Like any other acoustic instrument, the oud needs to be in tune at all times during performance or practice. The question is how best to tune it.
If you are looking for the best tuning to use, refer to this essay which compares different tunings. You can choose the one that suits your needs best. This post applies to all tunings.
Disclaimer: Do not take this article to say that I am a day older than twenty five.
Having gotten the vanity part out of the way:
This is a question that often comes up. How to transcribe Arabic music in Western notation.
The first step is to discuss the symbols for quarter tones. Notice that the term “quarter tones” is an abstraction that refers to notes that divide the western half step. In Arabic music, the half step is not the same as the western equal tempered half step, and the quarter tones are not equal divisions of the half step. It is an abstraction, and the the exact intonation depends on the maqam in which they appear. At any rate, here are the symbols for flats with a representation of their relative intonation: Read the rest…
If I could start my life over I would play two instruments not one. I would practice 10 hours a day, five in the morning on the cello, and five in the evening on the oud.
I might consider viola instead of cello..
Fusion music, whether improvised or composed should sound different enough from the original idioms that go into making it to the point where it can not be considered to be within any of the idioms. At the same time, it has to have discernible characteristics of all of the original idioms that it can be heard as fusion of those idioms.
In part 2 we saw how preconceptions about the music of the other triggered a series of decisions that eventually affected the sonic result of the fusion. Some of those decisions were sound. Others could have been better. In this post, I will try examine prior knowledge a little further and start the discussion of other decisions that need to precede a successful collaboration.
In part 1 we defined fusion as the creation of new music by combining elements from different idioms. In this post we discuss some of the decisions a musician makes before a “jam” with a musician from a different idiom and how that affects the sonic result of the jam.
It is not unusual for musicians from different idioms to get together and play. The result, sometimes, is something fresh, human, beautiful, and creative. Most of the time, however, the result is boring, cold, superficial, and disjointed.
In my view, a series of decisions, mostly not musical, taken by each person early on, in the first seconds of the meeting or even before it, determine the outcome. The question is, how do we make fusion that works?
This post discusses compositions that have sections that are partially improvised, as well as the improvisation that takes place while playing a composed melody line (aka ornamentation, interpretation, styling, etc..). Both instrumental and vocal forms will be discussed.
Now that we are clear on the politics of the term “improvisation” (see part 1), we can talk about where and how improvisation is used in Arabic music.
Improvisation is present in three types of musical activities. The first is forms that are entirely improvised. The second is partially improvised forms and rhythmic improvisations inserted within a composed piece. Finally, there are the ornaments that a player introduces while playing a composed musical line. Read the rest…