As the Holy Month of Ramadan approaches, Abu Dhabi Week delves into the musical culture of the Capital, visiting Bait El Oud for a lesson with oud virtuoso Sherine Tohamy
The UAE has a rich and vibrant history and curling through it all is the beautiful music of the traditional Arabian oud. We love the exotic sound of the oud and we wanted to learn more. Could we be an undiscovered oud virtuoso?
Probably not (we can only just manage the ukulele), so we headed down to Bait El Oud to check out their classes and learn more about this beautiful instrument and how to play it.
We are greeted by the lovely Sherine Tohamy, who will be our teacher for the evening. Based in a villa in Al Nahyan Camp, Bait El Oud has a vibe that relaxes you as soon as you walk in – we are mesmerised by an old, intricately carved oud displayed in the foyer and can’t help but be enveloped by the sense of history.
Sherine tells us about Bait El Oud in the music room where our lesson will be held. “The English meaning of ‘bait’ is house and we really are like a big family here. The students feel like it is their second home and spend a lot of time here practicing and talking about music,” she explains.
Sherine is a graduate of the original Bait El Oud in Cairo and was a student of rennowned oud player Nasser Shamma, the founder of Bait El Oud. She picks up her instrument and with effortless grace plays an intricate piece of music, showing us just why she and her fellow graduates are referred to by their famous teacher as his ‘pioneers’.
We are even more smitten with the oud than we were before and equally as impressed, especially as Sherine graduated to this level after only two years of study. With our pick nervously clutched in our hand and our own oud to play, our lesson begins.
Unlike a normal guitar pick, the oud pick is long and slightly pointed at one end. Each stroke goes up on one part of the double string and down on the other, and our oud begins to sing. Success!
The strings of the oud itself are a unique feature – five of the six strings are doubled up; two strings set very close together. This gives us a bit of a fright as that’s a lot of strings to think about and it suddenly seems quite complicated, but Sherine tells us that once you have the hang of this multi-stringed marvel, thinking is less important than feeling the music.
Next we move on to scales. We try making each note, going up and down the scale in a steady rhythm. Our fingernails are too long and are overlapping onto the next string, making striking the right notes very tricky indeed. We make a mental note to cut those pesky nails before our next visit.
As we move our fingers up and down the neck of the instrument we notice that there are no frets. Sherine explains that this gives the musician more options and the sounds the oud can produce as a result are much more varied than other stringed instruments. Add that to the rounded back panel and pear shape, and the tones and notes that can be made are almost limitless.
Lessons at Bait El Oud are one-on-one, with a group lesson on a Wednesday evening getting the students together to practise. This is not your usual after school music class – students are expected to put in the hard yards and dedicate themselves to their studies, eventually becoming soloists themselves.
Students range from six years old right up to adult learners, so we don’t feel so bad about being a 30-something with a distinct lack of musical flair. Age groups and instrument requirements to consider before starting classes can be found on the website at www.baiteloud.ae.
We stop for a bit of a breather and Sherine shows us around the rest of the building. As well as oud, there are several other traditional musical disciplines taught here.
We sit in on a voice class and then are lucky enough to experience an amazing performance on the qanon. The qanon (a bit like a flat harp that is played on the musician’s knee) has even more strings than an oud and we watch in awe of the lightening hand movements coaxing the music from the strings.
Not only can you learn to play here, you can also buy your very own professionally-crafted oud. The workshop is a dusty treasure chest of rich wood – Sherine picks up a small oud used for teaching children and shows us the work in progress. And we’re sorely tempted to open up our purse!
We’re a bit sad when it’s time to go, the time has just flown by. Bait El Oud is one of those places where you can immediately feel at home. With its commitment to keeping traditional music on centre stage and inclusive philosophy (all nationalities are welcome here) we feel as though we’ve found a little bit of history still alive and kicking in this modern age. Sherine made us promise to visit again, so we think we just might.
Sarah Widdup
