May is Maqam Month. Let’s dedicate ourselves to learning maqams (maqamat). I’m posting a YouTube short everyday until the end of May to introduce a different maqam to you. I’ll also give an important nugget that will give you a new edge on each maqam. Click here to subscribe to my YouTube channel so you get notified when a new video has been published. Check out the playlist below: Want…
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Intonation, Compositional Intention, and Aesthetic in Shared Ottoman & Arabic Repertoire
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…
Read MoreOud Lessons on Zoom: my curriculum
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…
Read More3 things you’re doing to sabotage your 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…
Read MoreThe difference between Arabic and Turkish microtones.
As a Persian musician, I was always fascinated when I first heard the difference between Arabic and Turkish microtones because I could hear that something was very similar to Persian music, but also very different. Some of the differences I was hearing were so subtle; it was marvelous, and a little bewildering. It took me many years to reconcile, understand, and apply the difference between Arabic and Turkish microtones to…
Read MoreLearn 3 essential modulations (and you only have to learn 1 song)
You can learn 3 essential modulations in Arabic music from only 1 easy Oud song. The song “Ya Mal Al-Sham” is a well-known song throughout the Arab world. I chose this song to go into my new course “Easy Oud Songs” because the melodic phrases are short and easy to comprehend. What makes this song extra powerful is that it features 3 modulations. The main part of this song is…
Read MoreThere are many ways to learn a maqam…
Learn a maqam. Here’s how… Alright, I’ve been going on about this free Ear Training session for a while now, and I’m sure you’re getting tired of it. But seriously, get all the details here and mark your calendar so you don’t miss it. I also promised yesterday I would discuss many ways to learn a maqam, to learn music, to learn how to improvise in the framework of a maqam. Okay,…
Read MoreWhat is 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…
Read MoreNavid’s Top 5 Recommended Egyptian Songs
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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