Mike's Oud Forums

NEED A REAL SOFT RISHA

syrianoud - 9-5-2005 at 05:24 PM

I am looking for a very soft Risha. I tried too many and when Wael statedwith my oud lessons he let me use his and i really liked it ?Any idea where to get a bunch of them? What site...Thank you Samir,Ca

oudplayer - 9-5-2005 at 05:49 PM

hey syrian
if you look on ebay they have oud pics called yossi there ar elike 10 for 7$
i like them but theya re to soft for me they are like rubber but not very bendable abd ultra soft
thx sammy good luck

Greg - 9-5-2005 at 08:31 PM

Try Nazilli
http://stores.ebay.com/Musiki-Nazilli_W0QQssPageNameZviQ3asibQ3asto...
US$4.99 for 10. The ebay seller is located in the USA but the products are mailed from Turkey.

Great for tremolo, but a little too soft for most purposes.
The black ones and white ones seem to be the same texture, but I would advise you get 10 of each, just in case I am wrong about that.

syrianoud - 9-5-2005 at 08:43 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Greg
Try Nazilli
http://stores.ebay.com/Musiki-Nazilli_W0QQssPageNameZviQ3asibQ3asto...
US$4.99 for 10. The ebay seller is located in the USA but the products are mailed from Turkey.

Great for tremolo, but a little too soft for most purposes.
The black ones and white ones seem to be the same texture, but I would advise you get 10 of each, just in case I am wrong about that.


Thank you, I just ordered a few minutes ago ,I was serfing Ebay and find that guy ,I will see if I like them I will order more,I have 4 Rishas from Jameel .They are good but since my Oud teacher asked me to try the soft one he has it did feel better. Since I have a chronic Arthoritis and my hands herts many days ,i do controle it with medication .But I think that a softer Risha is better ,I did order from the Nile site Strings and Rishas too and 4 gig bags.Thanks again and best regards.Samir,Ca

palestine48 - 9-5-2005 at 10:44 PM

You should have went to viken najarian, he has good soft ones

syrianoud - 9-6-2005 at 03:08 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by palestine48
You should have went to viken najarian, he has good soft ones


Thank you Viken is building a Oud for me ,I will defenetly ask him. Shukran ya Aghi....Samir.California

Jonathan - 9-6-2005 at 04:50 PM

In the meantime, you can always file down Jameel's mizraps. I have, because I also like them really thin. Be careful, though, and do it just like Jameel shows on the video on his website, because they can break easily if you get too aggressive with the sanding. Always sand away from you, rather than toward you, and you can get them fairly thin.
I am pretty new at this, too, but I find the problem with a lot of the soft mizraps is that they don't "snap back". They are mush. The thing I love about Jameel's is that they have that "snap". The mizrap pops back and is ready to play another note. A lot of the cheapie mizraps don't do that. And, of course, when the mizrap is really soft, you lose a lot of volume. But, if you ask me, it is well worth the loss of volume for the subtleties you can get from your playing with a softer mizrap.
I am always experimenting trying to find new mizraps. Not long ago, somebody posted that they heard of using the plastic from old Clorox bottles. That sounds like it would be nice and thin, with some good "snap"--I am just waiting to finish up my Clorox!
All the best,
Jonathan

syrianoud - 9-6-2005 at 10:00 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Jonathan
In the meantime, you can always file down Jameel's mizraps. I have, because I also like them really thin. Be careful, though, and do it just like Jameel shows on the video on his website, because they can break easily if you get too aggressive with the sanding. Always sand away from you, rather than toward you, and you can get them fairly thin.
I am pretty new at this, too, but I find the problem with a lot of the soft mizraps is that they don't "snap back". They are mush. The thing I love about Jameel's is that they have that "snap". The mizrap pops back and is ready to play another note. A lot of the cheapie mizraps don't do that. And, of course, when the mizrap is really soft, you lose a lot of volume. But, if you ask me, it is well worth the loss of volume for the subtleties you can get from your playing with a softer mizrap.

I am always experimenting trying to find new mizraps. Not long ago, somebody posted that they heard of using the plastic from old Clorox bottles. That sounds like it would be nice and thin, with some good "snap"--I am just waiting to finish up my Clorox!
All the best,
Jonathan


I ordered from several places like 30 rishas to test and see what the best will be ,i ordered 10 from Viken and 10 from Turkey and from Egypt .So I will keep buying till i find the right one.Thanks Jonathan.....

palestine48 - 9-6-2005 at 11:44 PM

hey Sam, What is your dialect. I speak falahi and medani. but I never heard a kha pronounced with a ghayn instead. What region is that accent from.

syrianoud - 9-7-2005 at 06:21 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by palestine48
hey Sam, What is your dialect. I speak falahi and medani. but I never heard a kha pronounced with a ghayn instead. What region is that accent from.


I speak Madani I was born in Raas Byrout and my arabic is mixed Lebanese and Palestinian Madani....I do not speak Falahi but I love it since we had thousands of Falahin and Baduw working for my family at there MAZAREE . Falahin are great pople .Ahsan min el Madaniyin. They are people who will give you the lsat peace of food and starve...Remember We all Human beings no matter what color or nationality you are or religion....Some are good and some bad all over the world ,But when it comes to me to my family a prefere that my wife is an ARAB no substitute...Like to keep out tradition going ...Best Regards...Samir M. Ibrahim,Californai

palestine48 - 9-8-2005 at 05:14 PM

It is funny you say that because we always say how people who speak medani hate the falahi accent and the medani speakers "shayfeen halhum" (show offs), I get this atitude from my moms family becase they speak medani and my mom hates the falahi accent and wont let us speak it in the house, not even my dad who is falahi. According to her its the "language oif the cavemen". The ironic this is my mom is from berzeit wich is only 10 minutes from my dads home, ramallah and berzeitis are originally falaheen but for some reason a lot of them prefer to speak medani now. You are correct it is all the same but I like the differences because it shows the world how complex our culture it is. We have many different traditions and thats why I beleive we come up with many different creations which is good.

palestine48 - 9-8-2005 at 05:20 PM

FYI for non arabic speakers. Medani and felahi are two common dialects of arabic spoken in palestine. Medani is usually referred to as the language of the urban cities like jerusalem and falahi is the language of the people in the rural countryside. It has nothing to do with religion or race but from what part of the arab world or region you hail from. and many countries have multiple dialects

SamirCanada - 9-8-2005 at 05:44 PM

Thanks for clarifying. The main problem tho is that in western alphabet there are letters that do not corespond to the arabic letters. Thats why they came up with numbers. for example

gh makes the sound ghayn ...............................................Aghi

Kh makes the sound Kha like a much heavier spanish j Akhi(means brother)

But with the numbers it would be A5i 5 being the kha.

oud is then 3oud, Qamar is then 2amar, Habibi is then 7abibi
etc... There are more numbers for more letters but those are the main ones.
Cheers Samir

syrianoud - 9-8-2005 at 06:55 PM

To Palestine48 & SamirCanada...

Makes no deferent Falahi or madani ,we all Awlad Allah Muslims, Christians ,Jews Etc.... We should love each other ,help and be honest to others.Life is too short and trust me my friends you aint gona take anything with you .I look at all i have in life and ask GOD just give me good health and take it all .Health is the most important thing in life ,it is not fun for me to be home for almoast a year trying to recover from a second massive heart attack.So Ahlan fil falahi wefil madani.Falahi ahsan min madani they have a great big heart(falahin) I grew up in a EZBA all falahin aroung us working for my family and that was fun....I lovbe people no matter what ,every one gets angry once in a while but my heart is very big and MUSAMEH...I went through a lots of things in my life and Easal mejareb wal tesal Ghashim :):) nice arabic expression. May the Lord bless you all , best Regards ,,,,,Samir. California