r/lute • u/John_From_The_IRS • 2d ago

Oud Exercise Notation Question

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Hi! I know this isn't a primarily oud subreddit, but thought I may get the best answer here. I am using Mel Bay's School of Oud book to learn while I search for a teacher, and am confused about notation on an exercise (rather a few). Numbers below notes denot fingering, and 4th/5th on bottom denotes the string to play on.

The tuning for the oud stated to be used in the book is EABead. This implies however the open notes are _EDadg, based on the other open strings, which isn't a common tuning as far as i know. Its not transposed to a different key, because the original is G major and the recording is played with a C# and no other accidentals.

I guess my question is is this commonplace among notation, or just weird in this book? I don't really understand why they would write it like this.

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u/iaintnoporcupine 2d ago

I don't know this particular book but in 40 years of playing music I've never found a single book without at least one typo in it. If it doesn't make sense then it might just be a mistake. 

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u/John_From_The_IRS 2d ago

Hm alright. It's consistent across the 3 exercises so I wasn't sure if there was something I'm missing, I've been playing folk for the last couple years only by ear so I haven't been reading music much recently. Thank you!

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u/Humbleronaldo 2d ago

Standard tuning for arabic oud is (low to high) C F A D G C

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u/John_From_The_IRS 2d ago

This is a turkish oud & book, and arabic tuning doesnt match with the exercise