Inside Arabic Music is is an absolute treasure for anyone looking to learn more about Arabic music and maqam, specifically as it relates to the "Golden Age" of Arabic music from the 1930s-1970s where Arabic music moved away from the…
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Jan 10 2022
Parfum de Gitane (aka Itr al-Ghajar) عطر الغجر
Here's my transcription of one Anouar Brahem's most popular pieces, Parfum de Gitane. This sheet music is based on the version he plays on "Astrakan Cafe," which has some minor differences from the version he plays on "Barzakh."
This is…

Jan 9 2022
Oud Position Study - Etude for first course
This is a little exercise I wrote to practice the higher positions and achieving consistent intonation on the oud. The notes are all C major on the first string.
I suggest following the fingerings exactly to get the intended benefits…

Jan 8 2022
Lecon du Oud (Oud Lesson) - Anouar Brahem
I thought I'd repost some old transcriptions. Yesterday's post of Anouar Brahem's "The Astounding Eyes of Rita" reminded me of some older transcriptions of his music that I did ages ago.
I'd posted some of these ages ago on my…

Jan 7 2022
The Whole-Tone Pentatonic Scale
This is a sound that (if memory serves) I first noticed when transcribing John Coltrane's solo on "I Hear A Rhapsody" from his 1957 album "Lush Life." I don't think I've ever come across anyone discussing this particular scale, so…
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Jan 7 2022
"Zhivago" lick, Part 2
(Note: Originally published November 2009 - accidentally deleted, so reposting)
In the previous post, I put up a transcription of a signature line from Kurt Rosenwinkel's solo on "Zhivago" from The Next Step. The line is basically planing a…
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Jan 7 2022
Anouar Brahem - The Astounding Eyes of Rita
UPDATE: I made a condensed “lead sheet” version of this tune for performance purposes here:
https://brianprunka.com/words/blog/7225197/update-the-astounding-eyes-of-rita-anouar-brahem
I've always been a fan of Anouar Brahem. He's one of the first oud players I heard and is partly responsible for inspiring me…
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Jan 7 2022
New Year - Old Posts
Once upon a time, I tried to blog about things I was practicing related to jazz. Over the past several years, I've been much more focused on Arabic music and the oud, but I thought I'd repost my old musings…
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Jun 21 2019
Freedom and Limitations
I find myself thinking about this topic with some regularity. It seems to me that “freedom” is often presented as a linear scale, with “limitations” in opposition to freedom, as if limitations are like chains that prevent us from being…
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Jun 4 2019
Here's where it starts
I'm going to be using this space to share what projects I'm working on, what I've been thinking about, and anything else I find interesting or cool.
I just finished composing some original music for a short documentary film, Beirut…
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Feb 8 2015
Key-oriented perspective
It's very common in jazz education to encourage a chord-oriented perspective on improvisation. In many ways, this makes a lot of sense and can be a valuable way of analyzing the music. However, it runs the risk of one failing…
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Mar 27 2012
"Bill Evans"-derived Rootless voicings for guitar, part 2
Here are more rootless voicings for guitar, based on the "Bill Evans" left-hand style voicings.
These are mostly drop-2 chords, so unlike Evans's close voicings, these are open voicings. This does change the character of the sonority considerably; if the…