Oud and Arabic maqam

The oud

The oud (also spelled 'ud) is one of the most popular instruments in Arabic music. It has a rounded body and a short neck with no frets, so the player can place notes very precisely, which suits the maqamat.

It is plucked with a long plectrum called a risha, which means feather in Arabic. Rishas were once made from feathers, and today they are often plastic or other materials.

The oud can carry melody and rhythm at the same time, so it is a favourite for accompanying singers, for composing and for taqasim (improvised solos).

Strings and tuning

An oud usually has five pairs of strings tuned in unison plus a single bass string, and some ouds have an extra pair. MaqamWorld gives the most common tuning, from low to high, as C, F, A, D, G, C.

This makes all the gaps perfect 4ths except F to A. It is described as the most common tuning, not the only one, so check with your teacher which tuning they use.

What is a maqam?

A maqam (plural maqamat) is more than a scale. It is a whole framework: a set of notes, typical melodic phrases, the usual path a melody takes (called sayr), possible changes to other maqamat (modulation) and its own mood.

Jins: the building blocks

Each maqam scale is built from small groups of 3, 4 or 5 notes called ajnas (singular jins). The first jins starts on the tonic, and the next jins starts on a note called the ghammaz, usually the last note of the first jins.

Maqamat that share the same first jins belong to the same family. MaqamWorld lists eight families: 'Ajam, Bayati, Hijaz, Kurd, Nahawand, Nikriz, Rast and Sikah. A few maqamat, such as Saba, sit outside the families.

Quarter tones and the half-flat

Arabic music uses notes that fall between the piano's keys. These are usually written with a half-flat sign, so E half-flat is a note roughly halfway between E-flat and E.

Theory books often describe these notes as quarter tones, dividing the octave into 24 steps. Experts stress that this is a way of naming and writing notes, not an exact tuning: the real pitch of a half-flat changes from maqam to maqam and from region to region, and is learned by ear.

Four well-known ajnas

Here are the first ajnas of four famous maqamat, written in their usual positions. The 'neutral' steps are in between a semitone and a tone, and the neutral 3rd is in between a minor 3rd and a major 3rd.

• Rast, Bayati and Hijaz each give their name to a maqam family, whose maqamat all start with that jins.
• Saba is one of the few maqamat that sits outside the families.