edisoned - 10-24-2007 at 03:48 PM
Hi,
I just got my first Turkish Oud. I am a jazz guitarist with a good background in theory. I see there are quite a few options for tunings on the Oud. I
currently have it tuned as follow from low to high: DGBEAD
Any suggestions from other guitarist/Oudists to their favorite tunings? Any method books, or dvds that I should check out?
Thanks
Ed
Jason - 10-24-2007 at 08:49 PM
I tune Turkish oud E A B E A D or D A B E A D. A lot of people tune C# F# B E A D which may seem a little more familiar to a guitarist but may not
lend itself to learning to play the oud like an oud, if you know what I mean.
My advice is to pick a tuning and stick with it. If you've never played a fretless instrument before it will be important to work on intonation as
well as developing a good risha technique. I've found that being a guitarist helped me adapt to the risha but there is definitely a different feel
involved in using a risha vs. using a pick.
Haluk - 10-24-2007 at 10:05 PM
You can use one of these tunes below:
7 DIFFERENT TUNINGS ON OUD (AS PIANO)
D, A, E, B, F#, C#
D, A, E, B, F#, E
D, A, E, B, F#, D
D, A, E, B, F#, B
D, A, E, B, A, E
D, A, E, B, A, D
D, A, E, B, G, D
With best wishes.
Ararat66 - 10-25-2007 at 12:56 AM
I came to oud from guitar. I started out E,A,B,E,A,D, but found A and E together didn't suit me, changed to C#,F#,B,E,A,D (all forths so you get nice
runs with your guitarist fingers) and have settled on B,F#,B,E,A,D as Haluk mentioned for the moment. It caters for my guitarist tendancies but the
octave on B works well for oud playing as the two lowest strings tend to be used as a drone.
I have found that playing the oud is very very different from guitar (even more addictive you have been warned). It will do wonders for your guitar
playing also. After a while you will begin to develop udi musical tendancies as the instrument 'tells' you where to go as your sensitivity with it
develops.
Best advice - learn some maqams and listen to loads of music and don't get too shackled by too many rules.
Hope this helps and enjoy the adventure.
Best wishes
Leon
Sazi - 10-26-2007 at 07:43 PM
Hi Edisoned, I originally came to ud from guitar and found that the all 4ths tuning of C#F#bead' was the easiest for me to play, but I would say that
, for me at least, it depends on what kind of music I want to play- @ the moment I play a lot of Arabic music,and find that tuning a little awkward,
& so tuned it transposed Arabic DGBead', with the occasional re-tune of the G down to F#, which is a transposed Syrian tuning ,which facilitates
the easy occasional Turkish classical piece . Having said all that, I find that it is good for my creativity to change tunings or have different
instruments with different tunings - or even string configurations, ( I also play Turkish Baglama) as I generally find I can't actually play the same
pieces the same way and end up coming up with new pieces ; ) Hope that helps, all the best.