Mike's Oud Forums

Ragas on ouds question

charlie oud - 4-15-2008 at 12:05 PM

Dear All, Im wondering if anyone knows of any cds of Indian ragas played on the oud.I have Bashirs Raga roots but am keen to hear others. Regards, Charlie

Jassim - 4-15-2008 at 09:21 PM

do you mean rag style on oud ?
there are rag style and dhun
the rag style the sing it by there voice
and the dhun they play it by citar

jazzchiss - 4-16-2008 at 12:31 AM

I’m very interested in raga playing.
Hussein El Masry has a good CD of this kind of fusion: http://www.hussein-elmasry.net/discogrand/pageentrenil%20.htm .
Also, Simon Shaheen’s Saltanah with Vishwa Moham Bhatt is well known.

charlie oud - 4-16-2008 at 09:18 AM

Many thanks, Jazzchis I'll buy it. C

MatthewW - 4-17-2008 at 11:39 AM

Hi Charlie- I like playing (attempting to play is probably a better description) Indian style passages and ragas on the oud also, I find the oud works well for expressing this genre of music. What I found helpful is to locate a website or book that has notated examples of Indian raga scales, and then adapt them to the oud.
I've been trying to find tablature or notation of actual sitar ragas, but haven't found anything yet; if anyone knows of any let us know please! I also get ideas from listening to actual sitar music, and then trying to work out what is being played on the sitar and adapt it to the oud.

jazzchiss - 4-18-2008 at 12:41 AM

Hello, Matthew. These are forums where I've found useful information:

http://forums.chandrakantha.com/
http://www.geetham.net/forums/index.php
http://indianmelodyonline.com/smf/index.php

But I'm not very interested in the theoretical matter. What I do is playing every day with a CD and follow the raga. The closest instrument to the oud is the sarod and it's easy to emulate his phrasing. Also, the tampura in the background helps a lot to play in tune.