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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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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Oud Maqam Learning Part 1: Maqam Learning Made Easy!

Okay, so you want to hear a melody, understand it and be able to play it authentically… But you find maqam music so hard to play, can’t recognize the maqams by ear, or remember them all…or all of the above? If so, check out this Oud Maqam Learning video series: Part 1: Maqam Learning Made Easy! (you are checking out this one) Part 2: The Ultimate Introduction to Maqam Music…

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Words of Wisdom – from World Famous Oud Masters

  It is every Oud learner’s dream to study with world famous professional Oud players. Yet many of us only get to see these Oud masters in person at their concerts if they ever come into our town, and getting personal advice and their secrets from them seems like another dream.   To help all Oud learners out there with similar urge to listen to renowned Oud masters’ words of…

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Maqam Hijaz Medley

  As I introduced in my article, Arabic Maqam Theory – A Brief Introduction, there are many maqams that are commonly used in the Middle Eastern music, and each maqam has smaller sections. Some maqams sound very similar because they share same notes. Same but different. This may have caused some of you to think, “Do I need to learn all these maqams before I can play the Oud?”  …

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Oud Lessons Re-Release Update!

  Thank you to those of you who have shown interest and support for our learning material and Oud lessons in the last few weeks. We hope the content of our website has been useful to you. We have been brainstorming ideas for new learning material for a long time, and we are excited to finally share these with you. As you may or may not know, Oud for Guitarists…

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