Homs-Sana
For the musician Hani Mitri, teaching the oud is a great pleasure and self-fulfillment. Although he works in the field of mechanical engineering, he finds through the oud instrument a beautiful window to the achievements he achieves, including the successes of his students.
In an interview with SANA reporter, Mitri stated that every person possesses talent in a field, and this talent needs discovery, care and attention since childhood. Talent is like a precious metal that needs processing and operations to become a precious piece of art that we adorn with.
And he indicated that the credit for discovering his talent belongs to his father, who directed him to take music lessons from his early childhood, when he began to learn to play the organ, but his passion for the oud instrument increased whenever he saw his father humming on it.
He pointed out that the first oud he acquired was by the able Syrian maker, Hafez Suleiman, and he began to learn the oud, as he realized at that time that this instrument needed focused training, effort and sincerity in daily practice, to spend two and a half years later practicing on the oud instrument, and after that he decided to move towards teaching it and introducing children. And young people and young people with talent on the methods of playing it.
Regarding the peculiarity of the oud instrument, Mitri said: It is a beautiful instrument that inhabits our souls and touches the deepest feelings within us, and it always needs development in terms of interest in talents and the development of playing methods and methodology, just as Western musicians did with pianos and violins, and it also needs more development in the field of its manufacture.
Mitri pointed out that the oud is still made in craft workshops, and its manufacture depends on the experience that makers accumulate over the years of their work in this ancient craft. Although the Syrian oud has achieved wide fame in its manufacture, and its inclusion on the list of intangible human heritage is a great achievement that we are proud of, but he wished that Its industry enters the field of scientific research, and that universities contribute to this matter in order to understand the acoustic properties of wood species, especially those that grow in Syria.
He stressed the importance of working on developing manufacturing machines, adjusting the appropriate dimensions of the oud, and understanding its acoustic properties according to the rules of sound physics, methods of chemically treating wood and appropriate types of coatings, so that we can reach standard standards for making this instrument that enable us to set rules for classifying its quality.
Mitri noted that the city of Homs loves the oud, and has previously hosted many distinguished musicians and oud makers, expressing his hope that Syria will become a oud house that attracts talented children in playing or in the craft of oud making, and that they live in this house so that it will be a school that graduates creative players on the oud. world level and to be a reference for this instrument in playing and in the industry.
Lara Ahmed
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