Oud tuning

Musical instruments
1

ΙC XC NI KA

Hello and greetings to everyone!

I recently bought a student oud, with the aim of learning traditional songs from Asia Minor and perhaps some island songs, old rebetiko, or even some folk songs (I want to have such an expanded repertoire because of my involvement in shadow theatre). As soon as I received the instrument, I took it to a musician/luthier in my neighbourhood to have it tuned (having had some bad previous experiences trying to tune instruments myself). He found that the instrument’s strings were only suitable for Syrian tuning, so I asked him to change the strings so that he could tune it to Arabic tuning, which is also what the method by Vasilis Kasouras recommends—the method I have found most helpful so far, while I look for a teacher, as far as the theory is concerned. The craftsman therefore changed some of the strings and tuned them to Arabic tuning, but not the standard Arabic tuning given in the aforementioned method, D E A D G C. Instead, he used C G D A F C, which, according to what he told me and what I have found online, is a beginner’s tuning for the instrument. While searching online and in other books, I found many different tunings being called standard Arabic tuning, while one source even said that Turkish tuning is better for traditional songs. As you can imagine, I became rather confused, especially as someone relatively new to music, so I would like to ask for the help of anyone here who is knowledgeable about the subject and answer the following questions:

ա) What is ultimately the standard Arabic tuning for the oud?

b) What is the best tuning for traditional songs?

c) Do I need to change the strings on the instrument in order to change its tuning?

d) Can I start learning with the beginner’s tuning (C G D A F C) that the craftsman put on it? Will I have any difficulty reading sheet music?

Thank you in advance, and apologies for the great length of my post.

2

I don’t play the oud, but I’ve been left with the impression that the standard “Greek” tuning is the Turkish one.

It seems odd to me to start with one tuning and then, once you’ve learnt it reasonably well, change it and have to learn all over again!

Do you already play another instrument? With one tuning or several? If you’ve experienced it, you’ll know that a new tuning = an almost new instrument, except in cases where only the strings that are played open are retuned. But on the oud, all the strings are used melodically…

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3

If they’re à la turca scores (with scale degrees noted rather than keys), no.

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4

I initially thought so too, but almost everything I read in books and online recommended Arabic tuning. However, since I can’t ultimately find out which one it is, I suppose I’ll probably make do with the tuning the luthier set up for me, just so I can familiarise myself with the instrument on my own. Then, when I start lessons with a teacher, God willing, they’ll tell me which tuning to use, and at most, if they tell me to use a different tuning, I’ll simply do the introductory exercises again.

I already play the four-course bouzouki, which is why it seemed strange to me too, but I thought—ultimately, probably mistakenly—that perhaps the oud is different from the bouzouki in this regard because it is fretless, or perhaps for some other reason.

5

All right, thank you very much!

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6

What are a-laturka scores, then? Would it be easy to provide a link to an example, or upload an example? It should be noted that Byzantine musical notation also proceeds by degrees, not by keys.

7

Like the European ones, but also with Ottoman alterations (which we mostly ignore for equal-tempered instruments), and with the indicated notes referring to scale degrees—by convention, “the C below” = Rast or “the G within” = Rast—and I think there are one or two other preferences for where Rast should be written. Once we define where Rast is written, the score works equally well in any key.

8

But European notation indicates absolute pitches, not scale degrees.

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9

We are talking about Rauf Yekta’s notation, where rast = sol, dügâh = la, etc.; therefore, based on the staff, it results in a hybrid system that indicates degrees.

That is not to say, of course, that it is fully accepted by Turkish musicians.

Gill-Gürtan cites musicians who disagree with the use of notation, including one who says that “real music begins when the scores are closed”.

Gill-Gürtan, Denise. 2011. “Performing Meşk, Narrating History: Legacies of Transmission in Contemporary Turkish Musical Practices”. Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa And The Middle East 31 (3): 615-630. doi:10.1215/1089201x-1426773.

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10

So the complete answer is:

If, with the first tuning you learn, you get used to reading the score—meaning you see C, but what you play is not necessarily C in absolute pitch, but simply whatever Rast scale degree it represents—then you won’t have a problem with other tunings either, even if they potentially transpose the modes to different starting pitches.

The original (European) logic of the five-line staff is: I see C, I play C, wherever I have it on the instrument according to the particular tuning.

Maqam-style notation, if it starts with the convention “C = Rast” (because, as we said, it could also be G = Rast, etc.), assumes that whichever note on the instrument you use as the basis of Rast, you will call C, and name the others accordingly. After that, you will once again see C and play C. And when speaking, if you discuss with your fellow player, “At that bit with the C–D–C, or whatever it is, what do you put next?”, C will again mean the scale degree, not the note at the absolute pitch C.

Of course, if there’s, say, a guitarist in the same group who, even without sheet music, knows how to name their notes and chords based on absolute pitches, verbal communication can be somewhat difficult (so the solution is: fewer words, more music. Don’t say it—play it).

Also, if you work out the piece from bouzouki sheet music, where everything is written from D—or, whatever, all from the actual key of a reference recording—you’ll have to do the mental transposition yourself.

But none of this is actually as difficult in practice as it is to describe, and, most importantly, none of it is affected by changes of tuning.

In any case, nobody plays from sheet music. Sheet music (for those who use it) is for working out a piece if you can’t figure it out by ear, or if there isn’t a recording at all, or if it has too many passages and is not easy to memorise, etc. It’s a memory aid during preparation. So you can apply this too:

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11

Thank you very much! You’ve cleared everything up for me!

Personally, given my current level of musical ability, scores (and tablature) help me quite a lot, as I haven’t yet developed a good enough ear.

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12

I play the same kinds of music on the oud. I have a Turkish oud, but it’s tuned in an Arabic tuning—or rather, one of the Arabic tunings. I use Turkish strings, but tune them down to D G A D G C. However, my teacher makes strings.

You can use the Turkish equivalent of the same tuning: E A B E A D. If you sing, it helps to choose the tuning that best suits your voice.