Hal Leonard Oud Method Paperback – Big Book, 1 February 2006

Very basic, with little or no information that is not easily available online. It may just as well have been a book about the guitar just minus the frets. There does not seem to be much "method" here. The major failing is that it assumes that oud music is played in Western diatonic equal temperament scales - no mention of makams/maqams and their microtonal intervals. There is a little information on Middle Eastern rhythms.Save your money.

This is a useful little introduction to the oud but it suffers from three common failings of these kinds of books:1. It assumes you know nothing about music so several pages are taken up with "boiler plate" stuff on musical notation, scales etc.2. Having assumed you know nothing it then switches to assuming you can sight read music and dispenses with all guidance on what string and position you should use for a given note.3. Many of the tracks on the accompanying CD have arrangements that go beyond the associated notation in the book.As I say, these are common failings of almost every tutorial book I've bought so this particular book is neither good nor bad by the general standard.I found it useful to understand my new instrument and the CD helped me understand the style of music that suits it but I'm not sure it really helped me "play" the instrument.

Basic but good for a guitarist moving to Oud

Comme son titre ne l'indique pas, cette méthode est dédiée au 'ûd turc.Il faut donc transposer d'un ton si vous avez un 'ûd arabe.La méthode en elle-même est très basique, n'aborde pas les techniques de plectre et donne des doigtés de main gauche surprenants (n'utilise pratiquement pas le majeur par exemple). L'intro type 'solfège pour les nuls' aurait gagnée à être remplacée par des pièces spécifiques .. ainsi d'ailleurs que tout le reste, qui est du niveau 'au clair de la lune'. Pas un mot sur les Jins et Maqams, rien sur les quarts de tons .. faut le faire tout de même.Finalement cette méthode pourrait s'appliquer à n'importe quel instrument à corde, on n'y apprend rien de spécifique. C'est du travail bâclé, pas cher et probablement mal rémunéré.Suggestion à l'éditeur: pourquoi pas une méthode de country 'ûd ?

First of all, this book is intended for Turkish oud players, not arabic oud players (I did not know that). Second, I would have to say that the help provided in this book is way too basic. How to hold it, tune it, hit the strings, etc. It eludes maqamat on the pretext the it is too advanced, and only provides the most basic needs of a very debutant turkish oud player. Do not buy if you are medium or advanced player, it will not help you at all.