Re: Electric Ouds

["Dennis Moser" <sinsofmachaut@gmail.com>]

RIck,

Hamza has been the introduction to the oud for a number of us, apparently. I met him when he came to UT/Austin, first for a concert and later as part of a semester-long music seminar. Al-oud was a natural, as I was already playing lute (yes, one with TIED frets) but it was his use of the tar that opened my eyes ...

And don't feel badly, I couldn't tell whether Lindley's oud was fretted or not from that YT video ... (I doubt that it was fretted ... Lindley seems to forthright to do something like that ... not to be pedantic, but I agree: it ain't an oud with frets ... that's called a lute!)

Best,

Dennis

On Thu, Sep 25, 2008 at 7:18 PM, Rick Walker <looppool@cruzio.com> wrote:

Regarding the wonderful clip of David Lyndley playing
his electric oud on youtube:

Does his version have actual frets or just fret markings?

If it has frets,    it's not technically an oud.

This is not to say that it's illegitimate but
the way the original Oud is played and the ultimate
sound of the instrument have everything to do
with it's being fretless.

Of course, of the 44 basic Arabic Maqams,  over half of them
use quarter tones and quarter tone embellishements which
can only be played in the fretless mode.

I'm no expert on Ouds,  but I play one on T.V.

Rick

ps  by the way,  I don't know if people have mentioned it about this amazing
instrument, but it is the UR instrument that eventually became
the Lute, the Guitar, the Balalaika,  the Pipa and the Biwa.

For simple deep and heartfelt playing,  please check out my
first  teacher, Hamza El Din's record on Nonesuch,  Escalay, the Water Wheel

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