Have you ever imagined a world where there exists heavy metal middle eastern music?
Well, I have been entertaining the idea for a while and thought I would try it out. So I borrowed my friend’s Godin MultiOud last week and hooked it up with Ibanez Tube Screamer to see what would happen. I wrote a few licks of what I imagine heavy metal middle eastern music would sound like and made this video below.
Equipment Used in Video
Fishman Loudbox Mini Acoustic Amplifier
What I Think About This Experiment
I prefer the sound of the Oud by itself, but this was pretty fun to try out. I am using my fingers to play some power chords on the lower strings. You have to keep your left hand very straight and flat to play like this. When I move to the higher octave, I am playing a note and pulling-off the note to pluck the open string. I think this sounds really cool on the Oud and yet it is very easy to play. Are you interested in this technique? The tuning I use for this video is Arabic tuning, low string to high string, CFADgc.
I think there are some interesting possibilities for the use of the Electric Oud in Rock and Heavy Metal music, especially if you need or want to play microtones and quartertones. One thing I found that might be troublesome are the overtones created by the open strings of the Oud. On an acoustic or non-distorted instrument these overtones sound very good, but with distortion they sometimes clash. Nevertheless, I was very happy with the result.
What’s Next?
In the coming weeks I am going to write a full review of the MultiOud and explore the different natural sound profiles you can create with this instrument.
Is there anything specific that you would like me to write about in regards to the MultiOud? Use the comments section below to let me know, and I will answer any questions next week in the video and article.
