Remember this video? We are going to keep moving toward playing in this manner, just like Hamza Al Din.
In order to do this, we’ll have to learn how to play a tremolo drone. Check out the video below to learn how to do it!
Tremolo Drone
Difficulty: moderate
What?
A tremolo drone is adding a tremolo as a drone behind another melody, usually a simple melody. Hamza Al Din is doing it in the video above.
Why?
It really shows the beauty of the Oud. It can fill in the gap and revitalize an otherwise simple melody.
How?
The tremolo is a simple concept. But adding it to melody is kind of tricky. You must consider the melody as part of the tremolo, the first down stroke of the tremolo. The tremolo is usually played on a single note throughout, often the tonic or root of the maqam or scale, or the 4th or 5th note of the maqam. But the melody is played on different notes. So these melody notes serve as the first stroke of the tremolo.
What Next?
Next week you will learn how to combine the tremolo drone technique with the down down up pattern to play a small riff from Hamza Al Din’s video at the top of the page. It will really go a long way to improving your technicality on the Oud.
So stay tuned and subscribe below so you can see it as soon as it is released!
