Mike's Oud Forums

Turkish vs Arabic

Jim F - 2-5-2004 at 08:43 PM

I am going to be buying an oud soon and have
been tring to choose between an Arabic or Turkish one. I am drawn to the Turkish for
some reasons and to the Arabic for others.
If I were to get a Turkisk oud is there any reason why I couldn't tune it like an Arabic
oud? Could I also do the opposite? There do seem to be a number of choices in tunings???
Thanks
Jim

Mike - 2-5-2004 at 09:45 PM

Hey Jim,

You can probably tune a Turkish down, but not an Arabic up.

Good luck,
Mike

spyros mesogeia - 2-6-2004 at 11:32 AM

Dear friend,
Each oud has his character,his sound.....
You can tune a Turkish a tone lower,but not an arab a tone higher,you will destroy it....
Regards
Spyros
P.S.the best solution is to get both....:D

nadir - 2-6-2004 at 02:19 PM

jim, i chose the syrian style oud over all of the ouds out there (its spyros' favorite too!)

i found the turkish one tuned too high for my liking and the bashir one didnt appeal to me at the time. in my opinion, if you got a turkish oud you would maybe not want to tune it lower, it takes away some of the character, but that is up to you.

also, turkish music is a lot harder to play than arabic music, the beats are faster, but it all depends on what you want; just like everyone has said.

i think you will know which oud you want when the time comes...