billkilpatrick - 7-27-2006 at 11:41 PM
at practice last night i put down the little german bagpipe i was playing, picked up the oud and it occured to me that the softer "indoors" sound of
the so-called "small" pipe (with a cylindrical as opposed to a conical chanter) could be ideal accompaniment for the oud. from a north african point
of view both have a cultural affiliation; they both have the hypnotic drone sound and the slight variation in pitch that sometimes occurs whenever i
play the pipes could be easily accomodated by the fretless oud.
unfortunately, as i'm the only oud player for miles and have vowed that no lips but mine shall huff and puff into my bag, i really have no way of
putting this to the test.
for those interested in having a go, i would suggest you avoid great highland bagpipe players - unless they also have a set of small pipes, you simply
won't be heard - but concentrate on the celtic crowd instead, with their gentle, irish uilliean (spelling?) pipes or medieval players with a sweet
little german hummelchen ("bumblebee") such as i have.
sempre avanti - bill