Oud Lessons on Zoom: my curriculum

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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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What is Ear Training?

ear training

As I mentioned the other day, I’ll be doing a free Ear Training session live on YouTube.  Ear Training sounds really boring doesn’t it?  What really is Ear Training? And why should you do it?  Let me put it this way…  Ear Training are essentially exercises that help you internalize and absorb the nuances of a maqam in a natural and innate way.  It’s like Monkey see… Monkey do…  Or…

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The Chraibi Slide

  Want to play like a pro? Then I’ve got just the technique for you. I call it, the Chraibi Slide. Check out the video below to learn how to do it!     The Chraibi Slide – Oud Technique   Difficulty: Advanced Prerequisites techniques: Trill, Tremolo, Slide. See the Foundation Program to learn how to play these core Oud techniques in-depth.  What? The Chraibi slide is a flourished slide…

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Advanced Hammer on Pull off Combinations

  Advanced Hammer-on Pull-off combinations are where your Oud playing will come to life. You will hear these nuances often in all kinds of traditional Middle Eastern music. Check out the video below to learn how to do it!     Advanced Hammer on Pull off Combinations Difficulty: Advanced   What? Advanced Hammer-on Pull-off combinations are where hammer-ons and pull-offs work together to create another unique nuance, or melodic phrase.…

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Pull-Offs – Oud Techniques

  As I promised, you’re going to learn how to do a pull-off on the Oud. It’s a great technique to learn and it goes hand in hand with Hammer-ons. I admit, it was very challenging to try and teach this technique. It’s so much easier to teach one on one, but when you have a larger audience and you’re not in-person, you always hope you are making sense. So…

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The Hammer On Oud Technique

  Another important Oud technique is called a hammer-on. It is an important guitar technique as well. I remember when I first learned how to play hammer-ons on the guitar, I thought it was such a cool technique. I spent all my high school years listening to Jimi Hendrix albums, and wanted to play music like him. His use of hammer-ons is extensive and advanced. Playing hammer-ons are easier on…

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The Muting Technique – Playing Short Staccato Notes

  You’re going to learn another important nuance that is found in all types of music. I call it the…   Muting Technique It allows you to cut off the note that you have played so you can play notes short and staccato. Watch the video below to see how it’s done!   Muting Technique – Basic Left Hand Oud Technique Difficulty: Easy   Why? The ability to mute the notes…

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Accented Tremolo – Basic Right Hand Oud Technique

  I am so happy to see that you are following the Oud technique series videos and articles. This one is about a basic and fundamental Oud technique called…   Accented Tremolo This is a technique that can be used in pretty much any situation. It is used Oud styles as it is fundamental to creating music on the Oud. Accented tremolo is also very important in Persian music. I…

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Bass Note Jumping – Melody Embellishment Oud Technique

  We are following up last week’s drone technique video with a technique that will help you embellish your melody and help you sound like a pro, I call it… Bass Note Jumping. This technique is widely used by professional Oud players and in theory is very easy, it just takes some practice to get the right intonation. I was actually specifically asked by someone to discuss this technique a…

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The Drone – Right Hand Oud Taqsim Technique

  After talking with the Oud for Guitarists community we realized that people often struggle with 2 things when learning or playing the Oud: 1. Maqamat and 2. Techniques! That’s why we created the Maqam Mastery Program, and now that it has been completed, we’ve decided to start making a video series demonstrating various techniques that can be used on the Oud. They may be right hand techniques, they may be…

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