Nod

[Mark M.]

Well, this is a bit of a departure for me. I have always had an interest in Arabic music, so I thought I’d try the oud. So far, I’m pleased with it. It’s well made and quite beautiful. Tuning it up to pitch was a bit of an adventure. The friction pegs need to be pushed in with some force while you’re tuning in order to keep them from slipping, and which pegs correspond with which strings was counterintuitive. I will need to spend some time just matching pitches and developing good intonation up and down the neck, then it’s on to learning some maqams and a few tradition songs. It should be a lot of fun. Any other oud players here?

[Woody Sound]

That is a beauty!

Now, how about one of these?

[Rob MacKillop]

Very nice!

Yes, I once played the oud, but in the Turkish classical style, which has a mere 53 notes in the octave I was given a Churchill Fellowship to study in Istanbul and Casablanca, but when I was in Morocco 9/11 happened, and things got a bit crazy, curtailing my studies. But in Istanbul I studied with Neçati Celik, one of the greatest players there, and he allowed me to watch the State Classical Orchestra every weekday as they prepared for their concerts. It was an overwhelming experience, to say the least. I felt very embarrassed in the lessons. Imagine having lessons with Joe Pass when all you could play is a C major chord.

But I did get an appreciation for the subtleties of oud playing, and the different styles and instrument traditions. It happened - as mentioned - in 2011, so a long time ago. Seems like a dream.

There must be a lot more help online than there was back then. Good luck with it all, and share your development here.

[Mark M.]

Thank you, Rob. Fascinating story!

[Skip Ellis]

When I was in the army in the 60s studying Arabic at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey,CA, one of the department instructors was a fairly accomplished oud player. He brought it to a department party at one point and I had a guitar at the time so we played together for awhile, then swapped instruments. I actually got on with it fairly well since I had about 10 years of violin in school so I was able to play it in tune pretty well. I've thought about getting one a couple times over the years but there was no way it would ever pay for itself so couldn't justify the expense. Cool instruments, though.