Oud: An Introduction 

Wow thank you so much! I appreciate that!

Thanks man! Appreciate it!

Did you check with all native Arab players before making this statement?

​@@shortclips4267Yep, they did.

Thank you for the kind comment!

Glad you found your way here!

Very kind words :) Thank you very much!

Thanks a lot!

That was the problem for me too! Not a lot of people who play Oud in Sweden!

Filip Holm the closest big city for me is Chicago, but it is a 45 minute drive away. They have lessons in Chicago, but it would be to much of an inconvenience for my family.

Some day hopefully!

@@FilipHolm its worth it.

@@jordanianchristian8387 When there's a will, there's a way.

Thank you :)

Good

That's awesome that you're learning the Oud. It is a wonderful instrument. There aren't a lot of Oud players in Sweden, but I'm not totally alone! There are a few really wonderful musicians, which is a blessing of course, but I am mostly self-taught. You should also check out "Oud for Guitarists". He has some great lessons similar to this video on RU-vid and on his website.

@@FilipHolm Hi, there! Navid is actually one of the main reasons why I decided on getting my mutlioud and why I am now taking lessons in my area. He was very helpful. That is amazing that you are sell taugh! You are so knowlandable! Do you play shows out, pre-covid that is? Or is this just something you like to do at home? Thank you for responding, and thank you for this video!

@@minayuen4775 Great! Navid is fantastic. I did play a few shows here and there pre-covid. Never as a solo oudist though. Look forward to getting out there again soon!

I think it all depends on how widely we define the term

@@FilipHolm @FilipHolm Filip, I have to agree with you. I am sure that you know that there exists the strong temptation in academia, to string together disarticulated facts separated by periods of time. A reality found in various disciplines. I mentioned previously what "some" scholars believe, contrived from sparse artifactual evidence. I appreciate your general account of the histories of the lute and its predecessor the oud, as you refrained from taking gross liberties by not filling in the blanks of the unknown. A very well done video. Much appreciated. Cheers.

Thank you :)

Well, that is a huge oversimplification and does not represent all of the Islamic religion and its relationship with music.

Thank YOU!

where can i find the book of safi al din urmawi

Thank you!

Thanks! It was bought from Maurice Shehata in Egypt :)

@@FilipHolm Nice, it sounds amazing

If it is your first ever instrument, you'd always do good to find some kind of teacher. Otherwise, there are tutorials and helpful websites online. Don't know how active they are now, but the forums over on mikeouds.com are always very helpful.

Woooooooooow your playing is so AMAZING ♥️♥️

I'm glad you like it! Haha that's true! For me, closing the eyes helps with getting cleaner notes, using only my ears to play without looking at the fretboard. The shaking of the head, however.. I have no idea. I'm gonna say its a result of concentration and being "one with the music" :)

You're right! Thanks!

I really can't help but feel bad for your worldview, you intentionally ignore so much beauty/culture/history that is central to the world just out of spite and hate.

@@broximus4550 please prove one thing I said that isn't true. How can you invade a population and then take credit for their culture and inventions?

@@a.s2205 Your whole premise is wrong, who invaded, took inventions and from who they took it. You know not All Arabs are Muslims and not All Muslims are Arabs? Yet most of these inventions were invented and cuitures/Arts came about and thrived under Islamic/Arab Empires. So related to this video, the Maqams and jins are an Arabic Music Theory... The Idea that desert dwelling people from Arabia had such impact on Culture/literature/Art/Religion/Science that their influence/Civilization went from Indonesia to Spain...Is nothing short of Amazing and awesome feat.

@@broximus4550 lmao first of all, how is the premise untrue? Persia already had all these sciences, arts, architecture. Muslims lived in tents with no education, science. They drank camel urine as medicine and wiped their ass with 3 rocks. What are you talking about? How do you invade someone and take credit for what was already in that region? Makes no sense.

@@broximus4550 nothing about music theory is Arabic. It already existed in Mesopotamia, Greek and Persian empires. Arabs gave it an Arabic name so now it's Arabic. 🤣🤣 Arabs gave a name to barbat, now it's Arabic oud. You don't think it's pathetic?

I use a stand for this one. Or keep in in its case.

I have put out some taqsim music before!

@@FilipHolm damn i wasn't expecting a response to a comment on a 2 year old video. I posted the comment before i realized the channel is pretty active (RU-vid notifications being what they are) happy to see i got tons more of your content. I genuinely enjoy your vids AND music. you're one of those rare RU-vid gems that deserve way more exposure, keep up the good work :)

Thank you! I've always been listening to middle eastern music since I was a kid. And the Oud always stuck out to me.

Thanks! :) I will keep making music!

@@FilipHolm great to hear that!

Thank you so much!

Hello! Thank you! I am basically self-taught. This oud was made by Maurice Shehata in Egypt! He and his team make great Arabic Ouds at beginner-intermediate price-ranges (as well as "professional" ones when that becomes relevant).

@@FilipHolm thank you

Look up "Filip Holm" on Spotify. It isn't just dedicated to Oud, but there us an album called "Division", which is all Oud recordings

Yep! Mistake on my part!

Is that good?

@@FilipHolm I think it opens gates to deep perception and abundant wisdom as the soul traverses the ages. Not to be confused with re-incarnation though ☺...

It's more of a product of 20th century practice that created most of these differences. First of all, EVERY Maqam system from Morocco to Uzbekistan and even Uyghur maqam was damaged in some way and to varying degrees by contact with Western music. Maqam was always a language with many dialects and a product of cross cultural collaboration. Nothing exists in a bubble. With that said, in Egypt after the Arab Music Congress in the 30s, for various reasons, the tonal system was simplified to 24 tones as a convention (often not accurate to practice) and many of the maqamat also collapsed into a smaller number due to simplification of some aspects of theory like tonal centers, path, etc. But there were dissenters as well who stuck to older practice. The Tunisian and Aleppo system, for example, use the koma system similar to Turkish. Additionally, it's a bit of a red herring to assume that Turkish is somehow "purer" to Ottoman practice. In some of these places, like the Syrian or Iraq maqam, there are even sometimes ideas or Maqamat which were lost in Turkish practice. As for the Qanun, it didn't even have levers until basically the late Ottoman period anyway, and even still many advanced players use their nails/fingers to produce more accurate tones and effects. Anyway, this might be a good subject for a video sometime....

@@thedailymaqam the Arabic ney differs from the Turkish...just compare the placement of the holes! So, a physical difference of the instruments that is Measurable. Second, the Arabic qanun has less mandals than the Turkish kanun that has 10 or 11 per triplet of strings. Bottom Line>> the keyboards available have Arabic pitches but do not allow playing of Turkish pieces without Pitch Bend wheel tweaking. The tanbur that has 34 sounds in the first octave is not used by Arabs but has been used in Turkey. This instrument allows Byzantine music playing, wrote Rauf Yekta Bey in the 1800s in his article included in the Dictionaire du Conservatoire, Paris 1922. Is it believable that musical practice can change just because of the Congress in Cairo? Why isn't the tanbur seen in the Classical Music of the Arabs?

@@alexgabriel5423 the organology is not a really good indicator of theory my friend. Arabic and Ottoman maqam are from the same source. The theory prior to the 20th century was the same and they both used the Koma system (each semi tone is divided into 9 tones). And also, in the Ottoman conservatory there were even many Arabs teaching, composing, etc. (even documented by Cantemir) There's more to Arabic music than just Oum Kulthoum. Some Arabic speaking areas have preserved some aspects of Ottoman music better than in Turkey. For example, rekb makamı is considered a "lost" maqam in Turkey with no pieces on repertoire....but you will find the maqam in Aleppo. The same is true for some Iraqi maqamat like mukhalif etc. Arabic and Turkish nays are essentially the same, the only difference is the hole for the note segah on Turkish is slightly higher. Both Turkish and Arabic nay have six holes on the front and one thumb hole and are played by the same method. Even on Turkish you have to bend and half hole to get the correct intonation for some maqams. There are over 20 Arabic speaking countries so if you think it's all one giant amorphous cultural blob without any variation, then we have a racism problem and not a musicological one

@@thedailymaqam your comment is illogical. I m referring to.organology and Musical Practice. Byzantine music can be played accurately on the tanbur...although Byzantine music is mainly sung in the Greek church. Some secular repertoire survived and the Lavta/ Byzantine lute has also survived; it has a longer neck and has ligatures to mark the divisions. The ud players in Turkey use glissando to go through pitches that are not exactly marked...the spaces would be too many. It is interesting to know that there was an attempted suppression of Turkish music in Turkey, with brutality described by Orhan Gencebay, the famous saz player & film actor. In Greece there was a closing of recording opportunity for Rebetiko music, described by George Dalaras the famous singer in an interview on RU-vid. SO, suppression of non-western music. Turkish folk music, classical Ottoman music and Rebetiko music survived!

@@alexgabriel5423 ok by your logic Arabic music should have infinite tones because the theoretical instrument is the oud which has no frets or perdeler. Also, Rauf Yekta Bey was at the Congress and he also taught my teacher's teacher's father. They come from the same source. Let's consider some of the main sources on maqam... Isfahani's Kitab Al Musiqa al Kabir was composed in Aleppo. Al Farabi worked in Damascus after Baghdad. Interestingly, al Farabi himself had a tonal system which was microtonal but didn't agree with either of the modern standards.

The name of the Maqam Saba is not Sab'aa which means seven. "Saba" is an Arabic word which is difficult to translate, it signifies a kind or degree of love. The word is from the same root that gives Sabi (boy, youth) so it probably refers to passionate, intoxicating love (like you experience when you are young).

@@pokerface7840 ohh that makes sense. so it's the thicker S. That changes the whole meaning

@@TarekMidani Exactly

@@TarekMidani two letters are different, not just the thicker s. the apostrophe in sab'aa represents a ع.