Regardless of their background, Khan sahib took his students seriously and required that they take themselves, music, and the labor of music (practicing, what else) seriously.

During my short time at the Ali Akbar College years ago, I also got to experience the genius of Khan sahib. His instrumental classes consisted much of the time of him composing on the spot, singing the composition to the students in Sargam or playing it on the Sarod, and explaining the theoretical issues that the piece touched on. The students would play back the compositions to him. In the singing classes I have seen him repeatedly pickup an old poetry book, choose a poem, and by the end of the class he will have composed a masterpiece which we will have all learned.

I have also seen the devotion of his students to the music and their great love and respect for Khansahib.

I am deeply grateful for the honor of having attended his classes, if only briefly, and deeply saddened for Khansahib’s passing.

There are many possible reasons. In this post I will list the reasons that I have encountered in the past, and try to give enough information to help you identify why your oud is buzzing.

Fixing the problem is a different story. Some repairs are fairly easy and require no special tools or experience. Others, especially the ones related to the fingerboard, require expertise and/or special tools and, therefore, might require the attention of an instrument repair person. I will try to give enough information for you to make an informed decision about whether you should attempt to do the repair or whether you should hire a repair person to do it.

1- String Buzz

There are several different ways in which strings cause a buzz. These should be eliminated before any further attempts to diagnose and repair the buzz. Common reasons for strings buzzing include

• String excess on the bridge. Once a string is installed, and if there is excess string sticking out on the bridge side, especially if that excess string is touching the face), buzz may occur. Clip the excess string. Tools required, scissors. Expertise required: Ability to operate scissors safely.
• String excess on peg. This buzz is often faint, and comes from the peg box. Repaired by clipping the excess string.
• Wrong string used. Make sure you’re using the correct string for each pitch.
• Defective strings. In this case, another common symptom is that fingered pitches are not in unison even if they are in unison when they’re open.

2- Fingerboard buzz

Possible reasons for a fingerboard buzz are

• If the fingerboard has grooves, cracks, bumps, or other surface imperfections, buzz could occur when you finger the string on or just before (pitch just below) the surface imperfection. Unless you know what you’re doing, and have the right tools, I would give this repair to a oud, violin, or guitar repair person. All of them should have the tools and expertise to fix this one.
• Oil and grime on fingerboard. Once cleaned using rubbing alcohol with and a soft cotton cloth, the buzz disappear.  Do not use harsh chemical cleaners. You should also get in the habit of wiping the fingerboard and strings with a soft cotton cloth after playing. Also important: make sure your hands (at least your left hand) are clean before playing.
• Fingerboard has just been installed and it wasn’t shaped properly (it’s thickness or angle are not good). Take it back to the person who installed it. Better still, take it to someone else who could do a better job.
• Tuning the strings far lower than the oud was designed for (a major second or minor third). For example, a Turkish oud tuned to the very old oud tuning of B, G flat, D flat, A flat etc.. Most Turkish ouds can withstand current Arabic tuning (CGDAFC), but not lower than that. To fix this problem, you usually have to tune the oud higher, unless you want to make major changes to the oud (plain fingerboard, change the nut, redo the bridge, or any combination of the two).
• Fingerboard coming loose and needs to be glued again. Unless you know what you’re doing, and have the right tools I would give this repair to a oud, violin, or guitar repair person. All of them should have the tools and expertise to fix this one.
• If you’ve just installed a new nut, the nut could be too low. This buzz occurs on open strings and disappears when you finger the strings.

3- Buzz originating inside the bowl

Possible reasons

• Dirt inside the bowl. To fix this, get the dirt out, by carefully holding the oud in the air, face down, and trying to get the dirt to come out through the openings in the rosette. Do not use vacuum cleaners, do not drop the oud or shake vigorously.
• Loose braces (studs). This one requires opening taking the rosette out, locating the loose brace and gluing it. You should give this repair to a oud repair person unless you know how to take the rosette out, how work on the inside of the face of the oud without removing it, and how to locate and glue the loose studs.
• Cracks, rib separation, or separation at the seams. Expertise required for this one as well.

4- Ornaments, rosette, and pickguard

These are fairly easy to fix. Here’s what you need to look for.

• Loose ornaments on the face or the peg tips. These are fairly easy to repair. Make sure to use hide glue. Make sure not to use too much glue. Make sure not to use too much weight to fasten the ornament while the glue is drying. Make sure to wipe off excess glue before fastening.
• Loose rosette. This one is fairly easy to fix too. Make sure to use hide glue. Make sure not to use too much glue. Make sure not to use too much weight to fasten the ornament while the glue is drying. Make sure to wipe off excess glue before fastening.
• Loose pickguard. Another easy one. Make sure to use hide glue. Make sure not to use too much glue. Make sure not to use too much weight to fasten the ornament while the glue is drying. Make sure to wipe off excess glue before fastening.

5- Badly fitted Pegs

Visual inspection should reveal when a peg is loose on one side and it’s shape is not complimentary to the shapes of the peg holes. One possibility is that when you restrung the oud, you used a peg that was in different holes. Make sure every peg goes back to where they were. If that doesn’t solve the problem you need to reream the holes and reshave the peg. This can be problematic in that you may make the peg holes too big, and it also requires sharp tools (reamer and shaver). Unless you’re good with these things, give this job to a violin or oud repairer.

6- Bridge coming loose

Before the peg separates, the stress on it from the tightened strings pulls it toward the nut. As a result, the action gets lower (the strings become closer to the fingerboard) and buzzing may occur. When that happens, loosen all strings (to eliminate pull on the bridge) and take the oud to a oud repair person. This repair, although it may seem simple, can be very problematic. Either the bridge has to be reglued, or it has to be removed completely, cleaned up and then reseated and glued. Both require expertise, and tools to fasten the bridge as the glue dries. You could damage the oud if you do it wrong, or (at best) you will not fix the problem.

That’s all I have encountered over the years. If you have encountered other reasons, please share them with us.

Hector, a master wood carver, had all the expertise, tools, and even wood, that I could have dreamt of. Quickly I did some calculations and took some measurements, and gave him the exact specifications of the fingerboard that allows for maximum playability and beauty. He took it from there, he cut the perfect ebony fingerboard, and carved the bottom of it so that it will fit snugly over the imperfections of the warping face. I went home and glued it without a problem, and within twenty four hours I had the fingerboard. The action was exactly as I had invisioned it: under an eighth of an inch at the fifth.

Hector also introduced me to another master craftsman, Giorgio di Costanzo, an expert on antique restoration and wood finishing. I was looking for an approach to do the final cleanup of the face, using materials that would clean the face and then evaporate leaving no trace. Giorgio, immediately identified the different materials that are needed to clean the oils, epoxy, and dirt that had become embedded in the wood.

The result?

Judge for your self:

In the third track (maqam bayyati) of Shaheen and Racy’s “Taqasim”, this is accomplished.

I got this CD almost 15 years ago. Since then, I have listened to it more than any other. We are blessed that we live in a time when recording is possible. When we read accounts of the beauty of someone’s music, we can try to imagine. But how can one imagine music that is unimaginably powerful.

In Taqasim, especially in the third, 7 minutes (and 5000 years) long track, a lot is packed. Simon’s, melodies, tone, and technique, even after 15 years of listening (and knowing the thing by heart), continue to be exciting. New details emerging with each listening. As if the performers secretly rerecord it anew every week or so.

So what makes it work so well? I have repeatedly dwelt on that. Over the years the answers change.

At first, I thought it was technique (isn’t that all we think about when we’re young?). Then it was the melodies. Then it was the recording quality and clarity combined with melodies and technique.

As, despite our best efforts to the contrary, we mature, our ears do too.

It is now clear to me, that he who wants to master the sounds, must also master the silences between them. The music of “Taqasim” stays alive and relevant, because the performers breathed their life into it. The variations in dynamics, pulse, pick technique are at times subtle and at others startling, but they are always natural. The melodies are at times lyrical and at others anxious, and pained. But they are always immediate.

Instrumental music is music where the listener gets to fill in the lyrics, silently, and then revise and re-revise. Millennia can thus be distilled into minutes, and countless stories find home in a jewel case.

Here’s a picture to remind you.

OK here’s how it looks now

The epoxy glue was removed with rubbing alcohol, but mostly working with a needle and a magnifying glass. There is some discoloration left, which I hope, will go away with time. The pickguard is veneer.

Notice the rosette is not back on yet because I am going to extend the fingerboard (yes, covering the decoration) so I can play the high C and D. It is far too difficult to play them without the fingerboard going that high. I will need access inside the oud to put on the extension.
Here’s a closeup of the figerboard:

And here’s a closeup of Mr. Nahhat’s photo shining through the opening:

And finally here’s the back decoration. I didn’t do anything beyond cleaning the back:

The main challenge in playing the oud, is that it is a little shorter than my good old Kamil Moueiss workhorse. The bridge is lower too, which means the strings are closer to the face. This hasn’t been a problem for picking. The string tension difference is the main challenge. Sounds will come soon.

I put the oud together, strung it, worked on the pegs. Played it. The tone is beautiful.. It is well rounded, clear, a bit dark, a bit frothy, just the way I like a oud to sound.

The bridge, as with my other Georgy Hanna Nahat is a little low. I was advised to make it higher to make the fingerboard work easier. I didn’t do that because that is certain to change the tone. I could have chosen a thinner pick guard wood which would have given me more play. But it’s on now, and I am not going to touch it. I will make minor adjustments to the way I play, if necessary.

There is a buzz on several notes. I am working with the plain making microscopic adjustments to the fingerboard. Also making final adjustments of the nut groove height. I left that to the end so that I can account for string thickness when I do that.

Speaking of thickness, hide glue has a thickness, I have learned. I should have taken that into account when figuring out the fingerboard height, and I would have avoided having to deal with the buzzing after gluing the fingerboard. For example I could have put a few sheets of paper underneath the fingerboard when I tested it to make up for the eventual height of the hide glue. The action is about a 32nd of an inch lower than I had planned. I guess I’ll have to give that up to get rid of the buzz. Which will take us back to the original action I intended of three 32nds at the fifth.

You live and you learn, I guess.

Already, I am clear on the fact that this is the last oud I ever want to play.

The new nut is already attached. It’s made of bone.

The fingerboard is ready to be attached. I ended up doing a little more plaining and smoothing in order to be able to lay the new fingerboard on top of the old one. I had originally intended to remove the old one, but decided against it because I was afraid of causing damage since the old fingerboard is attached so solidly, and I am not exactly an expert. The new ebony fingerboard is smooth as glass. I might need to do some more plaining if it buzzes. Extra careful measurements and calculations has resulted in a deliciously low action. But I will know for sure once I glue the fingerboard whether I can keep the low action or I might have to sacrifice some of it to prevent buzzing.

Here is a sad bummer. In order to preserve two pieces of decoration from being covered by the fingerboard, I ended up making the fingerboard go up to a high B flat, instead of D as I had originally planned. If I find that high C and D are hard to play in this set up, I will make an extension for the fingerboard that will go all the way to the high D.

The face is much improved, all the cracks fixed, all the loose braces reattached, epoxy all off the face (that alone took dozens of hours, as I tried to work on one molecule of epoxy glue at a time to spare the face any further abuse). There are still problems. They don’t affect the sound, but they don’t look extremely beautiful. There is slight discoloration where the epoxy was used. There are residues of the original pick-guard because the monster who “improved” the oud (I wish he or she or it would email and explain) was as careful removing the original pick-guard as he/she/it was putting the new (linoleum) pick-guard and additional linoleum decorative touches (aren’t those supposed to be only used for flooring?). More annoyingly I could only improve the buckling at the bottom of the face slightly. I plan to revisit that someday, but not any time soon.

Here is a good piece of news. As I am still working on the CD (those things take so much longer than planned) I might be able to record a piece or two with the restored Nahat.

Pictures? Sounds? Next week.

By the way. I didn’t count prepositions, “or” or “and” and neither should you.

MUSIC THEORY TERMS

• Arabic Maqam: Tonalmode consisting of one or more scales and rules governing melodic progression and cadences
• Maqamat: Plural of Maqam
• Jins: A set of consecutive scale degrees notes, the building block of Maqamat
• Qarar: A note an octave lower than a given pitch
• Jawab: A note an octave higher than a given pitch
• Arabic Iqa’a: Rhythmic mode consisting of meter and a specific pattern of low and high pitched strokes
• Iqa’at: Plural of Iqa’ a
• Quarter Tones: Microtonalities resulting from dividing the whole step into several microsteps (compared to two semitones in western music)
  
• Ornaments: Adding notes, expressions, articulations, and/or modifying rhythms in a melody line, and/or during rests
• Embellishments: Typically in a percussion instrument context, playing an iqa’a with additional strokes than the basic pattern, to add spice

ARABIC MUSICAL FORMS

• Taqsim: Non-metric instrumental modal improvisation emphasizing modulation and lyrical melodic lines
• Samai: An A R B R C R D R musical form. All movements but D are in Samai Thaqil Rhythm
• Samai Thaqil: A 10 beat rhythmic pattern in 3, 2, 2, 3 subdivision, used frequently in classical Arabic music
• Mawwal: A pre-composed poem set to an improvised melody, musically a similar concept to taqasim
• Mawawil: Plural of Mawwal

OUD SPECIFIC TERMS

• Risha (aka risheh): Pick used to pluck oud strings. Historically made of feather or animal shell or bone, now mostly plastic
• Awtar: Plural of watar
• Watar: String, and/or double unison-tuned course. Oud has six Awtar
• Rash (oud): Tremolo, rapid bi-directional risha strokes
• Qars (pinching): Left hand pizzicato, plucking the strings with left hand fingers
• ‘Aqf: Qars

Notice that the oud had been “improved” by a gorilla, replacing the original Nahat pick-guard with a linoleum pick-guard glued on the face using epoxy glue. The oud abuser also added another piece of linoleum on corner of the face, probably didn’t want to throw away an extra piece of linoleum they had remaining.

I set out to restore the Nahhat, not only cosmetically, but also with the intention of making it perfectly playable. I showed it to a great oud maker and restorer, Najib Shaheen. He commented that the oud requires a lot of work, including the heavily time consuming and intricate work of carving out pieces of wood the size of salt grains, to fix the missing decorative mosaic pieces such as the missing pieces in the following picture:

The face needed major work as well, as it was cracking in several places and buckling in others. The face would possibly have needed to be removed to fix those. The bowl had separated from the face (soundboard, to be scientific) along a several inch long crack.

Making the oud playable, would require a new fingerboard to have a reasonable action. That would require major work on the neck, removing the old fingerboard, making sure the neck is still solidly attached to the oud after fifty some years. If not, then even more structural work will be required. In short, the oud was in a very sorry state. Najib’s schedule was very busy, and the amount of work needed was enormous (and thus very costly).

So I decided to restore the oud myself. Now I should probably disclose a few factors about my life that might be considered as obstacles by the uninitiated:

1. I have no trust fund from Bill Gates and, as far as I know, he’s not going to change his mind about that.
2. I am no carpenter and have certainly missed all the oud making classes offered in college
3. I have 8 extra hours everyday which traditionally I have used for sleep. I can sacrifice some of those but not many

To summarize, I don’t have the time, money or expertise necessary. But I am doing it anyway.

To start, I payed a visit to my friend George Peacock of Peacock music in San Francisco . From him I bought a little hide glue, veneer wood for the pick guard, and a slab of ebony for the fingerboard. He also told me I am crazy. He also gave me some advice such as I have to very careful, and do things very slowly. I am not necessarily very patient, but I am doing that. I also payed a visit to my local hardware store. Picked some tools and equipment for dealing with wood. Some of the stuff was expensive. But I am still within my budget.

Here’s what’s done so far.

1. Removed linoleum and epoxy residue from face
2. Carved and attached a pick guard
3. Improved face buckling (but not fixed it completely)
4. Cleaned grime, oil, and other organic material from face
5. Located and fixed some of the braces separated from the face. The others will be fixed after I attach the new fingerboard. Why, I don’t know but it seems like a good idea.

Now comes the task I have been dreading all along. THE FINGERBOARD.

So I am going to get off my desk, and get to work on the fingerboard. I have to do some measurements and calculations to do, and I also have to decide whether it would be better to remove the fingerboard or attach one on top of the existing one.

Studying, practicing, and listening are activities that bring tremendous benefits to us from the outside. In this essay I would like to explore factors from within and that are within our control at any given moment, that limit our performance abilities.

Here are a few questions that are valid at any stage in our development as musicians.

1. Are we, at any given moment, playing the best music we can play?
2. Are we using all the skills that we already have or just a small fraction of them?
3. If not, how can we at any given moment produce the best music we can produce?

Answering these questions is important not just for the obvious reason of making the best music we can make. It is important because it is the how we define and refine our style, voice, and musical identity. Otherwise, we maybe practicing forever, only to become great imitators. You see, even the greatest grand masters evolve. Not just early on in their career, but throughout their career.

Here is an experiment.

Record yourself playing a piece you play well.

Listen to the recording a few times. Can you think of any things you can improve? Anything bothers you about it? Have you heard any of the problems that your teacher pointed out? Can you think of ways to improve the piece that are within reach (in other words need only a limited amount of practice to perfect)?

Now work on those improvements and record again.

Listen again a few times and find even more improvements.

After a few rounds, a few observations may be made:

1. There is a lot that we hear when we listen to a recording that we don’t hear when we are actually playing.
2. A lot of the comments from the teacher are actually things we can hear ourselves. (Solutions to some problems may be good question to ask the teacher in the next lesson).
3. When we play, we hardly ever do our best. Things always improve after we record, listen, and fix problems.

Why does this happen? It is not because we can’t hear what we play when we play it (if you can hear a consistently out of tune note, or a clumsy transition in your recording, then you have the musicianship to hear it while you’re playing). It is because of the state that we are in when we play.

There are a few behavioral patterns that a lot of musicians fall into, even really good musicians, that undermine their creativity and ability to produce music that is organic and well balanced.

Essentially what is happening in our experiment is that we are observing how when we play we are not the same people we are when we listen: We are falling into a behavioral pattern that makes us not hear and/or react the same way as when we listen. We also don’t feel the same way.

Why? I guess everyone’s reasons are different but here are a few common themes.

1. Listening not to what we’re playing but to what we want the thing to sound like.
2. Listening only to specific details, usually the things which we don’t have but we’re trying to have in the piece, as opposed to the piece as music.
3. No listening at all, letting our mind drift to other things.
4. Compromising on some aspects until other aspects of the piece are OK. For example, students report that when they are working on a fast run, they don’t worry about the instrument being in tune until they have the run down. The compromises then become habits. Go quit a habit.

How can we change those patterns? I will try to attack this problem tomorrow.