fernandraynaud - 3-15-2010 at 11:19 PM
I thought I would briefly report on the first lesson I took via Skype from Hassan Yousri (hy19002000 ). The Skype technique is great. With a decently
fast connection, video and sound track well enough for teaching and to be able to play together with reasonable sync.
As far as teaching style goes, everyone has to find the teacher that suits them, but Hassan is very easy for me to work with. He's young and friendly,
knowledgeable, flexible and his English is good. I plan to continue. For me the most interesting thing is understanding how music is
conceptualized/taught in Arab countries, and to be able to ask questions on specific issues, so we started with Rast 
He followed up with an MP3 of a Rast tune to learn, and a .doc with a theoretical
writeup and a list of basic Maqamat he expects me to know.
It's great you can take a virtual trip to Cairo and take lessons from a graduate of The Arabian Institute of Oriental Music.
So all of you players who are bemoaning the lack of local teachers 
--
bemoan no more!
His web site has contact information, prices, etc : http://oud.weebly.com/
bibo10 - 3-16-2010 at 06:41 AM
That's great man. I think I will be starting with Dr Atef Abd el Hamid too, maybe next week or so. He is helping me buy a Fathi Amin oud from Egypt.
After that maybe i will start taking online lessons.
To be honest Fernand, I didn't find the skype idea very appealing to me. Dr Atef is great, very knowledgeable, very nice and patient. The problem is
there is a delay with skype or any other messenger that will make the learning process very hard. Plus the picture is not very clear, even though the
voice is outstanding.
That was one issue, another issue is the time difference between the USA and Egypt!
For the language part, I speak arabic fluently so I didn't have any problems. I can't tell how good or bad his english is since we never spoke in
english, but i used to email him in english and he replied with no problem!
p.s your JT album the Prophet is on its way, let me know how you like. Though I am sure you ll love it 
fernandraynaud - 3-17-2010 at 06:13 AM
Maybe I don't expect skype to be perfect, so I find the video adequate. Besides, however I look at someone playing, I can never perfectly "mirror
image" in my head, so the video is just a rough helper. The 10 hour diff is ok for me anyway - California late evening is morning in Cairo.
bibo10 - 3-17-2010 at 06:51 AM
yup that is actually the problem i am facing, it is so hard to copy when watching a video haha.
maybe we can figure a better video conference software
fernandraynaud - 3-18-2010 at 12:37 AM
This is the same issue as learning fingering from diagrams. It turns out there isn't a single best way. Some authors will draw the oud neck one way,
and there are of course 4 possible: with nut on left and nut on right, then with treblemost string on top and bassmost string at top. That's 4
combinations. With every book or guide I look at, another view is used.
Because there are many people for whom only one "works" well, and since software is more flexible than human brains, ALL video guides and animations
should allow flipping and mirroring the image.
I'll check in Skype, I think it has some options. For teaching keyboards, there is no problem as both student and teacher must face the keyboard the
same way. On string instruments the only diagram orientation that works for me is "nut on the left and bass string on top". That's what I see if I
look down at the neck as I play.
Of course we can mentally "convert" a natural image, but it takes extra time and often causes mistakes. So a natural video image would work best for
me if it were mirrored about a vertical axis? I'm not even sure. Why shouldn't all the string instrument teaching aids accept the situation and offer
an option to view the image all 4 ways? In due course ...
In the images below we see the two possible views with Bass Strings at top of diagram. With the video it's not as definite, but for the diagram, only
the "nut on left" view works well for me.
=======
Anyway, the availabilty of lessons straight from a "native player" is something remarkable. I don't know the style of any other instructors, but I can
honestly recommend Hassan Yousri.
bibo10 - 3-18-2010 at 10:03 AM
I agree nut on the left works better for me too.
there is a software called out tutor, someone introduced here before, it might ve been me hah. it has that same format, i adapted to it very quickly.
very nice tool for beginners
Petrakarin - 3-23-2010 at 11:09 AM
Hey my name is Petra and this is my 1st post here
I have a long story with Hassan which i like to share with you:
i came to Cairo in last month i have searched an oud teacher to learn as iam intersted in arab music and oud (althoug i am a female) 
and i found Hassan, he is young, skillful, and frindly guy. really it is an
amazingly thing to find such a young guy but very clever. i hope that he cooperate with us here i think he welcome helping people as he gave me a
special discount as iam a girl and he said that it is the 1st time that he instucted to a girl! I will get back to Germany in April and i wish i
contact with professional oud players in Germany.
Sorry for my english and thanks for the nice topic
hy19002000 - 3-27-2010 at 08:45 AM
Many thanks to Tony for the nice topic. Thanks to all of you for your kindly words.
Welcome to all students!