Ararat66
Oud Junkie
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Registered: 11-14-2005
Location: Portsmouth, UK
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Turkish/Armenian tunings
Hello folks
Just a quick question about tuning for anyone who knows!!. I've been playing oud for nearly 10 months now mainly tuning to EABEAD because of the
resonant octaves of E & A which I like.
What are the advantages of the other tunings particularly C#F#BEAD which I think is all in fourths.
Any info, suggestions, or other ideas would be much appreciated.
I play a Haluk Turkish oud - and very nice it is too.
Best regards
Leon
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Jason
Oud Junkie
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The advantage of playing with a C# and F# is you will have an increased range and scale runs will be more symmetrical when starting on the low
strings. I think in an ensemble this could be particularly helpful but for solo oud I prefer to tune the low strings in accordance with the maqam
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jazzchiss
Oud Junkie
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I have been playing the guitar for more than 20 years, and always I have suffer the abnormality of the tuning between the 3 and 2 strings. I think
that for playing compositions the tuning of an instrument is quite indifferent: simply you learn of memory the fingerings. But if you are essentially
an improviser, it is very useful to have a clear and constant reference of the intervals in the whole extension of the instrument.
It is possible that to play maqams it would be preferable the standard tuning EABEAD, but if you want to play with other musicians (specially horns)
the tuning in fourths C#F#BEAD will help you to adapt better to any tonality that they impose on you.
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Ararat66
Oud Junkie
Posts: 1025
Registered: 11-14-2005
Location: Portsmouth, UK
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Mood: mellow yellow
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tuning to maqam
Thanks - this is useful. I am also a guitar player and although the EABEAD is really nice and resonant it is a bit like playing DADGAD tuning on a
guitar (Bert Jansch etc) the Interval between the A and B feels a little tricky. I may well try C#F#BEAD for a while.
As for Maqam this is something Iam beginning to get round to looking at properly (all very slow but what's the hurry?). So Jason when you say you
tune the lower two strings to the maqam, could you exppand a little on this and give me an example? it would be much appreciated.
Thanks everyone
Best wishes
Leon
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Jason
Oud Junkie
Posts: 734
Registered: 9-17-2005
Location: Louisville, KY
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Mood: Loving my oud
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I'm definately still a beginner too but the most common thing to do is tune the two lowest strings to the tonic and dominant of the maqam. So if you
were playing Bayati on D you could tune D A B E A D.... which helps because you can get so many sympathetic strings ringing and you get a nice big
sound
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SamirCanada
Moderator
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One thing is for sure that if you are going to play a concert or something you wont be able to mess around with the tuning. To me it is most important
that you get adjusted to playing with the widest possible variety of notes available. You can get a big sound on any maqam you just have to move your
fingers to adjust instead of letting the open string do the work.
just my 2cents
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Jason
Oud Junkie
Posts: 734
Registered: 9-17-2005
Location: Louisville, KY
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Agreed Samir. Tuning to the maqam does allow you to have the sympathetic strings vibrate when you hit important partials of the harmonic series of
the maqam though. I think a lot of people desire this effect.
Once you become familiar with a tuning you should be able to play in any maqam you wish.
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