The missing post

This post was supposed to have appeared in May but, for some reason, didn't.

 


For a few years I’ve been playing the oud. If you don’t know it, it’s the grandmother of the guitar and mother of the lute. Lots of strings, no frets and a long history.

I’ve been interested, as an observer, of Arab music for a long time. I had friends who were into ‘world music’ (let’s not go there) and eventually I started discovering and listening to my own choices. I liked the rhythms, the sounds, the voices and form of the tunes. One day though, I heard music by Anouar Brahem, an oud player and composer from Tunisia. His cross-genre work inspired me to take up the instrument. I didn’t want to play traditional arab music because that didn’t feel right, so I used the oud purely as an instrument in its own right. I made an album with an acoustic guitarist that has had some very positive feedback and I could pick up the oud at night and improvise, just for fun.

But, even though, I didn’t want to play tradition repertoire, I felt something was missing. It seemed silly to have such a beautiful instrument and to not be able to play at least something approximating the music that I loved. It felt like the music wanted to be played (I imagine the music was probably hoping for someone better to play it, but there you go).

So, I investigated Arabic scales and dove in. Immediately it became apparent that these were modes and ideas that could be integrated into something non-traditional, because that was what I was hearing. So, cultural appropriation was avoided again.

As well as the oud, I’ve now started learning to play the darbuka, a North African Drum (to simplify its history) just as a way to improve my sense of rhythm and timing. I could do that on the bass but having a new instrument is always inspiring. The bonus is I can be even louder and annoying when playing music.

 

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