Dear friends,
like many other before me, as a new commer in the Oud world, I am still asking questions to myself about TUNNING and also what type of Oud to
chose...Turkish or Arabic etc...
Before jumping in, and buy or order a good instrument.
I just saw 2 videos of Mr Simon Shaheen on youtube today.
Is this a Turkish style Oud but tuned in C ??? (C F A D G C)
By any chance anybody know what is this instrument ?? Or the maker etc..
And / Or / have any information about playing arabic style music with a Turkish Oud, and the tunning etc etc....
Thank you in advance for your help.
azzizza - 7-1-2010 at 01:16 PM
i believe this is his Nahat oudsuz_i_dil - 7-1-2010 at 01:24 PM
Hello,
I asked before on the forum and it is an original Nahat with an extended fingerboard which had been made for it.
For turkish makers making arabic ouds, I would recommend you to listen (and of course best to try) Faruk Turunz ouds. He designed a special bracing to
fit arabic tone. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DsNgVn-vZ0
For your question about tuning. Actually you may try any kind of tuning on any ouds, at condition you use strings gauges which fit the
stringlength.
There is also maker (for exemple Kurschner) making ready made set with different tension, so that you choose the one fitting your stringlength (if you
increase the stringlength, the tension becone higher. For a same tuning on a same string gauge of course).
regardsfernandraynaud - 7-1-2010 at 04:20 PM
I couldn't be sure if the oud in those clips has a Turkish or Arabic body, it's easier to tell if you have some size reference on the image. The
instrument is tuned Arabic, looks ambiguously Arabic, and yet has a bit of Turkish timbre. Turns out it's a hotrodded (Arabic) Nahat.
What generally makes a Turkish oud is a shorter scale, say 580 vs. 610 mm, a slightly smaller body optimized to the Turkish tuning, that "rings" at
higher frequencies, a lower action and very hard (almost always ebony) fingerboard to help elicit "that" buzz, often a thinner soundboard, and who
knows exactly what else. Floating bridge ouds are usually Arabic, with a more guitar-like timbre.
The old fundamental Arabic 5 course tuning is FAADDggcc. On the modern 6 course oud a bottom C string is added and the F course is doubled,
CFFAADDggcc. A "high" tuning on a 7 course oud adds a treble ff course. For a "high" tuning on a 6 course oud one adds the ff course and drops the C
string, resulting in FAADDggccff.
There are many variations in how the bottom strings are tuned, often retuning for different pieces, but the AADDggcc core is always there. A good way
to understand this is that the melody strings are tuned in ascending fourths, while the bass strings are used as drones rather than melody strings. On
Iraqi ouds they sometimes flip the bass string to the highest courses for easier reach.
Turkish tuning starts with pulling the strings up two half-steps so the top note is dd rather than cc, and a BBEEaadd core is universal, with
different options on the bass strings.
A Turkish oud tuned down to Arabic on the same strings is safe and works fine, but may not sound convincingly Arabic, the instrument still "rings" and
buzzes Turkish. The better the instrument, the more it is optimized for its intended tuning. Some people have been rather disenchanted with such
"cross-dressing", others like it OK.
An Arabic oud is typically longer scale, and the body/soundboard are optimized for lower resonances. The sound is more percussive, the note's envelope
is shorter and the body makes up for it with specific resonances. You cannot tune it up to Turkish unless you use lighter strings, or the tension will
rise unsafely. It can be argued that unless the action is very low it will never even remotely sound Turkish anyway.
The style of music of course has nothing to with the exact timbre of the oud, you can play what you like on either. I rather think Bluegrass would
sound better on a Turkish oud. farukturunz - 7-2-2010 at 03:42 AM
