New Oud Reviews Coming Soon – Buy Oud Instrument

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.

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

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

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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3 things you’re doing to sabotage your taqasim skills

taqasim skills

In the last post I told you a story about my “avant-garde genius” Oud playing skills.  Basically, my point was that everyone starts out playing a taqasim not knowing what the hell they are doing.  Not being able to play a taqasim is going to make you feel like a Oud beginner forever.  You’re going to yearn for those times where you can just grab your Oud and make beautiful…

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5 Egyptian Songs You Need to Play on Oud

Egyptian songs

A few weeks ago I shared some Egyptian songs, and we explored some of the “classic” composers and singers that are dear to Egyptians. We mentioned the likes of Umm Kulthum, Riad Al Sunbaty, and Mohamed Abdul Wahab, and Said Darwish. There was something missing from that post. Where was the Oud element to all that? How do you explore this music on Oud? The task is fairly difficult. For…

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Navid’s Top 5 Recommended Egyptian Songs

learn Egyptian Oud

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…

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Free Sheet Music: Middle Eastern, Arabic, Turkish, Greek, Armenian, and Persian

A lot of people are looking for sheet music to learn new pieces. Here is a list of some good sources for free downloadable sheet music. If you know of any other links or sources for Middle Eastern Sheet Music please let us know so we can share it with everyone online and encourage people to learn. Free Sheet Music Arabic Sheet Music MEMA This is my favorite site. Most…

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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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