lima
Oud Admirer
Posts: 2
Registered: 12-17-2007
Location: Utah
Member Is Offline
Mood: Fuzzy
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Turkish oud lessons
Hi, everybody!
I want to give a little disclaimer first: I've done a lot of searching on this site alone, and I haven't found anything really satisfying. So at this
point I really do need some advice.
I've just purchased a Turkish oud, and I've been a little perplexed at the instructional scene. I guess I shouldn't be surprised; it's not exactly a
mainstream western instrument. But just the same, I hate to make do with what little I can find if there's a possibility that someone else already
knows everything I want to know.
I guess the best thing to do is to speak in terms of my personal objectives:
First, I want to learn the general principles of oud playing. I already play the guitar, so I imagine that's something of a start.
Second, I want to learn the particulars of the Turkish tradition/method/whatever. I'm especially interested in Turkish style, and to begin with, I
want to stay in that line. At least I think I do; maybe Turkish and Arabic are not all that dissimilar? Experts, please correct me if I'm wrong.
I'm a newbie in this. I know that the Turkish "scales" or whatever they are are called makam, whereas the Arabic ones are maqam. Other than that, I
know nothing.
Now, I know of at least two books in English. One is the Hal-Leonard book available on Amazon, and the other is some little twenty-four page leaflet
that sells for $18 and claims to be a magnificent introduction. Then there's the 300-something-page monstrosity which I would just go and buy, but I
don't read Turkish. So those of you who are familiar with the best English-language resources on the Turkish method, please tell me what you
recommend. Your advice will be much appreciated.
Also, to the webmaster: I recommend that you add a "learning" section devoted to issues in learning the oud. I think this is a big enough issue for
all of us newcomers that it should have its own category or forum or whatever it's called.
Thanks for reading, everybody. Or anybody. Or maybe nobody...
Liam Brown.
Anything that costs nothing is worth at least that much.
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jazzchiss
Oud Junkie
Posts: 217
Registered: 12-20-2004
Location: Madrid
Member Is Offline
Mood: Improvising
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Did you see the video lessons here? Go home http://www.mikeouds.com/ and click 'Learn to play'.
I agree with you that this forum could be better structured but I suppose that's a lot of work.
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MatthewW
Oud Junkie
Posts: 1031
Registered: 11-5-2006
Location: right here
Member Is Offline
Mood: Al Salam
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Hi Liam- first of all take your time with this buddy, there is a steep learning curve and a lot to get under you belt! coming from a guitar playing
background will help, at least you'll have have some dexterity of finger movement to get you around the fingerboard. Have you got yourself a 'risha' ;
the unique style of plectrum used on ouds?
There are many ways of tuning an oud, even with Turkish or Arabic style ouds. generally speaking, Turkish ouds are tuned one whole tone higher than
'Arabic'.
I would agree with what jazzchiss recommends to you: turn your computer on, get you oud out, pour yourself a glass of you favorite drink, and
seriously try playing along with the maqams and how to use them found in the 'Learn to Play Oud' section in this website:
http://www.mikeouds.com/video/learn.html
This will get you started and familiar with basic scales/maqams and the fingerboard. However you'll need to tune your oud to Arabic tuning to play
along with these videos. The tuning used in the clips are, from low string to high, c,ff,aa,dd,gg,cc. Save yourself the money and leave the Hal
Leonard book for now, you can learn just as much and more from this Learn To Play section if you work at it. Once you are familar with the maqams and
patterns used in the videos, you can then retune your oud up one whole tone and try it all in what will now be one basic form of Turkish tuning.....so
a maqam that was in C in Arabic will now be in the key of D with your Turkish tuning and so on. By this time you'll probably have dicovered a lot more
about the Turkish style and can do what you like, but for now have a go at playing along with the 'learn to play' section. There is a wealth of
information in this website, and you'll discover more and more as time goes by.
check out this site as well, he is a member of the forum:
http://www.adamgood.com/turkish_nota/
happy playing! 
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adamgood
Oud Junkie
Posts: 499
Registered: 6-27-2005
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Member Is Offline
Mood: 2.7 koma flat
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Hi Liam,
Welcome, nice of you to introduce yourself and show us what your interests are. I also came from a guitar background and I'm very very interested in
Turkish ud playing now.
It's really difficult to find instruction on turkish ud playing in the US from people ...there's really only a handful. I'm sure Utah is not a hotbed
of master musicians. If you get to travel, you can find it in Las Angeles (maybe not terribly far for you?), San Fransisco or New York City.
Otherwise you can do some self learning, the Mutlu Torun book is really good and worth buying even if can't understand a word of turkish.
And listen listen listen then listen some more. And ask plenty of questions, here on the message board is great.
have fun!
Adam
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adamgood
Oud Junkie
Posts: 499
Registered: 6-27-2005
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Member Is Offline
Mood: 2.7 koma flat
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Matthew by the way thanks for the plug of the website...
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MatthewW
Oud Junkie
Posts: 1031
Registered: 11-5-2006
Location: right here
Member Is Offline
Mood: Al Salam
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| Quote: | Originally posted by adamgood
Matthew by the way thanks for the plug of the website... |
my pleasure Adam!
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Multi Kulti
Oud Junkie
Posts: 252
Registered: 1-27-2004
Member Is Offline
Mood: skaataa!
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Very nice site with lessons and audio samples in turkish style from the very talented player Hakan Emre Ziyagill is this http://www.emirudlari.com/etudler.php
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Jack_Campin
Oud Junkie
Posts: 333
Registered: 5-6-2007
Location: Scotland
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
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There is a set of video CDs by Servet (Ud Egitim Metodu). The first (or the first two?) is available dubbed into English. They are not brilliant,
with a lot less content than Mutlu Torun's book, but they're a lot better than the ripoff subliterate leaflets you're talking about.
VCDs are a gruesome experience on a Mac (I have neither a Windows machine nor a freestanding DVD player). You have to hunt around for the data files
and drag them onto the Quicktime Player - there is no Mac-based VCD player with an interface that reads the indexing stuff. Unfortunately it's still
a very common format in Turkey and inescapable for instructional music and dance videos.
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eliot
Oud Junkie
Posts: 252
Registered: 1-5-2005
Location: The Gorges
Member Is Offline
Mood: Aksak
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It's easy to play VCDs on a mac with the program VLC (do a google search for VLC OSX, I think they're up to version 0.8.1). I brought back a bunch of
Turkish VCDs, including a tribute to Cinuçen Tanrıkorur, and have no problem with them.
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adamgood
Oud Junkie
Posts: 499
Registered: 6-27-2005
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Member Is Offline
Mood: 2.7 koma flat
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I second Eliot's mentioning VLC for OSX. Typically it lets me open up the audio or video files that I wouldn't otherwise be able to listen/see. I've
watched a few VCDs including some of ud lesson stuff which is ok.
Most interesting is I can listen to TRT Radio channel 4 which seems to play the most interesting music. Just open up this stream in VLC and you can
hear. I believe Monday and Wednesday nights at 8pm or 9pm istanbul time is a great show hosted by Doğan Dikmen who is himself a fantastic
singer.
Here's the address:
mms://212.175.166.3/RADYO4
I haven't been able to open it in iTunes for some reason.
adam
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eliot
Oud Junkie
Posts: 252
Registered: 1-5-2005
Location: The Gorges
Member Is Offline
Mood: Aksak
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Thanks for that, Adam! Didn't know we could get TRT4 streaming...
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lima
Oud Admirer
Posts: 2
Registered: 12-17-2007
Location: Utah
Member Is Offline
Mood: Fuzzy
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Wow, I feel like I took a drink from a firehose. 
Seriously, though, you guys have given me a good set of resources to start with. Thanks for the tips!
Anything that costs nothing is worth at least that much.
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Microber
Oud Junkie
Posts: 853
Registered: 1-20-2006
Location: Belgium - Liège
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
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Thanks for the link Adam
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