The Ultimate Oud Learning Bundle

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This month only you can get 6 Oud learning courses for a super low price. This is truly the Ultimate Oud Learning Bundle as it will take you from knowing nothing about playing the Oud to an early-intermediate player knowing a wide variety of essential repertoire. Get all the details here: https://learn.oudforguitarists.com/foundation-program Offer ends Wednesday, July 27, 2022 11:59 PM Pacific time.

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Taqasim Workshop July 31 for European time zones held on Zoom.

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learn taqasim

I’ll be doing a taqsim workshop on Maqam Huzzam on July 31st for European time zones. We’ll use notation of a pre-composed taqsim in maqam huzzam. Some of the structures and melodies in the taqsim of this video will be presented. Enroll here: https://learn.oudforguitarists.com/product/huzzam-taqasim-workshop-reg/ Here’s a taste of some of the melodies and modulations we’ll learn in this workshop.

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New Oud Reviews Coming Soon – Buy Oud Instrument

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buy oud instrument

Buy Oud Instrument Are you looking for a new Oud?  I’m going to be reviewing a few new Ouds in the next few months. It will be an educational experience for all of us.  I’m going to review and demonstrate these Ouds: Sultan Instruments Sultan Plus by Yildirim Palabiyik ($1250 USD)Ethnic Musical’s PRO Arabic series ($799 USD)Ethnic Musical’s Concert Arabic Oud series by Feramis Usta ($1359 USD) On top of…

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Taqasim: Avoid playing the same thing again and again.

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oud taqsim

This is a question I get regularly, and it’s one that me and everyone go through from time to time. I would recommend practicing creating simple phrases, and trying different ways of saying the same thing. Different stroke pattern, different number of notes, or stop on a different note, make a daily habit out of practising and taking some risks. Play something that doesn’t make sense. See what you can…

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Intonation, Compositional Intention, and Aesthetic in Shared Ottoman & Arabic Repertoire

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maqam rast

A fascinating phenomenon in middle eastern music is that we have in Arabic and Turkish repertoire some shared repertoire that originate from the Ottoman school of music that permeated their way into Arabic music. However, these pieces are generally performed in such a way as to demonstrate a unique aesthetic. An important distinction between Turkish and Arabic renditions of the same composition are in the intonation of microtones employed in…

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Oud Lessons on Zoom: my curriculum

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rast

Everybody is different when they come to me wanting to take Oud lessons. Some have never played a musical instrument in their whole life. Others have played music their whole life and can play Oud quite well. So what do you learn when you take Oud lessons from me? Do you want to learn Persian, Arabic, or Turkish Oud style? Oud lessons – The basics: The basics of Oud playing…

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Everything we know about Maqam is wrong

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Music of the Ottoman Court

Maqam is a word that brings up ideas in our head immediately. Over the last century or more we have generally discussed maqams in terms of scales, intervals, jins/ajnas (trichords, tetrachords, and pentachords), sayir/seyir (melodic pathway/movement). But did you know that there was a time that nobody in the middle east discussed music with the word “maqam”. This word was not a musical term until the 15h century. So where…

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Collection of Muwashahat

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min kunuzina

One of the primary sources and collections for traditional Arabic muwashahat, Min Kunuzina “Our Treasures”, can be downloaded here. It’s a great source if you want to get into learning Arabic muwashahat. The poetry and melody is very old. Sometimes the poetry and the melody are authored by unknown individuals. You also find some instrumental Samai written by Ottoman composers. Even better if you can read Arabic, then you search…

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