Maqam of the Month... Again ((KURD))

Well, as I see, the Oud spirit is a bit declining here, we barely get to hear poeple contributing with pieces of oud often, and I would love to salute Jameel for his efforts (wonderful man) and revaldo for his enthusiasm for the maqam of the month thread. I hereby declare the start of the maqam of the month thread "AGAIN", same rules, same concepts, only I hope more contributions. One more note to add, this maqam isnt just a showcase of talents, but also serves as a space where the maqam can be discussed in detail, questions would be answered, attempts of reproducing pieces or takasim of great composers contributed. Hopefully, this thread would go on nonstop till the end of October, only to begin with a new thread and a new maqam.
Emad, sorry I took long, but at least, here's where u can post the piece i promised myself with on ur new electric Haluk (mabruk... they rhyme ). As for ur questions, the size compared to the old Oud is the same (maybe a bit slimmer), but weight is definitely less (1.6 WITH the leather soft case). The risha is touching the soundboard due to two reasons: strings are close to face (very good actually) and, yes, a soft risha, coz the voice is so strong I cannot sing along without getting a sore throat for a week if I dont play with a soft risha. Awaiting ur contribution (and the others' as well)
All y'all, maqam is "Kurd", so, bring it on...

Yours truly,
Basel

P.S. I hope someone who'll check after 30 mins wont disappoint me.

Thanx bahleh for starting the post up again. Its my favorite part of mike's website and the closest I ever get to a lesson. Very nice recording, I like the way you end each phrase. I don't know what it's called but you jump up like two octaves and play a few notes. It is very nice and wraps the phrases very well. I will inshallah post a recording as soon as I get a chance. Once again, thanx for getting us started bro

Electric Oud?

Hey guys

Thanx for the compliments both. Revaldo, I know how much this thread means to u and how attached to the idea u are, and I guess I owe it to you to start it off once again. The part u like in my taksim most is called "qafla", something like concluding sentence, and as u can see, there's a lot of Farido influence in them
Lee, the oud u hear is mine, not electric Haluk, I was referring to Emad's Oud, coz he said he wanted to post something on his new electric haluk, and I am looking forward to hear it soon (the sooner the better). Hopefully, we'll be hearing more recordings soon. Peace!

Yours truly,
Basel

Hey all,

Thanx to mike, I finally got my recroding small enough to post on the site. I hope you guys enjoy and your comments are more than welcome. I dedicate the small portion (very small) of farido influence to bahleh for starting the post again .
By the way bahleh, I listened to your recording again and I really like the modulation toward the end. I don't know what maqam you switched to but the transition was very smooth. Great Job .
So here is my recroding. The quality is kind of bad but oh well. I hope we get some more recordings. It would be a shame for this thread to just fall back and be forgotten.

My Noodlings

Lee,

Very nice my man, I thought it was really cool. The melodic line sounds very familiar to me but I can't recall what it is. Lets keep em comin folks

Ok, Basel, I think you are a wonderful man too, but don't take that the wrong way , if you know what I mean!)

Since no one besides revaldo seems to want to learn the taqasim from Bil Afrah, I suppose I will take some time to post to this thread. I haven't had a chance to practice that one more anyway. Criticize away, beacuse I can't develop the maqam at all. Just copying some elements from Issa Boulos and Farid of course.

Jameel,
Great playing. Yeah, I was wondering if we were ever going to learn that taqssim but oh well. We can always pick it back up if you have time, or continue it on this thread. Your oud sounds really good. Do you use a computer mic or something else?

You are a killer Jameel

Wonderful

Jameel this taksim was great, very beautiful, and influence seems minimal, I'd say u r starting to develop (if not developed already) ur own style. You didnt have any mercy on us listeners as Emad says

*suddenly noticed something*

Emad Bay?! Izzayyak?! Wa7ishna awi!!! Nice to hear from u and read ur comments. Where's the 100$... I mean... The taksim u promised us on ur new Haluk electric Oud?! not only I, but I believe a lot await it.

Lee, ur "noodling" is excellent and more Kurd than nahawand (u see the nahawand is actually the upper scale of Kurd, and ur base tone D is all over the piece, so all know even if they only hear the fragments on G that maqam is Kurd). Very good and keep it up. I am sure I also heard it somewhere, cant remember though *scratching head*

Revaldo... I can easily tell u played it off D. Well, all taksim is great, however u need a little work on ur E, which should full flat, not half flat. The taksim is a perfect (and i mean perfect) bayati taksim (makes me confident u know fully how to play bayati). In upper parts however ur sentences were totally Kurd (u sense it by feeling the music), so I guess u wont have a hard time at all to play kurd once u work on ur E. I will post for u a little recording with both bayati and Kurd for u to compare. I will start with bayati (what u played) and later with kurd (what u should/will play- I am confident u will ) Hope this clears out any discrepencies on the maqam. Any further questions, I'll be glad to answer when i take a break from the tons of books I have to read

Where are all the others?! I thought everybody liked Kurd!! I await your participation. Peace!!

Yours Truly,
Basel

P.S. Jameel I didnt get what u meant, but I hope the "wonderful" thing is PG rated (was that it?!)

Ahhh ya bahleh, enta omri elybtada be3omrak sabahoo.

Thanks for the clarification on the E. I'm still not trained enough to distinguish between the half and quarter steps by ear. I actually spent like a month learning Enat Omri by listening to Afif's rendetion. The thing is that I never learn it with maqams, just memorize the sounds. I'm still not used to the concept of the "core notes" in each maqam.I never really understood the diffence between maqams like Ajam and Kurd, or Rast and Bayyati ( although I believe the quarter E is a little different in each of those scales). So when learning a song like enta omri, I never really know what maqam i'm in although I know that I am in the Bflat major scale. So my question is, how can u tell the difference between kurd and ajam? Becuase I always find myself wondering which notes to settle on when moving up or down the maqam.
But yeah thanx for pointing out the wrong note in my playing. This thread becomes pretty useless if we don't receive criticism where criticism is due.
Great second recording by the way, I really liked the bayyati taqssim.

Quote:

Originally posted by revaldo29 Ahhh ya bahleh, enta omri elybtada be3omrak sabahoo. benoorak*

wow jameel what a great taqasim
very nice, ...mabrouk


and what a nice sound is that the ibrahim sukar oud?
my guru in marocco has an ibrahim sukar oud also
and it has a very deep and wonderfuel sound
i lke to play on it when i'm at his house

egards
mourad

Hello Fine people

Sorry for the delay.

Jameel, Basel, Lee and every body. I miss you all - I was just busy and did not have time to record. PLease accept my share in that maqam.


Yours ,

Emad from Sydney

Wow, Sydney, you are a true pro. Very nice recording my man. I loved it

Wow...

Thank you all

Hey fine people. Thank you so much for your nice words. Greg, Lee and revaldo29 thanks very much.

Lee, Next maqam I'll use my Haluk Electric oud. ... man you won't be able to tell the differance.

Hello Basel , I miss you so much too man. How is life treating you brother? Be well.

Everybody please come on join in

I look forward to the next maqam... any ideas what will it be?

Regards,

Emad

Hey Brian

I simply loved all your bad notes.

Please post more of that brother.

nice oud , cool risha too

Emad

ALLAAAAAAAAAAH!!!

Emad, I would tell u this is wonderful, but wonderful falls too short of describing it. I broke into goosebumps, especially in second part. I like how u always start of with an ambiguous intro which misleads most that u are playing Nahawand instead of Kurd and vise versa. Never tried it myself, but I think it is something like "Al Sahl Al Mumtani3" (the unattainable easy). Emad's taksim also contains a big part of bayati, if anyone noticed (revaldo this would be a good thing if u catch it), and it was so integrated that I never noticed that the piece had it actually until the second part started and I was thinking to myself "Now the maqam was kurd, how the hell did we get to bayati there? Ah there, kurd again..." Emad, I bow to ur greatness such a storm of emotions on the Oud's strings shalt not go unadmired!! Thanx a lot for the piece, and for ur concern about how life is treating me, I am well, and hope u r ok as well As for next maqam (I expect u will post very soon to it) we shall vote, my ideas are bayati (since it is a bit close to kurd) or Ajam (since revaldo awaits an explanation - didnt forget u pal). Hijaz also qualifies, since the Hijaz thread didnt kick off so well... I'll stick in a couple of other maqams, and if anyone would like another maqam not listed to be nominated, all he has to do is simply say so (frredom of speech on forums ).

Brian, that piece was great, very calm, and serene, and frankly, there was only one "bad" note (slippery finger no?), and it was barely discerned by my trained ear, so I believe u shouldnt worry about that, coz I enjoyed all 6 mins (wow) of that kurd, simply great in all aspects.

Revaldo Thanx for the comments again, I feel overrated when u say so about me (well actually when anyone says so as well), but as long as it is really helping u with ur Oud, I am content <---(that's me). As for the explanation, i will record a piece now with another comparison between the maqams Kurd D and Ajam Bb, which is a very good question since notes are the same, only u kick off with Ajam two notes lower. If u are lucky and most vote for Ajam, u'll be hearing lots and lots of ajam and variants next month by great people, such as Emad and Jameel and Brian and the rest of great people on the forum (which I hope will be joined by Lee of course u shouldnt be far either).

Lee thanx again for comments, and yes, the punch is the effect of a soft risha (kind of difficult to get used to another in the time being), and the click is even louder before the audio file was converted and compressed (better quality, louder clicks). Hopefully by time the tip will wear out and the clicking would disappear.

All the rest hope you're loving this thread like I do, and hope u'll join in. Peace!!

Yours truly,
Basel

Hijaz or Saba maqam

Hello fine people


I thank you Basel for your nice words. Man I wish I am half as good with words. I thank you for helping revaldo too- very good spirit there man.

I would like us to go towards Hijaz or saba maqams - just to go away from kurd for a while. Only if everybody agrees.

I look forward to everybody's playing so soon.


Love to you all

Emad

ha ha

) this is a good one Brian
U are more than welcome to "steal" any idea of mine, not that it is a crime to be punished for (I have lots of relatives who are lawyers, so sueing u wouldnt be much of a problem ). I would actually feel honored that someone as good as u views my humble recordings as great material and selects phrasings from it. I thank u a lot for such compliments, and I do agree that without this forum, life would be a lot duller for an Oudist so let's give credit to the one who really deserves it: Our Webmaster Mike

Emad, words arent enough to describe what I feel, but I try to give a close approximation. U dont need to be good at words to describe ur feelings, u just let ur feelings do all the work.

As for revaldo, I would actually love to help him, someone with potential deserves credit too, and helping him out is more of a delight to me rather than an obligation. Again such thing wouldnt be possible without the efforts of our webmaster to bring us together

Emad, Brian, I do agree Saba is quite nice and challanging. If I get another opinion or two in favor of Saba, I'll bypass the voting and Saba would be our Maqam of the Month for November. Anyone else for Saba?!

Revaldo, here's the recording I promised u. As u can see, there are some sentences common with kurd on D, but u can feel most of the tones follow the Ajam, since ending sentences arent common with kurd. U are right that u can confuse if u are playing Ajam Bb or Kurd D since they are same on strings (or any instrument):
Ajam Bb (Ajam Ashiran)
Bb C D Eb F G A Bb

Kurd D
------ D Eb F G A Bb C D

U see there is no difference on strings, only in sentences, just remember that Kurd starts of and ends on D, while Ajam even when sentences are similar to Kurd, always finish off two notes lower on Bb. Hope that this helps u out clearing the issue. Any problems? I'm around

Peace y'all!

Yours truly,
Basel

P.S. There were some bad notes, hope u dont mind them After all no one is perfect.

Sorry!

Wow Basel, that sounded true tarab man