Ibn Riad
Oud Admirer
Posts: 1
Registered: 1-14-2016
Member Is Offline
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A Beginner Oudist's Questions & Queries!
Hello guys! This seems to be a lovely little community, and I am eager to being part of it, having just recently picked up the wonderful instrument
that is the Oud!
I've had about two weeks of daily lessons so far (taking advantage of the time that I was in Lebanon, and therefore had access to an Oud teacher), but
now I'm back in Europe, with my Oud but with no set course to follow. My teacher was not very helpful in that he did not give me any follow up
exercises, but only told me to practice the few things we'd learned.
He taught me Maqam Ajam and Maqam Bayat, and a handful of short melodies for each. Since then I've taught myself Maqam Nahawand and the song Bint
il-Shalabiyyah, but I'm wondering how to proceed... for the foreseeable future, until I get back to Lebanon again, I'm going to have to teach
myself.
Is there any advice anyone can give me? I am especially interested in Taqsim, and I can blurt out a few basic melodies in the Maqams I know, but it
never sounds anything like the great Taqsims one hears recorded... is there anything in particular I can do to work on improving that?
I'm in Budapest, which is the city of Omar Bashir, so I have been wondering whether it's worth trying to get into touch with him, though I can't
imagine doing so would be straight-forward :P
Many many thanks in advance for your help guys!
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Brian Prunka
Oud Junkie
Posts: 2939
Registered: 1-30-2004
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Member Is Offline
Mood: Stringish
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Welcome to the forums!
If you can find a teacher, that would be good. A number of teachers are offering video/skype lessons as well (including some forum members here, like
myself, Mavrothi, and Navid, if you can't find someone local. Two weeks of daily lessons should be a good basis for you to work on some things on
your own though.
There are a lot of resources available on youtube and elsewhere on the web, as well as this forum (use the search function). Learn songs as much as
you can. Note that many recordings are not to a reference pitch, so you may have to listen for the open strings of the oud to figure out where it is
being played. Programs like "Transcribe" can re-pitch the recording to match your oud, which is very helpful.
Taqasim is a very sophisticated practice. Learning as many songs as possible, and learning some taqasim of the masters (Farid, Riad al Sounbati) will
help.
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