Khalid_Salé
Oud Maniac
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Registered: 9-14-2010
Location: Morocco
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Right Hand Plant
Hi all, another beginner's question if you don't mind.
I came to the oud from the guitar, which I have played for around ten years. The thing is, I'm self-taught and I never had any kind of training on the
guitar, so I picked up all kinds of bad habits. One is that I usually plant or anchor my right hand in some way when I'm picking. If I'm
fingerpicking, I plant my pinky, or both pinky and ring - this is recommended by some folk/blues players - and if I'm flatpicking, I plant the heel of
my right hand on the bridge. Now classical guitarists have a floating hand at all times, of course.
So when it comes to the oud, I find myself naturally planting the heel of my hand on the bridge. I find that I can play a perfect (or at least
adequate) tremolo like this, but as soon as I raise my hand so it is floating, I sound like a five-year-old on Ritalin playing for the first time,
hitting two or even three courses at a time, and my tremolo fades away completely unless I do it extremely loud.
So my question is: will something bad happen to me if I keep anchoring my right hand? Will it make things more difficult further down the line, and
prevent me from playing properly? Should I just suck it up and learn to play with my hand off the bridge?
Advice would be much appreciated!
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DaveH
Oud Junkie
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Suck it up, I'm afraid. It just won't work with your wrist stuck to the oud. You need to be able (sometimes) to get a fair amount of (controlled)
momentum into your hand to make a good, full sound. For this your wrist needs to be very flexible and your hand needs to be free. Also, with your
wrist anchored like this, you'll only be able to contact the strings quite close to the bridge, which will also impair the tone. Lastly, you're likely
to strain your wrist by extending it backwards while trying to play with the necessary force.
Resting the fingers on the soundboard is part of the lute finger-picking (and arguably plectrum) action, but I still don't think it's very healthy on
the oud.
The exact action is impossible to explain in writing, and I'd really recommend saving yourself a lot of frustration by getting a teacher to show you.
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DoggerelPundit
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At a master class several years ago, John Bilezikjian addressed the importance of this by saying to the 14 of us attending:
“Let us assume that you are all ‘monsters’ with your left hand; that you can finger anything, correctly and at top speed. This doesn’t
matter, because the soul of the oud is in your right hand. That’s where the real oud is to be found.”
D.H. is right, your hand must float. To that I would add two things: your hand must also break inward to a degree at the wrist—getting the oud’s
rhythmic cadence and attack with the Western straight wrist is not possible. Second, I suggest a youtube study of the right hands of Necati Celik,
Afif Taian, and of Peter Dorian on his Fresno State video.
The Ritalin effect will go away.
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Khalid_Salé
Oud Maniac
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Registered: 9-14-2010
Location: Morocco
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Thanks for the advice, guys - duly noted. Sam'an wa ta'atan ya mawlay.
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Brian Prunka
Oud Junkie
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Quote: Originally posted by DoggerelPundit  | I would add two things: your hand must also break inward to a degree at the wrist—getting the oud’s rhythmic cadence and attack with the Western
straight wrist is not possible. Second, I suggest a youtube study of the right hands of Necati Celik, Afif Taian, and of Peter Dorian on his Fresno
State video.
The Ritalin effect will go away.
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I'm not convinced that this is true. Simon Shaheen plays with a straight wrist most of the time. It depends on the player.
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fernandraynaud
Oud Junkie
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The forearm is what can rest on the edge of the oud. Indeed, if your wrist is resting on the bridge, you cannot vary your tone by plucking at
different points. There's another killerrr detail, as usual. If you can rest your wrist firmly on the bridge, you are likely holding the oud wrong,
not vertical enough, and you are also killing the tone, by pressing on the bridge/soundboard.
There's an interaction between the hardness, the shape and the thickness of the risha, and where your wrist will work best. Of course, a great player
can play with any risha. But for the rest of us, the ideal risha can help. If you optimize your risha for playing with the wrist resting on the
bridge, it will not work as well with the wrist swinging free. That's one reason for your trouble when you try playing off the bridge: the risha is
now the wrong shape and thickness.
If you can't have a teacher show you, you should start by observing a lot of oud players on YouTube. Then find a good hand position, with the oud face
vertical, where your forearm rests on the edge of the soundboard, either approaching from below or from above, that's a personal preference, and the
wrist is free to swing. The "from below" approach has the advantage of supporting the oud when standing. One Turkish master I've heard encourages
players to practice standing up, he says it's harder and helps develop a lot of good habits. A long risha with a good healthy tail is important for
me, it helps with the swing.
And now you can start shaping/optimizing your risha so you can do tremolos OK. Some players like the tip thin enough to "pick through" and others
"ride over" with a thicker risha, some like a wide blade, others just a narrow long tip. Different strokes are likely best done with very different
materials, shapes and thicknesses. You may do much better with a thin risha, or a narrow "feather", but never tried it. Once you start working on your
rishas from a correct wrist swing, you'll have some rishas that help rather than hinder.
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