September 2011
1 post
4 tags
August 2011
2 posts
Youtube Gems →
This guy blows me away. I hadn’t heard of him until I found this but I watch this video now at least once a week. Impeccable tremolo!
10 tags
Youtube Gems →
This is rare and a really funky almost free jazzy jam from the 60s featuring the great Udi Hrant, Tassos Halkias, and Emin Gunduz. Makes me think of some of the stuff Alice Coltrane and Yusuf Lateef were doing around the same time.
July 2011
3 posts
7 tags
If You're Serious, Practice
The title of this post is taken from Ethan Iverson’s DTM blog. It’s a statement that haunts me. I had a teacher tell me once that if you practice one day and don’t practice the next, then the second day cancels the first. This can be a very depressing axiom to live by. If I do the math correctly that means I’m probably going backwards to a point in time before I ever...
4 tags
Incredible →
11 tags
Transcription #1
Samai Nahawand
‘ahlan wa sahlan!
That’s the extent of my Arabic. It means “hello and welcome.” I’ve got a book now and I’m working on it. Little by little.
So here’s my first transcription. It is a Sama’i in the Nahawand maqam composed by UCLA professor Jihad Ali Racy. It took me a while to finish but here it is. The piece is pretty easy for a...
May 2011
2 posts
1 tag
The Beginning
This is an oud blog. What is an oud blog you might ask? I’m not sure. It’s an attempt to document my progress as a beginning oudist. It’s a way to share with other oud enthusiasts. It’s a way to hopefully stay inspired and explore some of the ideas I have for playing this beautiful instrument.
What is an oud?
It’s this:
It originated in ancient Mesopotamia and...