tarikPSU - 7-15-2010 at 12:06 PM
Hello everybody my name is Tarik, a student in America. I've played guitar but recently I've been connecting with my Palestinian roots and acquired
an oud. I've been studying different maqams and such, but browsing through the internet and these forums I see two common tunings for arabic
style:
CFADGC
DGADGC
I understand its easy to switch back and forth between them, but my question is how do these affect playing different maqams? is one easier for a
beginner like me to play? My instrument is being restrung now, any suggestions on what strings to order? mari vs aquila, etc?
I appreciate any advice you have to offer,
thank you and shukran!
MatthewW - 7-15-2010 at 12:45 PM
Salaam Tarik, welcome to the forum, THE place for all things oud, where the love of music and the oud unites all no matter what your colour, sex,
race, religion, or football team you support. 
There is FAQs thread permanently at the top of 'Advice,Tips Questions etc' section of the forum which contains a lot of useful info, scroll through
it and I think you'll find some answers to your questions.
It seems that a lot of newcomers to the forum ask a lot of similiar questions and so the FAQs was intended to help answer a lot of questions that seem
to get asked quite regularly, whatever level of oudmanship we are at. This is a good time to remind everyone about it.
It would be nice to see it getting updated when anyone has more info to add to it, so come on lads I'm sure some of you can add some new stuff to the
FAQs. 
FAQs-
http://www.mikeouds.com/messageboard/viewthread.php?tid=6809
As for starting out with an Arabic based tuning, I can only go by what I found to be a good solid tuning to start with, namley C-F-A-D-G-C.
You can try others as you go along. enjoy the ride 
MW
fernandraynaud - 7-15-2010 at 04:32 PM
Welcome Tarik!
For what it's worth I've found the best way to look at this is that the old ouds, say in the 9th century, had 4 courses, tuned in ascending fourths,
say ADgc. Oud-like instruments were probably tuned this way from time immemorial. Those are the melody strings. That never changes.
The fifth string was added around the 10th century. AL Farabi mentions that logically it would be tuned like the others, also a fifth down, so E. But
the bottom string was also considered a drone, and then tuning it F harmonizes better with Rast (C) based maqams, since the 4th and 5th were
considered the main consonant intervals. E sounds terrible with Dukah (D) maqams, so F is better. But G is even better, goes with Rast and goes with
Dukah, as 4th and 5th, and C and D are very common bases for Maqamat. So that's probably where the G came from.
A sixth string was added much later, and again it was considered a drone string. So keeping the top 4 ADgc, and re-tuning the bottom 2 courses as
needed makes sense. I personally like having the 5th course as an extension of the melody strings, tuned to E, and only the bottom bass a drone, tuned
to C or D. Normal oud sets have no major trouble being retuned C-D and E-F. The fifth double course tuned to G is getting tight, that perhaps calls
for a lighter string.
Daniel Mari strings are great, sound good and last a long time. Get the longer set, around $8, and tune the bottom CF or CE for starters, CF is the
vanilla tuning. May as well get an extra thinner "Mumtaz course 0" for $0.75, in case you want to try a high F tuning (FXDgcf) at some point.
If you want a brighter timbre for the plain strings, Musicaravan sells a PVF set of trebles, or you can buy bulk PVF material once you know you like
it.
Welcome and enjoy the oud!
ameer - 7-16-2010 at 05:30 AM
I'll take the opportunity to plug downtuning while we're here. Some oudds really sing in a different way when you tune down a halfstep or a wholestep
or even 1.5 steps if you're feeling adventurous. It's a combination of the oud's sound and the decreased string tension.
fernandraynaud - 7-16-2010 at 03:56 PM
I'll take the opportunity to plug UPtuning too. For some reason a Sukar 212 with a 600 mm scale seems to love being pulled up to Turkish tuning. It
blossoms on higher pitch. Maybe it would love F-ff tuning. Conversely a Sukar Model 14 seems to love low tunings.
Of course if you are playing with other instruments, you can't very practically tune 1.5 steps up or down.
ameer - 7-18-2010 at 09:58 AM
I dunno, tuning 1.5 steps down from standard Arabic is Turkish tuning without the high E. Nylons get a nice twang at that low a tension.
fernandraynaud - 7-19-2010 at 12:09 AM
Never mind, I thought you meant between ET notes.