Personal Performances

In this podcast I show the more intimate side of my music and career.  I play longer and more personal improvisations than I do in a concert setting or on recordings, play some of my new compositions, and interview and jam with my musical colleagues and friends. To download the podcasts & read more about each individual episode, please visit the podcast blog page: http://shumays.libsyn.com. To subscribe, you can go to the various services where I am listed, such as the itunes music store & podcast pickle or just enter the rss feed into your podcatcher: http://shumays.libsyn.com/rss

Maqam Lessons

The essence of maqam is melody.

To learn maqam, you have to learn the repertory of melodies that define each maqam. Improvising in a maqam is like speaking a language, in the sense that once you know the vocabulary and syntax of the language, you can speak freely in it. The words of this musical language are not the notes of the scale, but rather the short melodic phrases, which can be put together to make coherent melodies. And the syntax is contained in those melodies and combinations of melodies.

So to understand maqam, you have to absorb a large body of these melodies (just as a child learns many words), and the easiest way to learn them is by imitation.

These lessons are structured so as to give you short enough melodies that you can imitate them, but long enough that they make musical sense. The way one melody follows another illustrates the syntax of the maqam.

This is how I teach my private students as well as group classes: I play or sing a short melody, and ask the students to play or sing it back to me. For instrumentalists, it is very important to sing these melodies as well as to play them, because by singing, the melodies sink deeper into the ear. In these lessons, I play a melody and leave enough time for the student to play or sing it back. In some cases, I play the melody again, leaving the student the option to play along with me after listening once.

The key to benefiting from this style of teaching is to listen for 1) the first note of the phrase, 2) the last note of the phrase, and 3) the rhythmic structure of the phrase. The details and ornaments are not so important at first, but I don’t leave them out, for several reasons. First, I want students to hear the melodies as they are actually played, not in some artificially simplified form. And second, I want to give enough detail that more advanced students can benefit from, and even beginning students can approach after multiple listenings. But I am always stressing to my students that they should leave out the ornaments if they get bogged down in trying to execute them, and end up losing the rhythmic continuity of the phrase. The rhythm is really the most important element (as it is in all music), and in the case of these phrases, the rhythmic energy defines the whole shape and contour of what is going on. So don’t get bogged down in details you can’t catch at first—rather, try your best to imitate my phrase rhythm. If you go through the whole lesson, and then repeat it several times, you will find that each time you will catch more detail.

My intended format for these lessons is 7-10 minutes, 2-3 times a week. There are several reasons for this. Part of my intention is for these lessons to serve as a supplement for my own private students, who I think need to hear and work on these melodies more than once a week (or once every two weeks). The more you hear melodies, which at first may be unfamiliar, the more they will sink in. Many students record lessons, but end up not listening to them, because they have to sift through all of the talking, and they don’t want to hear themselves play, etc. I took lessons like this in Syria, when I was learning, and recorded all of them on mini-disc (those were the days), and hardly ever listened to them. I benefited mostly because I was taking lessons every day.

These lessons are intended to be repeated. It is better to go through the whole thing straight through, to get a feel for the whole maqam I am presenting, and then to go through it again. Once you have gone through it a few times all the way through, then and only then, stop at the sections you have had trouble with, and repeat them over and over. Therefore, a 7-10 minute lesson of this format can be used for almost an hour of practicing. You could practice on it for a whole week, but I feel that it is better to repeat new melodies, or variations on those melodies, than to stick with the same ones for too long. This is why it is better to have a new practice lesson 2 or 3 times a week. You want to learn the feel of the whole system, which means hearing many many possible variations and combinations. (It is not good to learn things only one way.) You also want to learn to imitate a wide variety of phrases, as that is an important skill in Arabic music. Instrumentalists follow, imitate, and answer vocalists all the time.

You will notice in these lessons that I give short phrases, easy enough for beginners, as well as longer phrases, which will sometimes be a little difficult at first. The more you practice imitating & learning by ear in this style, the longer the phrases you will be able to hear once and imitate. In developing this skill, it is important to try to imitate things that seem difficult to you at first.

I am also trying to develop these skills in you—not only the skill of imitation, but also the awareness of each maqam and the typical phrases associated with it—so that you can then go and find other sources and learn from them. There is a wealth of Arabic music available, especially on the internet, and if you know how to learn properly, you can study all of it in careful detail. Once you know how to imitate my improvisations, you can do that with any improvisation you find and like. I encourage you to find many sources other than myself, as I found multiple teachers and sources for the music I know.

These lessons are delivered in podcast format, which means that once you subscribe to the feed (http://maqamlessons.com/rss) (or go on iTunes and search podcasts for “maqam lessons”), you will receive the lessons automatically. Subscribe to the feed once you’ve decided to take them, rather than downloading them from the blog page (www.maqamlessons.com) each time, because getting them regularly will encourage you to use them & then move on to the next one.

I thought about charging per lesson, but I decided that I would rather make them available for free with a suggested donation. That way, I don’t have to mess with the podcast delivery system. Also it gives many people the opportunity to try lessons for free to see if they really benefit from them. So try the lessons, and if you benefit, then make a payment that you feel appropriate. My suggestion is $2-$5 per lesson, but please don’t pay me per lesson. Paypal charges a per-transaction fee, so if you pay me for every lesson you take, I lose money. Instead, pay me every two weeks or month depending on what you feel your usage and benefit is. If you are one of my private students, take the lessons for free, because you are already contributing to my livelihood, and you can consider these lessons an extension & supplement of our private work.

I have several requests.

   1. If you want to share these lessons with anybody else, please refer them to this page, the blog page, or the feed, rather than sending them the mp3 directly.

   2. Please do not sample these lessons in your music. I probably won’t find out if you do, but it is a violation of the trust I place in all of you by making this material available. I can be hired to play for any recording session, at affordable rates. And I am happy to do so.

   3. Please cancel your subscription if you decide you no longer want the lessons. I will be monitoring the download statistics, and if I find that there are vastly more people that are downloading the lessons than are paying, I will look into ways to start charging for them. I don’t want to do that. I don’t mind if there is some discrepancy—after all, I want people to try the lessons for free before they donate, I want my private students to take them for free, and I don’t mind if others take them for free because they can’t afford it—I would rather anybody take the lesson and not pay, than not take the lesson at all. However, if I find that there are 3 or 4 times as many downloads as payments, I will start to feel taken advantage of. Therefore, cancel your subscription if you no longer want the lessons, because automatic downloads into your box that you don’t use will throw off my statistics.

   4. Please give me any feedback you have about the lessons. Email me at abushumays@samimusicworld.com with something like “maqam lessons” in the subject heading, so I know it is not spam.