DaveH
Oud Junkie
Posts: 526
Registered: 12-23-2005
Location: Birmingham, UK
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
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Feather rishas
Hi all
I recently had my technique totally deconstructed by Nizar Rohana. Surprisingly, the process was not nearly as depressing as it sounds - in fact, I'd
say it was very inspiring, even though I'm having to go back and work on some basic aspects of technique. More of this on another thread soon, but
Nizar also recommended I experiment with different risha materials. I currently use the very soft, turkish plastic type.
I'm finding it difficult to get hold of the type Nizar recommended but in the mean time, and as a diversion, I thought I might try experimenting with
feather. No eagles around here willing to donate voluntarily, but we have a large population of newly re-introduced red kites, one of which seems to
have wound up dead in the field behind my house.
These are big birds (wingspan probably over a metre) and I don't know how the mechanical properties of their feathers relate to those of eagles, but I
figure it's worth a try. I've relieved it of a few long wing feathers (I won't go into the gruesome details). Looking through the forums (thanks
Samir) I came across a few threads on the subject. Ronny Andersson describes the iraqi method here:
http://www.mikeouds.com/messageboard/viewthread.php?tid=462
and here:
http://www.mikeouds.com/messageboard/viewthread.php?tid=6276
Bill Kilpatrick has a link for mandolin picks
http://www.mikeouds.com/messageboard/viewthread.php?tid=3584#pid239...
and there's a recent post where twogoodears summarises Dmitris Rapakousious's method, which is presumably a more greek/turkish approach.
http://www.mikeouds.com/messageboard/viewthread.php?tid=9263
Twogoodears, if you have any more details, I'd be very grateful.
Does anyone else have any more info? Particularly given that we have some info on Iraqi and Turkish methods, I was wondering if egyptian/syrian
oudists used a variant of one of these or whether there was a separate mashriqi method. Any info appreciated.
Many thanks
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fernandraynaud
Oud Junkie
Posts: 1865
Registered: 7-25-2009
Location: San Francisco, California
Member Is Offline
Mood: m'Oudy
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"Wound up dead" ... that's a delicate way to describe that most personal of events.
The Red Kite is an excellent choice, being a meat-eater and a raptor. The word is that "the feathers that are of use ... are the six wing primary
flight feathers. Unfortunately none of the other wing feathers and not even the large tail features are sufficiently strong to be useful." If you do
a search for "feather harpsichord plectra" you will find many useful discussions on issues like the structure of the feather, why plastic is second
rate, what parts makes a good plectrum -- that IS what we are going after here, only about 50 times larger than on a harpsichord. Mercifully we only
use one at a time. It may be of interest, to the younger oud players among us anyway, that well-made bird quill plectra have lasted for
several hundred years of daily playing, where plastic at best lasts a short decade. Less if you play "like an Egyptian upholsterer".
You can download a PDF article on the subject by the ever witty Mr. Skowronek. As he warns, if you are impatient, bird quill is not for you,
so be prepared to read some tangential material, information that may help us make even better reesha than in the old days, just as today's
traditionally built harpsichords are more meticulously made than they were 300 years ago.
http://skowroneck.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/harpsichord-voicing.p...
or you can read that article in vivo, as it were, surrounded by other verbiage dealing with issues that bond us musicians, like Humidifiers
(hint: one bucket per instrument), here:
http://skowroneck.wordpress.com/2008/02/28/voicing-i/
It's great to see the pursuit of music bring such diverse people to common goals -- crows, beware, a diverse crowd is heading your way 
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