Anyone else notice how clearly and simply Kamal was able to teach those Arabic concepts and relate them to Western music? Phenomenal teacher and crazy command of music theory.

My Dad passed away yesterday morning, and I just wanted to say that we watched your videos in the hospital every day the last few weeks. Thankyou Paul, you are an amazing content creater and guitarist.

Holy shit 😂 Kamal was my guitar teacher 17 years ago! So happy to see him here on this channel!

Wow Paul you've outdone yourself. Having Middle Eastern heritage I was always aware of the role the Oud played in the development of the modern guitar. Very happy you are reintroducing this to a Western audience.

Seeing Paul even mildly uncomfortable with an instrument is so alien

This is awesome! I am a guitarist from Holland and I am learning to play the Oud for 6 months now. Unlocking microtonal Maqams is just magical. I am working on Maqam Rast, it's like stepping onto another planet! The eastern musical tradition is just so rich! there is so much to discover for me as a musician from a western country! Thank's for sharing!

The duet at the end made me so happy! It's such a treat to see people make music together.

It’s wild how something so simple as a half flat can totally give such a unique identity to the sound.

Nothing more metal than The Oud.

Makam, what an amazing concept. It's like a parallel world. So rich.

The first song at 2:33 el bent el shalabia it is a classic song for Lebanese artists a singer called fairuz

Lebanese-American guitar player here, thanks for this beautiful video on the Oud, Paul. What a phenomenal teacher in Kamal, too!

I've never seen such a great description of the unique characteristics of the oud. The contrast with the guitar and Western scales was fascinating.

I'm tunisian and when I was young I picked a guitar as my instrument. one of my friends has Oud and we used to play duets together. this reminds of that moment. thanks ! Now I'm thinking of getting Oud and finding again that joy of learning a new instrument

The real star of this video is the Oud player Kamal Musallam who explained this music so clearly and knew how to explain this to western musicians.

Moroccan guitarist here, thank your for showing world how wonderful is the oud, i invite to check the guembri instrument and gnawa music and it influences with blues, it might interest you ! also i love your content, the way you share your experience makes me feel like im living in it.

The blend of Middle Eastern melodies and classic western styles has also produced some awesome music.

I just LOVE the Oud... If you haven't, listen to some music by Anouar Brahem. ❤ Travelled to Morocco a few years ago, stayed for almost three months. In one of the cities I went there was a traditional restaurant where almost every night an old musician would come and play on the terrace... I was going there to listen to him more than for the (excellent) food. It was magical. 🙂 Thank you for sharing and introducing the Oud and the arabic music to us.

i am a guitarist from Tunisia and my dad also plays oud and he was so happy by watching this video with me

What a beautiful episode. A friend of mine is Lebanese. One night, a family friend was playing the Oud. If I remember correctly, as it was a long time ago, he said the Oud, or al Oud, is where Europeans get the word lute. The men playing and the woman singing in this video were truly amazing.

Wow the maqams on guitar are my new obsession

When this came across this in my feed, I was so excited. I found an oud several years ago in a western frontier town style market, in a merchant's back room. I paid what he bought it for plus sales tax, 110 USD. I later discovered that it was made. in Basra, Iraq. It must have had an interesting journey to make it to small town Oklahoma, USA from Iraq.

Nice one. Two small tibdits of information: one is that to middle eastern and balkan ears those don't sound exotic but "home". The second is that they convey a mood, the same way hearing like a blues wailing guitar (think of BB King solo) you get into a certain mood.

this is probably one of my favourite videos on your channel man, keep on walking your path and sharing everything music related for those of us unable to have access to these pearls of knowledge otherwise.

Thanks Paul for your open mindset and eagerness to still be a student. (talib طَالِب in Arabic). You've edited the video nicely with the name of the scales written in Arabic. You inspire me a lot in my Middle Eastern journey with playing the Oud and learning Arabic.

the arabic oud and the greek bozouki are some of the coolest stringed instrument sounds imo, they really sound beautiful and have such rich culture behind them, love it!

Even the name and the meaning of this legendry instrument is beautiful! It's the greatest musical instrument! Oud is our heart! Thanks to Kamal Omar from Saudi Arabia.

Here is the simplest way to think about arabic modal music : Like in western music you have 1- Major tonality 2- minor tonality Then you add a third (special) tonality which is in between: 3- quarter tonality Next, you have all the secondary modes within. In Arabic music there are almost all western modes. Plus : 1st mode Rast, the third and seventh are the quarter notes 2nd mode bayaty, second and sixth quarters 3rd sica, first and fifth quartes.. Ect (almost) Then, inside each of those modes you have the sub-modes which are all the possible alterations used in the genre. To conclude, it is exactly like jazz music, every single scale /mode mentioned has its own vocabulary and phrases, Arabic music is soooo rich. Plus, there is themes, songs, standards and improvisation. There you have it.

There's so much magic in the sound of the Oud. It's so easy to drift off into a dream state with this sound.

I've always loved the harmonic minor sound. The Oud is just able to take that a step farther, to a whole different level of awesome.

Fabulous. Loved the guy playing regular electric Arabic style. Great stuff.

Paul, thank you for bringing us along. That was awesome 🙏🏼

As someone of Arabic heritage I really appreciated this. Thank you!

Fascinating! Thank you, Paul (and everyone else involved in the making of this video)! 🙏🏻🤍

That was the best seventeen minutes I have spent in a long time. Thanks, Paul

love the electric guitar at the end. getting those half-flats and half-sharps with just slight but very precise bends is amazing.

Regardless of the topic Paul David’s videos always throw me back into playing guitar. He also taught me almost everything I know. Thank you Paul!

It was nice seeing you in Dubai, even nicer to know you had this filmed during your visit. Thank you for sharing a bit of our culture ❤

The thing I find really interesting about the concept of modulation is that it’s really present in turkey and the arabic world. In other places in the middle east like in Iran, the pieces rarelly modulates and like and it’s more common to just stay in one mode and to explore all the possibilities that that one mode can offer. An other thing I want to touch on is that the concept of « quarter tones » (first of all isn’t really an appropriate term because these pitches aren’t exactlly in between two western half steps), is that depending on the region you’re in, the pitch of these notes will change. For instance : in Turkey, these pitches can become pretty sharper than the rest of the middle east. Also, I’ve been told by an oudist friend of mine that generally, these notes played by levantine musicians (the levant consists of countries like Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, etc), will be pretty flatter than the rest of the region (I’ve been told that in Iran, these pitches are pretty flatter as well). But it can also depends on the taste of the player or the context in which thses certain notes are played in : depending on if you’re playing an ascending line of a maqam, or depending on a certain maqam you’re playing, the pitch of thses notes will vary.

So nice to see cultures coming together. People need to learn more from each other ❤

Yesss! I've been waiting so long for a video about the oud! І would really love to see more arabic music related videos. Arabic music is so different and special

You brought tears of joy to my heart, I could feel your respect and appreciation to the music that I grew up listening to, thank you so deeply for this wholesome video!

I just found this channel and i can say is gold. I didn't know about this instrument, but i feel motivated to learn about Arabic music. Thanks for this!

What an insane piece of audiovisual production Paul. This is insane.

watching this made me really happy that people still be happy while looking at the precious history and it was very much informative too, thanks Paul.

I don't play the guitar (I'm a singer at heart!) but I've been enjoying this channel (breaking down the riffs from classic rock is always amazing). I've always loved the sound of the oud and LOVE this exploration. Thank you!

This was awesome…those microtones where out of the world and out of our western sounds, so mesmerizing thank you all’ of the musicians here and the kind arabic lesson.

IVE WANTED A VID ON OUD FOR SO LONG!! thank Paul

Awesome! Thank you for this short insight into the arabic world of music.🙏 I think they have very interesting concepts and especially the oud has a very mesmerizing sound. It's almost as if I'm in trance whenever I hear one play. Just can't break loose of it. ❤ I'd appreciate more videos about the oud or arabic guitar play in general. Mahmoud's playing style was absolutley inspiring! 🔥

Paul, I’m so happy you did this!!

This is a completely different universe of music. So much to explore here. Paul, thanks for this video, as well as for every other piece of content that you do

Sounds wonderful! Such a lot of emotion carried in those sounds.

To be precise, the oud is more directly related to the lute than to the guitar. The oud and the lute indeed share a common ancestor and are closely related in their historical development. The oud is a pear-shaped, fretless instrument that has been a central feature of Middle Eastern music for centuries. When the Moors (Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily, and Malta during the Middle Ages) brought the oud to Europe, it eventually evolved into the lute. The lute, which incorporates frets and has a similar shape, became very popular in medieval and Renaissance Europe. The transformation included changes in construction, playing technique, and musical notation. The guitar has a different lineage. It is generally agreed that the modern guitar can trace its ancestors back to ancient stringed instruments and through various medieval European instruments. The guitarra latina, mentioned in your statement, was one of the precursors to the modern guitar and was present in Europe before the arrival of the Moors. The history suggests a more complex evolution involving several different stringed instruments from various cultures converging over time to form what we now recognize as the guitar. While the influence of Moorish and Middle Eastern instruments and musical ideas on European music was significant, the direct lineage of the guitar from these sources, such as the oud, is less direct compared to the relationship between the oud and the lute. Instead, the guitar's development is thought to involve a blend of influences from the Roman cithara, the guitarra latina, the guitarra morisca, and other stringed instruments. So, while the oud and the lute share a more direct ancestral relationship, the guitar's evolution is a result of a broader confluence of cultural and musical influences, rather than a direct descendant of the oud.

One of your best shows. Great guests and appreciate how you told the whole story!

I was wishing for this video to go on for another 4 hours man 😅 so much beauty in oud once your ear gets used to it, it gives you a feeling that no other instrument ever could ❤

i could watch and rewatch this video... amazing work david!

Ive been addicted to the sound of the oud for awhile now, especially the artist Anouar Brahem

The maqam played by Mahmoud, at around 16:00 using the electric guitar is the big deal of the video 😍.

I once had the chance to play an oud during a school guitar lesson and It has to be one of the coolest instruments I've tried. I found it very difficult to play of course but it had such a particular feel and sound that left a real impression on me

Fascinating!!! Thx Paul for this journey on the oud.obviously Kamal is a fantastic teacher and musician

Generaly people think of just one or two scales as teh Arabic scale. Having learnt Indian classical music, I know these scales but i know them with their Indian names and playing styles. Learning the Arabic names and getting a slight view of their playing style, is so cool. Dont know how 17 mins passed. With this vid, you took us to a new maqaam of learning ... Beautiful :) and the Oud is Sultan as well.

Paul Davids Explores Strings & Theory of the World. I do hope this becomes a regular feature.

Always loved the sound of this music. So cool to learn how the tonal variations work to make it happen. Plus Davids' willingness to get out of his comfort zone. Thanks for posting.

Defining oud and Arabic maqams from scratch is really interesting. Paul is so enthusiastic 🤩. I really liked it although I’m an Arab who listens to oud 24/7. ♥️

those dirty tones are more of quarter tones , these are pretty common in oriental instruments, especially Oud and Quanun , which might interest you too I consider it the ancestor of the piano

Love this topic, I’m Lebanese but I play a bit of guitar, never had the chance to play oud, yet kamal made it look so easy. Maqamat they way explained it are modes. The modes you play on a guitar only on the oud the sound and flavor is different due to the oud’s body design and type of wood used.

here in Morocco, the oud has a religious character, especially in Ramadan, when we hear it we feel nostalgic in some way, maybe cuz this instrument is used in Andalusin the past, but thanks Paul for this great video, I hope you visit morocco someday and make a video about the GUEMBRI is such beautiful instrument sound like bass but it has more classical sound

Bravo to you, Paul, for bringing this intro to the oud and a whole other concept of musical scales and modes. Lovely and interesting!

An amazing video Paul! It was a good idea to broaden your musical background with Arabic maqams that each of them gives a certain mood or feeling. Try to do more videos with Oud players!

That guitar at the 16:00 is SICK!

This was incredible! As a metalhead with lots of phrygian in my daily fix, I can't begin to state how much I love this kind of traditional music. Thanks to everyone for keeping it so alive!

Thank you for sharing the beauty of this musical culture with all of us.

16:15 Crazy-fast trills.

bro why is this so uncommon in the western area, I love this

What an enlightening video. We need more of this in our world.

Wow... just wow... that was amazing. We need more of this. I really feel hungry for more knowledge on Maqams and Middle Eastern techniques.

You should definitely listen to the oud,kanun and klarnet trio. They do this very successfully in Turkish music.

Thank you for sharing this. I found it interesting to learn about instruments found in other cultures.

Thanks for providing a greater appreciation for a music stile that has influenced many artists over the years.

Thank you for this beautiful documentary! ❤️

Laúd en español. Hermoso instrumento!

What a beautiful instrument

Thank you for sharing this adventure! I’ve always been curious about this instrument and culture and you brought it to my hands. Feels authentic too, wonderful special people 🙌

Such a beautiful and mysterious instrument. I need one.

Thank you for the appreciation and love you're showing towards the instrument and the very different sounds of Mideast! Very informative even for someone who kinda plays the oud.

Modern metal is here.

This is a wonderful video - awesome work and beautiful playing

Wow! I love all those tones. And the concept of makans: what a door to an entire universe of creative, inspired musicality.

As a Palestinian American musician, I was so happy to see this video. Well done Paul.

Thank you for this, I am North African Jewish and I grew up listening to a lot of music with the beautiful oud... Thanks for bringing it into western attention

Oud is such a big culture instrument in my country (Syria) that I personally have never understood even tho I play classical, acoustic, and electric guitar for over than 14 years. I even sat with friends and they tried to explain what Makam is but I was never able to understand the note between both notes xD. You just made me understand what Oud in such a simple way thanks to your creativity and HUGE thanks to the teacher for his way of explaining the Oud. You are truly amazing Paul, THANK YOU!

Absolutely enjoyed and loved this video. Fantastic introduction to Oud through the eyes of a brilliant guitarist. Thank you Paul.

IVE BEEN INTO THE OUD FOR LIKE TEN YEARS LETS GOOOOOO

Arab Culture ❤

Fantastic to see how music brings people of different cultures together. If just the world could be more like this. Understanding, curiosity and compassion!

Thank you for putting this together, very informative and enjoyable video

Is it wrong that I want one purely to rock out in Phrygian Dominant?

Zizek is that u

I like this format, Paul! Very well done! Hope to see more content like this.

I'm always attracted to the middle eastern sound in modern rock & metal music. It gives a unique, mystical vibe