Play Oud online
A string instrument with a deep, pear-shaped body and a fretless neck, played with a pick.
Dizi
On a keyboard, the keys A S D F G H J K play the eight pitches of the scale.
We welcome your ideas.
Turn your phone sideways or switch to full screen to see the instrument larger.
Keyboard keys
Add it to your home screen as a separate app: opens with one tap and works offline too. Free.
Keyboard: the up and down arrows select a course, Space or Enter plays it, plus and minus move the selected course's mandal by one comma.
Tap or swipe on the right side; tap the labels on the left to select a course. No sound on iPhone? Turn off silent mode.
Mandals
Lower or raise each pitch one comma at a time with the mandal levers. The setting applies to every course that has no setting of its own.
Course mandal
Tune a single course separately from the pitch setting. Courses you don't adjust follow the pitch setting.
About the Oud
In brief
- Family: Plucked string instrument (short-necked, fretless lute family)
- Origin: Middle East; related to the Persian barbat and regarded as the ancestor of the European lute
- Body and materials: Deep pear-shaped bowl of about 20 thin staves; usually three sound holes
- Strings: Six courses (five pairs and one single), 11 strings in all
- Frets: Fretless; every comma interval is played by finger placement
- Playing: Held horizontally on the lap and played with a long, flexible plectrum
- Music: Turkish, Arabic and Persian classical music; fasıl and taksim
- 16th–17th centuries: Mentioned in Revani's İşaretname; in Evliya Çelebi's time the oud was not much in favour, as the public preferred the tanbur[1, 2]
Getting started: types, sizes, tuning
- Turkish and Arabic oud: They are almost identical in construction; the Arabic oud's string length is about 1 cm longer (59.5 cm) and it is tuned a whole tone lower.
- Strings: Apart from the bam teli (bass string), the five strings are double.
- Tuning: From high to low: gerdâniye (G), nevâ (D), dügâh (A), hüseynîaşiran (E), kaba bûselik (B) and kaba ırak (F sharp) or kaba hüseynîaşiran (E).
- Body: Made of about 20 ribs; the soundboard, about 1 mm thick, is spruce or fir.[1]
History
An instrument shared by Arabic, Persian and Turkish music; it is regarded as the ancestor of the European lute. Theorists such as al-Farabi and Safi al-Din explained their interval calculations on the neck of the oud.
Construction
It consists of a large pear-shaped body built from staves, a thin soundboard usually with three sound holes, and a short fretless neck. Usually eleven strings are fitted in six courses; the pegbox is bent backwards.
How it's played
It is played with a long, flexible plectrum. Because the neck is fretless, any comma interval can be played by choosing the finger position.
Useful while you practice
Project notes
- Pitch system: Arel-Ezgi-Uzdilek pitches are shown on a scale dividing the octave into 53 equal parts (the Holder comma, ≈22.6 cents), a close approximation of the theory's Pythagorean-ratio pitches. Each pitch is computed as its letter position plus the mandal shift; reference A4 = 440 Hz.
- Interval abbreviations: B = bakiye (4), S = küçük mücenneb (5), K = büyük mücenneb (8), T = tanini (9), A = augmented second (12–13 commas).
- Sound: real kanun recordings, retuned to comma precision for each pitch. With the synthesis option, each course is generated as three slightly detuned strings.
- Mandals: per-pitch tuning is the default; any course can also be tuned separately. Makam presets are per pitch.
- Known limitations: pitch names are referenced to Rast (G); makam presets are awaiting expert review.
Frequently asked questions about the Oud
How do I play the virtual oud?
When the page opens, the oud's neck appears on the screen; the pitches appear as finger dots on the strings. You play by tapping, clicking or sliding your finger over the dots. On the keyboard, A–K plays the first octave and Q–U the second. From the “View” menu you can switch to a simple row of keys, and on a phone you can enlarge the neck by turning the screen sideways or going full screen.
Can the virtual oud play the commas of the makams?
Yes. Since a real oud is fretless, the player finds each comma with the finger; the virtual oud takes the same freedom from the makam data. Every pitch of the makam you choose plays at its comma value in the Arel-Ezgi-Uzdilek system, and you can choose from more than 150 makams. The tonic and dominant are marked in color.
Where does the virtual oud's sound come from?
The sounds are real oud recordings shared by hammondman on Freesound (CC0, free to use). Each pitch is tuned with comma precision from the nearest recording, so in-between notes that are not in the recording also sound with a natural oud timbre. Until the recordings load, synthesis plays; with the “Synthesis” option you can compare the two sounds.
How do I practice a piece on the virtual oud?
Open a piece in the sheet music archive and choose the oud in the “Play it yourself” step of the “Learn this piece” section; the virtual oud opens with the piece's makam. A good start is to listen to the piece a few times to recognize its tonic and dominant, then try to find the first phrase of the melody on the virtual oud.
Sources
- TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi
- ozanyarman.com