chrollo
Oud Admirer
Posts: 1
Registered: 2-20-2012
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Trouble with finger placement on 'frets'
I am a new oud learner and I'm having a lot of trouble with finger placement on the neck of the oud. The positions that the 'frets' are supposed to be
are too far apart!
For example, with a string tuned to D, I cannot go from the first position (E#) to the fourth position (F#) and then back again without moving my
entire hand back and forth, which means I can't play the notes fast enough.
Any tips guys? Am I actually supposed to move my entire hand or should I just keep practicing until my fingers magically stretch?
Thanks!
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fernandraynaud
Oud Junkie
Posts: 1865
Registered: 7-25-2009
Location: San Francisco, California
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Mood: m'Oudy
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Everybody's different. Some people have smaller hands. After an injury Django Reinhardt was a phenomenal guitarist playing mostly with only 2 fingers
on the fretting hand. My pet raccoon inadvertently bit off the tip of my middle finger, and years later it's still too painful to hammer down with
that finger, while my little finger is weak. But I manage. Maybe you can force it, build up some strength, and maybe it's correct, but if it feels
very strained, I'd say it's more important to figure out what works for you so you can enjoy playing. Besides, speed is not the most important thing.
There's a Turkish player with a teaching web site who plays at the most phenomenal speed, yet listening to it I feel nothing.
A shorter oud, like a Turkish 585 mm scale, might help if it really bothers you, and there are shorter ouds made as well. I find I far prefer a short scale fretless bass (these SX basses are surprisingly good BTW), and my favorite day to day guitar is a short scale "travel" model. How long
is your oud's scale (nut to bridge)?
Let's see what some of the pros say.
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MatthewW
Oud Junkie
Posts: 1031
Registered: 11-5-2006
Location: right here
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Mood: Al Salam
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chrollo - welcome to the world of ouds wher anything and everything can happen - Do you play any other stringed instrument? This might help with
dexterity. If not, practice is about the only way forward.
Would you know what scale your oud is made to? Even with a longer scale Arabic oud I don't think it should be too difficult to move from your open D
string to first position (which I assume you mean 1st fret which is Eb (or D#) in basic western terms, and then to 4th fret F# (or Gb) again in basic
western terms.
I assume you are using your first (index) finger to fret the 1st position note, and perhaps your pinky (little) finger to play the 4th position?
unless you have very small hands or a monster sized oud, keep your wrist relaxed but ready - finger the first fret with index finger, have your thumb
in position behind the neck more or less lined up with index finger....then slightly stretch and place your little finger on the 4th fret positon. A
VERY SLIGHT shift of the wrist upwards and/or towards the right may help. There is probably no need to move the wrist/hand very much, if at all; and
you ought to be able to keep the thumb where it is on back of neck behind first fret position or only move it slightly to the right if required by
your particular hand/finger size. Keep the other fingers relaxed and not too far off from the fingerboard and slightly open...
when you can do it well with you little finger on 4th 'fret', try replacing it with the third finger, and use both fingerings, 1st finger and little,
1st finger and 3rd.
another useful exercise would be to use all fingers as follows-
strike open D string, then play 1st 'fret' with 1st finger and keep the finger down on the fingerboard, then place 2nd finger down on 2nd 'fret' and
play that and keep both fingers down on fingerboard, then 3rd 'fret' with 3rd finger, then 4th 'fret' with 4th finger, then go backwards lifting each
finger off in turn. more on similiar useful exercises can be found in Fadel's posting of 15 oud exercises:
http://www.mikeouds.com/messageboard/viewthread.php?tid=12666
If you don't live near any oud players to get some 'hands on' advice, then just keep practising this movements over and over until it feels right for
you; it will happen sooner or later my friend.. watch videos of other players and observe how they do it...best of luck- MW
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Giorgioud
Oud Junkie
Posts: 287
Registered: 11-18-2011
Location: United Kingdom
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Fernandraynaud,
how right you are about the speed matter! I think I know the guy you're talking about. He has a site with exercises and stuff.is speed is monstruous,
yet all he does to me is just to irritate me. Mind you, I still enjoy the exercises and I find them very helpful. So thanks !check people like Samir
Tahar (different style and school, I know, but...), they're not as fast, but they manage to convey in one note what many players take ages (and
thousands of notes) to say. Just as in speech, verbosity is definetly NOT the way........
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luan
Oud Junkie
Posts: 159
Registered: 11-25-2011
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Let's see
Speed is important if the music you are playing requires it
There's a lot of passages with patterns I still can't play but the nice songs I play require it, if my technique were better, I would be able to play
them better
So what matter is technique. You should be able to play to some speed degree, at least to have a fast tremolo to use a resource every now and then,
because the music REQUIRES it. If you play calm music probably doesn't need for anything like that.
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Alan-TX
Oud Junkie
Posts: 118
Registered: 2-18-2008
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chrollo
You may simply need a smaller scale oud to suit your hands. Measure yours to find out what scale length it is. You may have a 62 cm scale oud and not
know it.
If you already have a 58.5 cm oud then as MatthewW pointed out it may be a conditioning issue. The "Hijaz Stretch" takes some time to get right. Try
Bayati and Kord as well as part of your practice routine for positive reinforcement (if you are not doing that already.)
Alan
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charlie oud
Oud Junkie
Posts: 694
Registered: 11-19-2007
Location: Newcastle upon tyne. UK
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Mood: chords prefer frets
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Welcome Chrollo 
The first thing I would say, as Alan says, is make sure you have a scale length short enough to avoid stretching between 2 adjacent notes. The Hijaz
is a good test for selecting the right scale length for our left hand span. There is no need to develop stretching the left hand fingers for oud
playing.
Secondly, try this if you hav'nt already. Play the 'e flat' a little sharpened and the f# a little flattened. This is the true tonality of the Hijaz
and it does'nt really require any stretching. Hijaz is definately not where the 1st and 4th frets lie, as on a guitar, playing it this way is a
classic beginners mistake. If you still cant make the span easily after reducing the distance between the 2 notes in question then go in search of a
shorter scale length.
They start around 58cms and go up to 64cm. ( scale lengh is the distance between nut and bridge, the vibrating length of the open strings).
Good luck.
Best Wishes, Charlie
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