ALL ABOUT OUDS: This is David's custom flat-back oud by Viken Najarian. (probably Armenian-Turkish) He shows how thin the body is (around 2-3 inches) in another video where he is being interviewed. The name oud (or ud) basically means wood, and it traditionally has a very deep (like 12 inches!) bowl-teardrop-shaped back made of long, thin strips of wood and can often be built very ornately with inlays of different woods and mother-of-pearl. He says in the interview that this one also has a built in pre-amp which he likes very much and which is of course also not traditional. If you look beneath and to our left of his right hand you can see what looks like three built in sliders possibly for adjusting EQ and volume... The oud, as an instrument, is well over a thousand years old, and is later related to the European renaissance lute, (lute=l'ud, "the wood") which looks very similar to an oud until you examine them closely... It is thought that the smaller medieval and later the renaissance lute was adapted from the oud sometime during the Crusades, a first culture clash between east and west, when wandering "raconteur-troubadors" travelled all over the place from England to Africa, collecting and fusing all different styles of music and also instruments along their way. There are two different (but quite similar) versions of the oud popular today; the Arabic oud which is a bit larger and heavier, tuned lower, and the Turkish, which is smaller and tuned higher. Both typically have 11 strings arranged in 6 courses, with the low string being single and the rest being doubles, but not octaves like on a 12 string guitar. They frequently have beautiful ornately hand-carved 'roses' or 'rosettes' (often made of ivory or sometimes even lacquered parchment!) covering the sound holes, of which there are usually three. The rosettes add a bit of stiffness and reenforcement to the otherwise very lightly braced instruments; my personal theory is that they were also there to keep vermin out of the instrument! ;) They are also usually fitted with friction pegs, like a violin, but sometimes you can find examples with geared tuners. The caution here is that placing all that metal (from 11 tuners) up at the headstock, can make for a very unbalanced instrument. I've also seen examples that use banjo type tuners, which look more like friction pegs but hold tuning much better. (And are way more expensive.) Ouds are always fretless, and are played with a special plectrum which shaped kinda like a popsicle stick and is called a risha or sometimes a mizrab. It is properly held in a full-hand grip sort of like a punch-dagger, with the tip protruding out parallel to your right thumb! The fretless aspect, and the strangeness of the risha technique make the oud a rather inaccessible instrument to guitar players. Most guitarists, when they first pick up an oud, have no clue what to do with it. This also has to do with its unique tuning... It could be noted that Lindley's technique here is not exactly traditional, especially when he is finger picking, and this might not be traditional tuning either, but WTH, they guy's a master, he's totally allowed, and it sounds amazing! :) It is thought that the oud eventually evolved into our modern day classical guitar, possibly somewhere in Iberia, sometime during the15th through 18th centuries, (1400 thru 1700s) after going through various iterations like the vihuela, citole, cittern, saz, laud, mandole, even the bowed gamba family and other guitar-like transitional instruments. Anyway, that's about all I know off the top of my head about ouds. I've owned many of them over the years and would very much like to get one of these flat back ones, but they are kinda pricey, and also ordering from overseas can be kinda dicey... ;) -Paul D
@@Bluered999 This is an electric version of a Turkish oud made by Viken Najarian. Arabic ouds are much more ornate and traditionally have 7 strings while a Turkish oud has 11 and has higher tuning
![David Lindley - The Indifference of Heaven [Warren Zevon] (Live in Copenhagen, September 27th, 2012)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/NQxrHqKFFqc/mqdefault.jpg)
![David Lindley - The Indifference of Heaven [Warren Zevon] (Live in Copenhagen, September 27th, 2012)](/img/tr.png)
ALL ABOUT OUDS:
This is David's custom flat-back oud by Viken Najarian. (probably Armenian-Turkish) He shows how thin the body is (around 2-3 inches) in another video where he is being interviewed. The name oud (or ud) basically means wood, and it traditionally has a very deep (like 12 inches!) bowl-teardrop-shaped back made of long, thin strips of wood and can often be built very ornately with inlays of different woods and mother-of-pearl. He says in the interview that this one also has a built in pre-amp which he likes very much and which is of course also not traditional. If you look beneath and to our left of his right hand you can see what looks like three built in sliders possibly for adjusting EQ and volume...
The oud, as an instrument, is well over a thousand years old, and is later related to the European renaissance lute, (lute=l'ud, "the wood") which looks very similar to an oud until you examine them closely... It is thought that the smaller medieval and later the renaissance lute was adapted from the oud sometime during the Crusades, a first culture clash between east and west, when wandering "raconteur-troubadors" travelled all over the place from England to Africa, collecting and fusing all different styles of music and also instruments along their way. There are two different (but quite similar) versions of the oud popular today; the Arabic oud which is a bit larger and heavier, tuned lower, and the Turkish, which is smaller and tuned higher. Both typically have 11 strings arranged in 6 courses, with the low string being single and the rest being doubles, but not octaves like on a 12 string guitar. They frequently have beautiful ornately hand-carved 'roses' or 'rosettes' (often made of ivory or sometimes even lacquered parchment!) covering the sound holes, of which there are usually three. The rosettes add a bit of stiffness and reenforcement to the otherwise very lightly braced instruments; my personal theory is that they were also there to keep vermin out of the instrument! ;) They are also usually fitted with friction pegs, like a violin, but sometimes you can find examples with geared tuners. The caution here is that placing all that metal (from 11 tuners) up at the headstock, can make for a very unbalanced instrument. I've also seen examples that use banjo type tuners, which look more like friction pegs but hold tuning much better. (And are way more expensive.)
Ouds are always fretless, and are played with a special plectrum which shaped kinda like a popsicle stick and is called a risha or sometimes a mizrab. It is properly held in a full-hand grip sort of like a punch-dagger, with the tip protruding out parallel to your right thumb! The fretless aspect, and the strangeness of the risha technique make the oud a rather inaccessible instrument to guitar players. Most guitarists, when they first pick up an oud, have no clue what to do with it. This also has to do with its unique tuning... It could be noted that Lindley's technique here is not exactly traditional, especially when he is finger picking, and this might not be traditional tuning either, but WTH, they guy's a master, he's totally allowed, and it sounds amazing! :)
It is thought that the oud eventually evolved into our modern day classical guitar, possibly somewhere in Iberia, sometime during the15th through 18th centuries, (1400 thru 1700s) after going through various iterations like the vihuela, citole, cittern, saz, laud, mandole, even the bowed gamba family and other guitar-like transitional instruments.
Anyway, that's about all I know off the top of my head about ouds. I've owned many of them over the years and would very much like to get one of these flat back ones, but they are kinda pricey, and also ordering from overseas can be kinda dicey... ;)
-Paul D
RIP David...many times when playing music in my yard in the summer,,i would often go to David...happy, fun and amazing songs. God bless
R.I.P David, thanks for the music!!!
Thank you for this...what an unique talent on whatever stringed-instrument he chooses to play!
From "Sefan" and other Kaleidoscope odysseys to this - awesome, thanks.
I always thought Sol played the oud in Kaleidoscope. He certainly played the saz.
Beautiful playing and haunting melody !
Genius mr David Lindley
Masterful playing as usual from Mr. Dave.
5:50 I'vee never seen anyone play oud fingerstyle like he does at the end. He's inventing...new style.
The last two minutes or so is a piece called 7/8 suite
Kaleidoscope!
good play عزف رهيب
It's called an "oud"? Thank you! What a lovely, extraterrestrial sound.
its an old arabic instrument.. still widley used.
@@Bluered999 This is an electric version of a Turkish oud made by Viken Najarian. Arabic ouds are much more ornate and traditionally have 7 strings while a Turkish oud has 11 and has higher tuning
@@hyenightbird as an Arab, i know that our current day Oud has 5 pairs of strings + singular one..
Do you know who made this oud?
Viken Najarian in CA
@@hyenightbird Thanks!
An electric WHAT?
Since no one reads these, I'll answer for myself. It's an Oud!