing
ajam Si b (B b)
Rast Do (C)
Bayat Re (D)
Nahwand Do (C)
Segah Mi 1/2b (E1/2b)
Saba re (D)
etc...
But when it comes time to play peices in a different key that Iam used to I get confused as to where are the notes on the fingerboard.
So my question is for the major maqamats used in arabic music.
Rast
Bayat
Nahwand
Segah
Saba
Kurd
Hijaz
What possible notes can they start from and what is the fingering? is there someone that has a diagram or something that would help me visualize
this?
Because Iam starting to get weird looks when the band leader when I tell him I can play the maqam only on one key.
I manage to improvise or figure it out on the fly as they go but then Iam just following them and I rely on what I hear to play along instead of
knowing in advance what kind of scale the peice will be in.
Thanks for your help fellas
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oudman71
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Hello Samir.
I'm going to jump in on this one and try to be of some help if I can.
Theoretically you can play (or be asked to play) any maqam on any pitch. The most common transposed maqamat I have dealt with have been Kurd on A,
Nahawand on F and Nahawand on D. I have also had to play Bayati on E for the Persian 'Shur' mode, and sometimes Hijaz on E for Balkan music, if that
really qualifies as Hijaz
I don't have a chart, so this explanation might be a bit convoluted. Maybe someone else can provide the chart.
In the case of E-Hijaz, one begins naturally with E 2nd finger on the D string, and then F third finger. Then you have to skip open G and fret G# with
the first finger. Then A 2nd finger, B natural 4th finger, C open, (or, for the Rast upper jins, C half-sharp 1st finger, which is no fun,) 'd' 2nd
finger and high 'e' fourth finger.
Kurd on A is easy, you just play everything down a string, as for songs like 'Nassam Alayna'. Nahawand on F is the same as Nahawand on C except up a
string, with the addition of having the last four notes on the high C string. By the way, if you use high-f tuning, then you can simply shift
everything up a string and play just like you would in Nahawand. I think Munir used to do this. I have a recording of him playing 'Bint al-Shalabiya'
in High f.
Of course from a theory standpoint there's the whole question of whether Nahawand on F (or G) is really Nahawand, or whether its something else. My
experience is that people debate this a lot in classes etc, but don't make such a fuss in rehearsal. I have a CD that has a track entitled 'Longa
Nahawand', but is actually the 'Longa Farahfaza' by Riyad es-Sunbati transposed to C. Now, my understanding is that Farahfaza is a different Maqam
than Nahawand, that it has a different structure, etc., so transposing Farahfaza to C does NOT turn it into Nahawand. But maybe something got lost in
translation. I don't know.
Is there a specific maqam transposition you get asked to do a lot of? I'm realizing now that going through each maqam would be very time
consuming...not to mention confusing.
But maybe someone has a chart...?
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al-Halabi
Oud Junkie
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Samir, transposing on the fly the way you are doing now is probably not the best way to play well or enjoy your playing. I would suggest asking the
band leader to let you know in advance the keys in which he plans to play pieces. You can then practice the transpositions and see how they work on
the oud. Some practice is needed to become comfortable with unfamiliar transpositions. We can't always transpose well intuitively without any advance
preparation of our mind and fingers. If transposition to certain keys is just too difficult to handle on the oud maybe the band leader can transpose
the piece to a key that will work for you as well as everyone else.
All maqams can be transposed. Those with no microtonal intervals (like Nahawand, Ajam, Kurd) can be played practically with any tonic, although some
tonics will involve more awkward fingering than others. The maqams with microtonal intervals are more limiting because transposing them to certain
keys creates difficult fingerings and high chances for bad intonation. It will be easier to make specific suggestions if you give examples of the keys
in which you need to play particular maqams.
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SamirCanada
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Thank you for your help everyone.
Halabi, you have described exactly what I have been experiencing. I takes much away from the joy of playing in fact. I have noticed that the main
problem with playing in the band is that the musician doesnt get his way as much as the singer. So if the singer insists on singing it in a particular
scale for someone playing keybord that can just hit a button to play on a different scale its easy. It can be near impossible for the oud player to
get the right intonations.
The keybord player knows how to play oud and violin so he is aware of the difficulities but sometimes the singer can be capricious.
One particular song I have had problems with is Batwanees beek from the singer Warda. Any advice as to what scale this is played on? and how would the
fingering change depending on the scale its on?
To bad there are no photo charts drawn up I think this will be the next project I will be taking on. its also going to help me study the different
possibilties. Iam going to come back for some help with thats once I have figured out some details on how to draw the chart.
I know for example that Nahwand could be easy to bring to higher tuning just by starting it from F instead of C because it would be the same intervals
and the intonations in playing would be similar. But can this be played on G? or on any other note? if played on high G wouldnt that bring you rather
far up the fingerboard and make the fingering akward? and if I start to play at the low G then because I tune C F A d' g' c' the intervals are
confusing. Since I am used to start Nahwand with my ring finger either on C or F. Iam then not sure how to play nahwand starting on a open string for
the high g or on a Closed string with different intervals for the low G. Is it just a mather of sitting down and practicing the scales on all the
possible tonics when practicing maqamat scales and taqasims?
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ALAMI
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Hi Samir,
Check this link
http://www.turath.org/
scroll down the page and goto :"Arab Music Theory and Glossary
Maqamat and Scales"
then give a look to the transposition charts
or download the attached packed .mht file (opens in IE)
Hope it would help you
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SamirCanada
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thank you so much Alami.
its exactly what I have been looking for. Now Iam going to figure out a way to make a visual chart for the approximate fingering positions.
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al-Halabi
Oud Junkie
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Samir, I don’t think you need to sit down and practice the maqams on all the possible tonics. This may be a good exercise for some purposes, but for
your present needs you need a simple system for transposing each piece to one particular key so you can play comfortably with the group. The easiest
way to do this is to think in terms of the sequence of intervals of the maqam, and then replicate them exactly starting from the new tonic. For
example, if you want to play Nahawand in G instead of C, you can note the intervals of Nahawand and then reproduce them on G:
C D Eb F G Ab Bb (or B) C
1 ½ 1 1 ½ 1 1(or 1½) 1(or ½)
G A Bb C D Eb F (or F#) G
(Sorry, I couldn't format the intervals to line up in between the notes instead of under them.)
Playing Nahawand on the low G will actually have a fingering pattern identical to Nahawand on C, except that the tonic G will be played with the
second finger on the fifth course instead of the ring finger. The rest of the fingering will be the same, just one course lower. You can also play
Nahawand starting on the open second course g, but that would mean not only playing several of the notes up the fingerboard, but also having the range
of notes available to you limited, whereas starting from the low G gives you a range of two full octaves in which to play. Try Nahawand also from the
open second course, following the same intervals. It will make you more comfortable with transposing (and also with playing up the fingerboard).
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SamirCanada
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thank you for the advice Halabi.
It helped me a lot.
Iam thinking of preparing a set of exercise scales I can do before I do any playing.
I usualy play a few scales before playing anything just to losen up my fingers etc...
That has become rather simple and so Iam not sure there is a learning factore anymore... unless Iam not noticing it.
but I wonder if I should prepare exercises with a more extensive aproache.
Like develop all the major maqamat using the diferent tonics as an exercise to do before I do any playing of songs. it will be hard at first but it
could develope into a good exercise to warm up and explore different possibilities.
Or....
I would I just be wasting my time... 
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ALAMI
Oud Junkie
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Walaw Samir,
Just a thought, how can you make a visual chart ?
Do you mean a visual representation of the fingerboard ?
Even for a fixed tuning, the different scale lengths between ouds would make the positions vary, and I am not an expert at all, but I feel the
variation not relatively linear to the extra scale length (and I may be totally wrong), I have the feeling that each oud is somehow "different".
I think that your second idea of developing representative exercises is very helpful and bright. Maybe a simple doulab memorized in many
transpositions can be used as a transposition mental guide.
There was a oud player in a small "oud bar" in Beirut, he used to make customers sing and the guy knew by memory hundreds of songs and he was able to
transpose on the fly to adjust to different people voice pitches, even on complex abdel wahab, makkawi or Oum Koulthoum songs ! just like the good
guys in a piano bar.
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Brian Prunka
Oud Junkie
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My thought on this is that, technical issues of fingering and intonation aside, the most important aspect of this skill has to do with your ability to
mentally transpose the intervals (without respect to an instrument) and your knowledge of the notes on your instrument (without respect to fingerings
and maqams).
If you know the location of every note on the oud and you can mentally construct the scale, the putting the two together is fairly easy, although it
might take a little practice to be fluid and sure of your intonation.
For example, I think of Hijaz this way:
1, m2, M3, P4, P5, m6 (n6), m7, P8 (intervals from the tonic)
I can name those intervals from any note, and therefore transpose Hijaz to any starting point. (n6=neutral 6th, i.e., halfway between major and
minor)
This is far more musically logical and helpful than thinking of the intervals in sequence (i.e., 1/2, 1 1/2, 1/2, W, W, etc.) because you can play the
notes in any order without having to think of them as a scale. The intervals all relate to the sound as well, which is more musical. Thinking of
scales as consecutive intervals makes no musical sense and doesn't give you any idea of the resulting sound. Also, if you get one note wrong in the
sequence, all the following notes will also be wrong.
I suggest that you memorize all the (piano) 'white' key intervals first, then move on the white-black combinations, then black-black. Since the piano
mimics the way sheet music is written, this is effectively the same as learning all the intervals that have no accidentals, then one accidental, then
two accidentals. There is no substitute for simply memorizing this information, and it is required knowledge for serious musicians.
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Brian Prunka
Oud Junkie
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Along those lines, while positional note charts can be helpful, it's more useful in the long term (IMO) if you memorize the notes up the neck on each
string separately (e.g., learn all the notes on the high C string, then on the G string, etc.)
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