I am so grateful to you and to find you in here. I was studying with my father throughout the pandemic as I also had to become his care giver and when he passed it was like my world just fell into darkness. The music it felt went with him. Finding you and learning with you has brought the light back in bringing the music back. You’ve inspired me to play again. I just wanted you to know that by sharing your knowledge with the world via TH-cam and Patreon you are giving a priceless gift. My father was a great musician and my mother was a great dancer. You bring light to the world and you are a great teacher. You teach as he did through call and answer and also by singing the Melodie’s to learn them. Thank you sincerely.
@@mizabmalikrobertwilliam8162 not a singer nor an expert but i think 1) generally get to know the feel and flow of the melody as a whole and 2)listen to how the percussive instruments on other recordings interpret the melodies rhythmically and feel what parts of the beat feel heaviest and most important, as a starting point for learning the rhythms to sing
Ok, singing the name of the jins you're on at 6:22 is one of the most helpful things anyone has ever done for me in learning Arabic music. I would literally pay money for songs where the lyrics are just the names of the ajnas, lol.
This is really great stuff. I have been looking for a lesson like this about Hijaz on violin in English for a long time now. Thank you for taking time to make this and for the clear explanations!
Which Arabic musicians / singers / ensembles would you recommend to listen to? I'm looking for some traditional Arabic music, but I know nothing about it.
I've been following these videos, which have proved to be a great complement to some in-person coursework I've done. But I have (what may be a stupid) question. In your schematics you don't put the starting note of the secondary ajnas. So here, for example, you have hijaz starting on the tonic and then rast and nahawand starting on the dominant. So, must all the ajnas that make up the maqam start on these notes or can you put in a jins starting on, say, the third (that is, a jins which contains different notes from the hijaz dins)?
Hi Sami! I found you through the Microtonal Music and Tuning Theory Group on Facebook, watched your video using Kite's alt-tuner with different Rast thirds, and part of your interview with Rami where you mentioned different Es, but always within the context of a melody in a particular jins/maqam. This made so much sense to me, and it's great to see in practice. Have really enjoyed your thoughtful comments and posts there, but these videos are proving hugely helpful in my understanding of the ajnas, maqam and sayr. Really appreciate all the singing. I can't play fretless string instruments for crap, but singing these things is really helpful. I really like all the changes between Nahawand and Rast, and even occasionally colouring those ajnas with another tone (I heard an implied "flat 5" on Nahawand a couple of times, possibly Nahawand Murassa?). Just by the way, how typical are your intonations for these three ajnas within Maqam Hijaz? I know this is probably not the place to bring any "tuning theory" or mathematical models into this, but alongside singing this I am learning to play this on the Lumatone keyboard in 53-tone equal temperament and 94-tone equal temperament, where rather fine distinctions like those you mentioned can be made. I hear your Hijaz third as rather central, (probably around 11/9), the Nahawand third as low-central (32/27), and interestingly often the Nahawand second as more mellow (e.g. 10/9 vs Rast's 9/8 - especially noticed this in the last lesson with you and your daughter). I'm also noticing a tendency for a fourth that is often slightly sharp or very occasionally flat of pure vs what I had come to expect as 4/3, which I assume is there primarily to heighten the drama of its place within the jins. Sounds great, and reminds me of some other great vocal traditions, e.g. Georgian singing... Sorry too many comments, but wanted to stop by where I'm up to and tell you I'm learning so much, and I rea;;y appreciate this teaching style - I'm a piano teacher myself, but so much of my education has been notational, theoretical, and without enough context. I focus on audiation in my teaching, and aspire to teach more like you, hopefully allowing "even" piano students to audiate music such as this (e.g. whose intonation and ornamentation does not fit easily on the piano) without issue.
Ah, guess I didn't watch enough of your interview. Ignore the ratio-thinking if it helps. Just acknowledging some of my own biases I guess. Back to more listening and singing for me.
Hey Cam, thanks for watching, I'm glad these are helpful. My one comment was going to be what you replied in your second comment, but I'll elaborate here for the public: 1. Just because something may be close to a particular ratio doesn't mean it IS tuned at that ratio. We have so many fine distinctions that it could be, or it might not be! 2. Trying to analyze the tuning places an obstacle to your hearing. You have to learn it exactly as you hear it, just as if you were an actor trying to study a particular dialect/accent trying to copy the exact intonations of the vowels in someone's speech. It is what it is, exactly that and nothing more or less. 3. My tuning is fairly typical but it isn't the only option. 4. The tuning isn't as important as the melodies, because the melodies store the content and information of the maqam. And they are similar across traditions even when tuning is varied, showing that they are the more important component. 5. Study the melodies as whole entities, whole identities, and your sense of tuning will develop through that process, not the other way around. Melodies are little tools that will help you tune your intervals more precisely, but only if you hear and remember them as whole melodies.
Thank you Sami. Probably exactly what I needed to hear. I keep interrupting myself amidst the process to notice your particular tunings of the second, third and fourth in jins Hijaz vs Nahawand, but I do need to just learn all of these melodies, and focus a couple of levels "up" of where I'm often pulled into. I have been watching the next few videos and practiced both singing and playing on the Lumatone, in a fine enough tuning to distinguish between different "middle" thirds, though I should probably do this whole set of lessons without any fixed pitch instruments, but only with my voice and maybe a viola, and only then bring in the Lumatone after I've done the whole lot to reinforce and approximate what I've already done, rather than trying to set some standard. Thanks for keeping me in check. I appreciate your firm, focused style of teaching. Much love from Aotearoa.
Fantastic - it's great that you recognize that about yourself and that you're admitting it! Then I think that's your practice: force yourself to sing without touching or even imagining your violin, and see whether you begin to hear the music differently, more for itself rather than mediated by a particular instrument. See if after practicing that way for a while, you begin to expand in new ways. Teach an old dog new tricks! It's time for all of us to transform. P.S. ask your extremely talented daughter for help on this one 😉 I miss you man - I'm really grateful you're engaging with these lessons. Sending you lots of love.
I am so grateful to you and to find you in here. I was studying with my father throughout the pandemic as I also had to become his care giver and when he passed it was like my world just fell into darkness. The music it felt went with him. Finding you and learning with you has brought the light back in bringing the music back. You’ve inspired me to play again. I just wanted you to know that by sharing your knowledge with the world via TH-cam and Patreon you are giving a priceless gift. My father was a great musician and my mother was a great dancer. You bring light to the world and you are a great teacher. You teach as he did through call and answer and also by singing the Melodie’s to learn them. Thank you sincerely.
Thank you so very much for generously posting this valuable content to spread knowledge for Arabic maqam enthusiasts.
Thank you !!! I am a vocalist and I’m learning a lot about ajnas and makamat thanks to you 🙏
how do you learn to sing to the rhythm of the Arabic rhythm? you seem to understand better.
@@mizabmalikrobertwilliam8162 not a singer nor an expert but i think 1) generally get to know the feel and flow of the melody as a whole and 2)listen to how the percussive instruments on other recordings interpret the melodies rhythmically and feel what parts of the beat feel heaviest and most important, as a starting point for learning the rhythms to sing
Ok, singing the name of the jins you're on at 6:22 is one of the most helpful things anyone has ever done for me in learning Arabic music. I would literally pay money for songs where the lyrics are just the names of the ajnas, lol.
same omg
Thanks,my brother! I'm Sephardic Jew and I am studying to be a Chazzan(the person who chants worship services in the synagogue).
This is really great stuff. I have been looking for a lesson like this about Hijaz on violin in English for a long time now. Thank you for taking time to make this and for the clear explanations!
Wonderful glad you found it! There's lots more!
This is awesome, thanks for sharing!
Amazing explanation, thank you very much. I'll watch every lesson from now on.
Super informative! Following the lessons and got the book as well on my journey to learn Oud.
Wonderful!
Thank you so much for this video. I have been trying to find an English explanation of maqam hijaz.
Glad you found it! Also check out Lesson 17 in the series for the complete version of Maqam Hijaz
Thank you for these very clear explanations !
I really enjoy watching your videos :-)
Which Arabic musicians / singers / ensembles would you recommend to listen to? I'm looking for some traditional Arabic music, but I know nothing about it.
I love your videos. Thank you!
Where can we find the halal melodies for quran recitation
Theory is necessary to be able to understand this. Need to know the intervals for all the ajnas.
Bravo! Thank you Maestro!
I've been following these videos, which have proved to be a great complement to some in-person coursework I've done. But I have (what may be a stupid) question. In your schematics you don't put the starting note of the secondary ajnas. So here, for example, you have hijaz starting on the tonic and then rast and nahawand starting on the dominant. So, must all the ajnas that make up the maqam start on these notes or can you put in a jins starting on, say, the third (that is, a jins which contains different notes from the hijaz dins)?
Thank you so much!!
Hi Sami! I found you through the Microtonal Music and Tuning Theory Group on Facebook, watched your video using Kite's alt-tuner with different Rast thirds, and part of your interview with Rami where you mentioned different Es, but always within the context of a melody in a particular jins/maqam. This made so much sense to me, and it's great to see in practice. Have really enjoyed your thoughtful comments and posts there, but these videos are proving hugely helpful in my understanding of the ajnas, maqam and sayr. Really appreciate all the singing. I can't play fretless string instruments for crap, but singing these things is really helpful. I really like all the changes between Nahawand and Rast, and even occasionally colouring those ajnas with another tone (I heard an implied "flat 5" on Nahawand a couple of times, possibly Nahawand Murassa?).
Just by the way, how typical are your intonations for these three ajnas within Maqam Hijaz? I know this is probably not the place to bring any "tuning theory" or mathematical models into this, but alongside singing this I am learning to play this on the Lumatone keyboard in 53-tone equal temperament and 94-tone equal temperament, where rather fine distinctions like those you mentioned can be made. I hear your Hijaz third as rather central, (probably around 11/9), the Nahawand third as low-central (32/27), and interestingly often the Nahawand second as more mellow (e.g. 10/9 vs Rast's 9/8 - especially noticed this in the last lesson with you and your daughter). I'm also noticing a tendency for a fourth that is often slightly sharp or very occasionally flat of pure vs what I had come to expect as 4/3, which I assume is there primarily to heighten the drama of its place within the jins. Sounds great, and reminds me of some other great vocal traditions, e.g. Georgian singing...
Sorry too many comments, but wanted to stop by where I'm up to and tell you I'm learning so much, and I rea;;y appreciate this teaching style - I'm a piano teacher myself, but so much of my education has been notational, theoretical, and without enough context. I focus on audiation in my teaching, and aspire to teach more like you, hopefully allowing "even" piano students to audiate music such as this (e.g. whose intonation and ornamentation does not fit easily on the piano) without issue.
Ah, guess I didn't watch enough of your interview. Ignore the ratio-thinking if it helps. Just acknowledging some of my own biases I guess. Back to more listening and singing for me.
Hey Cam, thanks for watching, I'm glad these are helpful. My one comment was going to be what you replied in your second comment, but I'll elaborate here for the public:
1. Just because something may be close to a particular ratio doesn't mean it IS tuned at that ratio. We have so many fine distinctions that it could be, or it might not be!
2. Trying to analyze the tuning places an obstacle to your hearing. You have to learn it exactly as you hear it, just as if you were an actor trying to study a particular dialect/accent trying to copy the exact intonations of the vowels in someone's speech. It is what it is, exactly that and nothing more or less.
3. My tuning is fairly typical but it isn't the only option.
4. The tuning isn't as important as the melodies, because the melodies store the content and information of the maqam. And they are similar across traditions even when tuning is varied, showing that they are the more important component.
5. Study the melodies as whole entities, whole identities, and your sense of tuning will develop through that process, not the other way around. Melodies are little tools that will help you tune your intervals more precisely, but only if you hear and remember them as whole melodies.
Thank you Sami. Probably exactly what I needed to hear. I keep interrupting myself amidst the process to notice your particular tunings of the second, third and fourth in jins Hijaz vs Nahawand, but I do need to just learn all of these melodies, and focus a couple of levels "up" of where I'm often pulled into.
I have been watching the next few videos and practiced both singing and playing on the Lumatone, in a fine enough tuning to distinguish between different "middle" thirds, though I should probably do this whole set of lessons without any fixed pitch instruments, but only with my voice and maybe a viola, and only then bring in the Lumatone after I've done the whole lot to reinforce and approximate what I've already done, rather than trying to set some standard.
Thanks for keeping me in check. I appreciate your firm, focused style of teaching. Much love from Aotearoa.
8:40 😂😂😂😂😂
Tolong terjemahkan dalam bahasa indonesia
I just have to laugh Sami. The only way I can sing at all is if I imagine my violin fingerboard.
Fantastic - it's great that you recognize that about yourself and that you're admitting it! Then I think that's your practice: force yourself to sing without touching or even imagining your violin, and see whether you begin to hear the music differently, more for itself rather than mediated by a particular instrument. See if after practicing that way for a while, you begin to expand in new ways. Teach an old dog new tricks! It's time for all of us to transform.
P.S. ask your extremely talented daughter for help on this one 😉
I miss you man - I'm really grateful you're engaging with these lessons. Sending you lots of love.
Please note please
Hi - I specifically avoid notation as the whole point is for people to learn by ear. Good luck!
Kkkkkkkk down your f.... Instrument! It's so true!
I was startled hahaha