How does an Oud player go about learning more Egyptian music?
How about a little crash course in Egyptian music…
Well, this is the highly abridged, and terribly concise Egyptian music crash course.
For the simple reason that this is a huge subject…
But I’ve condensed all of Egyptian music to 5 tunes/songs that I believe can be your meze platter which I hope will entice you to learn more and go a little deeper.
So here it is:
Navid’s Top 5 Egyptian Songs /Tunes
(from the Golden Age of Arabic Music 1930’s – 60’s)
1. Longa Riad (AKA Longa Farafaza) – Riad Al Sunbaty (Composer, Oudist)
YouTube
Spotify
2. Zorouni – Sayed Darwish (Composer, Oudist, Vocalist)
YouTube
Spotify
3. Kol Da Kan Leah – Mohamed Abdel Wahab (Composer, Oudist, Vocalist)
YouTube
Spotify
4. Ahwak – Abdel Halim Hafez (Vocalist)
YouTube
Spotify
5. Enta Omri – Umm Kulthum (Vocalist) composed by M Abdel Wahab
YouTube
Spotify
These are not necessary my favourites. My favourite of all Egyptian songs is Zorouni, by Sayed Darwish. But I thought they give you a good well-rounded idea of what the music from this time period in Egypt was like. As you can see from the YouTube views, this music is still beloved by many.
How does an Oud player go about learning more Egyptian music?
Do you start by learning Samai? Not really… the Samai musical form is borrowed from Ottoman music.
Do you attempt to try and learn a whole Umm Kulthum music suite? NO WAY… that’s unrealistic.
What about learning the music of contemporary Egyptian artists like the award-winning Mustafa Said?
So how do you go about learning Egyptian music, especially for a budding Oud player such as yourself?
If you want to know the answer, click here.
