be an unsurpassed master. It surely attributes to Bashir's pioneering work, that nowadays oud-players are able to give solo-concerts all over the world. But during his musical development he fought against the cliché, that the oud is the oriental equivalent to the condescendingly smiled at western "campfire guitar". Tunings In many musical idioms it belongs to the tradition of stringed instruments to work with different tunings, adapted to the demands of the piece of music. Therefore, it is not surprising, that Bashir experimented with a lot of tunings. A common tuning of the Arabian oud – "Arabian" in contrast to the almost identical Turkish instrument, that has a slightly different history – is: Based on older traditions of the Iraqi oudist-school (for example the one of his older brother) Munir Bashir developed a typical tuning, that is named after him: Noticeable is the doubling of the actual "highest" course in F by another one, that is higher, but is tuned one octave lower. This trick enables a special full sound of the high melody course and complies with Bashir's interest in melodic forms. Another tuning of this kind was developed by members of the Bashir family: The player uses an F-course on the bass strings, tuned another octave lower as in the above-mentioned example; optional two F-strings can be put on, tuned in an octave-interval. Using this special tuning the melody course in the center of the fingerboard is framed by the bass courses. Tuned this way the oud has a really full sound and enables unusual melodies, but such a complex tuning system makes high demands on the picking and stopping techniques of the musician. Picking technique As with other instruments of the lute-family (among such different instruments like the mandolin and the sitar) the player makes the sound by picking the strings with a plectrum (pick). The Arabian term for the pick is reesha, which originally was made of a pinfeather of an eagle. One impressive aspect of Bashir was the precision of his risha. His style emphasized a clean risha, while most other oud players have a heavy risha. The reesha is held in the palm of one's hand, resulting in a difficultly learnable picking technique; furthermore the doubled strings have a less controllable attack than single strings. Therefore, the inevitable rhythmic reliability in fastest, asymmetric accented, melodies is a special trademark of virtuosos. Generalizing: Arabian music