[slideshow][Photo by Sebastián Rojas Cabal/The Gazelle](https://cdn.thegazelle.org/gazelle/2013/10/OUD-7.jpg);[Photo by Sebastián Rojas Cabal/The Gazelle](https://cdn.thegazelle.org/gazelle/2013/10/OUD-2.jpg);[Photo by Sebastián Rojas Cabal/The Gazelle](https://cdn.thegazelle.org/gazelle/2013/10/OUD-3.jpg);[Photo by Sebastián Rojas Cabal/The Gazelle](https://cdn.thegazelle.org/gazelle/2013/10/OUD-4.jpg);[Photo by Sebastián Rojas Cabal/The Gazelle](https://cdn.thegazelle.org/gazelle/2013/10/OUD-5.jpg);[Photo by Sebastián Rojas Cabal/The Gazelle](https://cdn.thegazelle.org/gazelle/2013/10/OUD-6.jpg);[Photo by Sebastián Rojas Cabal/The Gazelle](https://cdn.thegazelle.org/gazelle/2013/10/OUD-1.jpg)[/slideshow]

A young Ahmed Hameed was sleeping under the stars of his native Baghdad sometime in 1995 when he fell in love with the sound of the oud. As much as he liked the cello and drums, his attraction toward the pear-shaped, guitar-esque instrument was different. This attraction pushed him into buying as many cassettes by oud artists as he could find in the Iraqi capital and motivated him to study music: first in Baghdad and then in Cairo. Today, Hameed is one of two oud teachers in Bait Al Oud in Abu Dhabi.

Bait Al Oud was founded in Cairo in 1998 under the leadership of the famous Iraqi oud player Naseer Shamma with the objective of becoming a major music education hub in the region. Hameed has been involved since the early 2000s and moved from Cairo to Abu Dhabi six years ago. He considers the UAE an ideal location for a second Bait Al Oud:

“Here in the Gulf there is room for culture, especially for poetry, and poetry goes very well with this instrument,” he said.

Students at Bait Al Oud range in age between seven and sixty years old, and they can register both for private sessions and group lessons on musical theory.

“At first, it is hard for young students. They think it is difficult. But after two or three sessions all they want to do is play the oud,” Hameed said.

While the institute draws upon the teachings of the classical Iraqi school, Hameed explained that there is an Egyptian and a Turkish school as well and that the Turkish version of the instrument differs slightly from its Arab counterpart.

Hameed introduced his colleague at the workshop who demonstrated the process of making the instruments.

“It takes one month to make the perfect oud,” he said, as he pointed at the various instrument parts around the room. He also explained the many types of oud one can make:

“We want to have a good school. So we want to make different ouds. There are some smaller versions for exercises, and there are soprano, alto and bass versions of it as well,” he explained.

Hasan Hujairi is a composer, sound artist and scholar from Bahrain whose interests range from historiography to ethnomusicology. He is also an oud player and visited NYU Abu Dhabi last week as part of the Music Program Lecture Series. Contrary to what many would assume, he argues that being a Middle Eastern artist playing the oud is problematic:

“The issue is [that] audiences in this part of the world [Middle East] associate the oud with certain types of things. They are not here to listen to me; they are here to listen to something they are familiar with. Audiences abroad associate it with other kind of things. I feel that sometimes they expect you to play something Oriental. It becomes a problem,” he said.

He also runs counter to the notion of traditional musicians having to preserve culture:

“I don’t feel it is my responsibility to preserve anything.  I feel there is this big expectation on traditional musicians that it is their responsibility to preserve something that is going to be lost. But I don’t think it is ever going to be lost. The oud transforms a lot over time. It’s designed to change, not to stay the same forever. The meaning of tradition, of culture, changes over time.