nadir - 1-24-2004 at 06:45 AM
i was wondering if anyone would like to share how they first started to become interested in oud...
for me, i literally one day woke up and decided that it was a universally romantic instrument and i decided to play it from there...
spyros mesogeia - 1-24-2004 at 07:25 AM
......it's just happened my friend.....it's like the love in the first site,but it is for a life,maybe more.....
My grandfathers commed from the Asia Minor,but I didn't ever heard about this instrument......
One day,as a student,I went to a friend of mine,he was from Iran,and I saw him playing it,I was very surprised by his sound,and I asked him to learn
me.....
and so he did it,and than,I came back in Greece,I buyed my first oud,and since than I have changed many instruments and teachers......
But I still respect this man,and all of my teachers,because they gaved me something very special....'''The
knowledge'''.....
One of them,Nikos Saragoudas is like a father of mine,and he is the last of the old '''school'' udists......
If you love the oud and respect it,he will give it back to you.....you can trust it as it was you,because is a part of you.....
Regards my friend
souhail - 1-25-2004 at 03:32 AM
it was in 1994 i went with freinds, to Nasseer shamma's concert , the day after i went to a luthier to make a oud, and it was the begening of a
love story
My introduction to the Oud
LeeVaris - 1-25-2004 at 08:28 PM
I fell in love quite unexpectedly... I've been playing guitar for over 30 years, mostly to amuse myself but I've also been collecting other
stringed instruments and I became pretty proficient with Hammer Dulcimer (an American version of the Santur).
A friend, who appreciates my love of world music, got me a CD of Munir Bashir one day (probably about a year ago) but it set, collecting dust, in my
collection until a couple of months ago. Well... I finally listened to it. I'd only been vaguely aware of the Oud – always associated it with
belly dance music - I'd never heard any solo oud.
After hearing Munir Bashir that was it... this is an amazing solo improvisational music tradition with incredible subtle tones and rhythms. I scoured
the internet and soon found Mike's site here. Bought my first oud at the end of December and now I'm totally obsessed.
I play for hours at a time 
in my imagination I sound like Anouar
Brahem but, of course, in reality I sound like a cat playing with a marble inside a grand piano.
I will post something of my noodlings for your amusement after I've had my first lesson (Jan 30th) and I figure out how to record directly into
my computer1
TruePharaoh21 - 1-25-2004 at 09:20 PM
I think it was August of 2002 when my father first told me to download something called "takassim oud" for Farid el-Atrache. My response was
"the actor?" I had no idea what the oud was or that he even played.
I guess the incredibly fast part at the end of his takassim is what got me the most. (If you look on Mike's site, it's the file
farido1.mp3). I guess I worked my way backwards in that takassim until I learned how to appreciate it all (well, I guess how any one would appreciate
the oud once they learn a bit about it).
After that, I did some searching to find out if there was more takassims online. After finding some dead links after a while, my search proved to be
hopeless until I came across this site. So in essence, what made me really continue a love for the oud was Mr. Mike Malek himself, and for that,
I'm thankful every day.
One day, I was playing my guitar (I played for not too long) and one of the strings busted. Rather than replacing it, I asked if we had an oud as a
joke. Turns out we did in the closet. It had been in there for 17 years (all my life, up to that point). So I guess when you couple my hearing
Farid's takassim with my fortune in finding an oud literally in my closet, you find the beginning of a story. I guess I'm still in the first
chapter of this story, but I hope by the end of my oud playing days, I'll have made a novel.
TP21
P.S. For anyone reading this site who hasn't already started playing, consider this an invitation. You can find an oud closer to you than you
think. I hope to hear from you all very soon. For all my forum buddies, play on!
Michael - 1-26-2004 at 08:38 AM
Hi, I'm new here but I'll post my background. I play flamenco guitar and was interested in the moorish/arabic roots of flamenco (the moors
occupied Spain, and in particular Andalusia, for some 800 years and left their legacy in the architecture and culture of Andalusia and there are
definite arabic influences in flamenco music).
To learn more about it I attended an arabic drumming class and learned to play the darabuka. The teacher also occasionally imports instruments from
the middle east and on one occasion last summer he had an oud at a reasonable price. I snapped it up and have been experimenting with it for the past
5 months or so.
There are no teachers here in Bristol as far as I know, though I do know of Russell Harris in Devon and am considering getting in touch with him for
some lessons (anyone had any lessons with him and care to comment?), so I've just used whatever resources I've been able to find on the
internet. I discovered this forum just last week.
I should also mention that in no way have I forsaken the flamenco guitar, which I still consider my primary instrument.