That’s right, I spoke to Marcel Khalife tonight! When I introduced myself as an Oud player, he said, “do you have your oud with you?” I said, “yes, I do. It’s in the car.” He then asked me to go get it!

I came back with my Oud and played a little music for him, and even played a few lines from his own compositions when he wasn’t expecting it and he became happy.

Without inspecting my Oud from up close he said, “that’s an Iraqi Oud you have, right?”. And he recognized the technique I used in plucking the strings, Al-reesha Al-maqlooba (reversed plectrum), as being one of the most famous techniques of the Iraqi school of music.

As a parting question, he left me with a very interesting piece of advice: “The only way to improve (as a musician) is by rebelling against everything you know. REBEL!”


7 Responses to “..I had a chance chat with one of my heroes! (Or: “here’s to rebellion”)”

  1. 1 Lorena

    My dear friend!! long time dont heard from you ..and not even read your blog …im so happy to hear that you had play music for Marcel Khalife .. he is one of my favorites also .. Im just wondering what kind of faces he make when you start playing his music? .. Im so glad that you are doing fine Hassan !

    Ramadan Kareem ! and Eid mubarak if i dont see you before !

  2. 2 BuZain

    I’m very glad that you had the chance to meet your hero, and what a hero you met. I see from your words that he touched you deep and elevated you to a new level of rebellion. Now indulge us in some musical masterpiece driven by this new rapture :)

  3. 3 amal

    ya7ya al tamarod
    ta7ya al thawra ;)

  4. 4 hasan

    Yes! Another fellow rebel!

  5. 5 hasan

    Lorena,

    Thank you for your message. The only face he made was a smile.
    Hope you have a good Ramadan and Eid.

  6. 6 hasan

    BuZain,

    I have something in the works. I’ll let you know once it’s done.

  7. 7 batates777

    Wow, you met marcel Khalifa ! n yo even were able to play infront of him !!
    am not envyin you !:) You know , Marcel had a performance here in cairo like 2 yrs back , and that was like the first concert in so many yrz ! maybe the first ever ” though I heard he performed here before he got banned ! ”
    anyway the tickets for that concert were sold out months before the concert time , they hd even to reserve some other place ” other than the concert place ” with monitors and screens around to let ppl attend to that event !
    Good for you then that you hd that once- in alifetime chance :)

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