OudMaster is one of the easiest ways to learn reading music and playing the Oud. It is divided into two sections: Practice and Tutor.
Start with the practice screen and learn the names of the notes, their positions on the staff and where to play them on the Oud. Choose one of a dozen common tunings. Choose the octave or string you want to practice and check your stats to see what notes you need to work on.
Once you've mastered reading and fingering, move on to the Tutor screen and learn how to play complete songs.
You will be able listen to the song, watch it being played on the Oud and highlighted on the sheet music. You can slow the music down, speed it up and select the notes you want to practice. Turn on looping mode to hear and watch the selected notes play over and over.
You will improve your music reading skills and learn how to play real songs on one the most wonderful musical instruments.
The practice section is designed to help you read music (G-Clef) and learn the finger positions of the notes on the Oud.
It is assumed that you have some basic music experience.
You start by tapping the play button (labeled “Start Here”). You will be shown a note on the staff.
In figure 1, that note is a G (Sol). You tap the G position on the fingerboard (labeled G/Sol) and the note will be displayed in the note window (labeled “Previous Note”).
If you tap the wrong position, for example A instead of G, A will be shown in red (not displayed in the screenshot).
In the end, you will get a score and an accuracy value. You should aim for a score better than the target displayed under “Tempo”.
You can tap the «Accuracy histograms» buttons to get a visual idea of your performance.
Tapping the button labeled “Note overlay” will show you where the notes are on the Oud fingerboard. This depends on the selected tuning.
Various aspects of the Practice section are controlled by the “Settings”. This includes the tuning, the note display (ABC or DoReMi), whether the Octave is displayed or not, etc…
You can also select “listening mode” instead of “reading mode” to train your ear, although this is more difficult.
If you have purchased the “Unlock all practice levels”, then you can can select which string you would like to practice and whether you want to practice sharps/flats and quarter tones.
You can also use a real Oud instead of the virtual fingerboard.
In this section, you learn how to play an entire song. To load a song, tap the «Music Folder» button and select the desired song from the menu.
Use the «Play», «Stop» and «Pause» buttons to control playback.
Use the «Time slider» to move to a desired section of the music sheet.
The «Tempo slider» allows you slow down or speed up the music.
The «Loop» button is for continuous repeat. It is handy for use with the «Play selection» to learn a particular passage. To select a passage, tap and hold your finger on the desired section of the music sheet until the selection dialog appears. Adjust your selection and tap the Ok button (green checkmark). To cancel the selection, tap and hold your finger on the selection until the dialog appears, then hit the cancel button (red x).
The «Screen on» button keeps the screen from sleeping while you practice. If you don“t use it, you have to tap the screen frequently to keep it on.
The «Hide fingerboard» button, puts the sheet music in full screen mode.
To hide/show the note overlay on the fingerboard, tap the «Hide overlay» button.
During playback, the finger positions are highlighted on the fingerboard. For open strings (string plucked without using the left hand), the positions marked «Open strings» are highlighted.
Audio: toggle audio on and off
Auto-play: automatically start playing a song when it“s loaded.
Solfege Notes: Show ABC or Do Re Mi notes
Display Octave: Show/Hide octave numbers in notes.
All Songs: Display all songs, or just the purchased ones in the song selection menu.
Cursor: Choose the note highlight style during playback (solid cursor or change note color).
Scrolling: Left/right scroll wheel to control the sheet music scrolling mode. Swipe left or right to change the scroll mode. In «Continuous» mode, the sheet music scrolls slowly off the screen as notes are played. In «Staff» mode, the music sheet is scrolled one staff at time. In «Page» mode, it is scrolled one page at a time.
Left handed: Switches between left-handed and right-handed Ouds.
Flipped fingerboard: Flips the fingerboard so that higher pitch strings are on top.
Tuning: 10 different tuning presets as well as a custom tuning. It’s a scroll wheel that scrolls left and right. Just slide your finger left or right to expose the different presets.
Oud: Choose between virtual and real Ouds. Swipe left or right to change the Oud. This works only in Practice mode. When a note is displayed or sounded (listening mode), you can pluck the corresponding string on your real Oud instead of tapping on the screen. Unlocked when you purchase «Unlock all practice levels».
Mode: Currently only one practice mode is supported, so this settings cannot be changed.
Type: Swipe left or right to switch between reading and ear training.
Left: Swipe left or right to change the difficulty from ‘Easy’ to ‘Moderate’ (sharps and flats) or ‘Hard’ (semi-sharps and semi-flats). Unlocked when you purchase «Unlock all practice levels».
Practice: Swipe left or right to select which individual octaves or strings to practice. This allows you to focus on the problem areas. Unlocked when you purchase «Unlock all practice levels».