Danielo - 7-17-2008 at 07:06 AM
Hello to everyone,
I´m new on this forum that I followed for some time already... I'm rather impressed by your knowledge of the oud and the beautiful sound clips that
some of you posted here 
I'm still beginner/intermediate on the oud and struggle
to play some decent music with it,
I think I understood the basics of the maqam system but don't know how to include the different maqamat in the flow of the taqsim. If I understand
correctly, to present a maqam one should expose the various ajnas that characterize the maqam in the ascending form, then the ajnas of the descending
form. If in the course of the improvisation I wish to modulate to a different maqam, should I use one of these ajnas as a starting point to the
modulation, breaking the exposition of the original maqam, and then come back to it at the point where I stopped, after the modulation is finished?
I read in various places in this forum that each maqam is characterized by specific melodic phrases or "clichés". How could I learn this? Does
Oudproff discuss this in his dvd?
thanks for sharing your knowledge!
D.
Masel - 7-17-2008 at 09:15 AM
Hi daniel, you don't necessarily start on the ascending and finish on the decending, depends on the maqam. If you don't it you can go to http://www.oud.eclipse.co.uk/makamlist.html, this is a list of turkish makam (the website also has an arabic maqam list) which shows by the name
of each makam wether it is ascending or descending or ascending/descending. In the third case you start around the middle, where the ajnas join. So
this is just where to start.
In order to play a taqsim you must know the seyir or emotional content or melodic development or call it whatever of the maqam. The same goes for
modulation. The same goes for the small melodic phrases that are everywhere. I don't know about any dvds but the real way to learn is simply to
listen listen listen and analize. You will see patterns repeating. Try to know where you are in the maqam and what you are hearing when listening to
others play.
I think it is good advice to say that you shouldn't try to learn the seyir of the maqamat from a taqasim but rather better to learn from the classics,
the samaiat, pesrevs, iraqi maqam etc..
good luck!