Taste of Salem's Oud
 

As an admirable Oud virtuoso Salem Abdul-Karem has a very distinguished style regarding his performing and composing for Oud well known since many years with many aspects. Among these aspects there is a very rich tones,very high technique depending on a deep understanding of Oud as an Oriental string Instrument and his own tuning which he developed it on a mathematical basis
Salem worked very hard to expand the compass of Oud horizontally and vertically.

     Horizontally by enlarge the scope of notes[tones]that can be played on Oud to the degree that make Salem as the first and the only Oud virtuoso who can achieve complete four[4] chromatic octaves on Oud.

     Vertically Salem developed many technique aspects such as chords,left hand technique, right hand technique, harmonics (artificial&natural), double stops, pizzicato, right hand fingers, etc..

Because of his mastering on all these technique aspects and because of his distinguished talents he could arranged many musical pieces originally written for other instruments like Piano, Guitar, Violin, 'Cello or symphonic orchestra and played it on Oud in an attractive manners with a great success.
 

Among these we can mention as samples:

1. Czardas.......................Monte.............[originally written for Violin].
2. Caprice 24..................Paganini........[originally written for Violin].
3. For Elisa......................Beethoven.....[originally written for Piano].
4. Love Story...................F.Lee..............[originally written for Piano].
5. Turkish March.............Mozart............[originally written for Piano].
6. Prelude........................Bach...............[originally written for Organ].
7. Asturias.......................I.Albaniz..........[originally written for Piano].
8. Hungarian Dance No.5.....Brahms.............[originally written for Symphonic Orchestra].
9. Swards Dance.................Khatchadorian...[originally written for Symphonic Orchestra].
    

On the other hand Salem put in his mind that in spite of advance technique he did for the Oud,he used to keep the Oriental,Arabic and Iraqi flavor for his Oud,so he could with a great success achieve both parts of a very hard equation,i.e to become contemporary and at the same time to maintenance the real soil of the traditional spirit of the Oud.
Salem since many years get a full success in this direction, we can see this very clear in his playing with symphony Orchestra or in his solo recitals,in his marvelous arraignment for world wide music pieces he arranged it for Oud or when he performing his own compositions or improvisations.
In brief his scope of performing is very wild,from classic music to Iraqi maqam passing by Arabic,traditional and contemporary music for many ages,culture and countries.
For this and also for many other factors Salem Abdul-Karem known now as number one Oud virtuoso all over the world.
 

To listen to salems's Oud click here