Maqam Hijaz mini-course

Learn to recite with a simple, beautiful, easy to follow tune!

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Almost every day I get emails from readers like yourself, saying things like this - these are real quotes by the way:

  • “I tend to keep a similar tune the whole qiraat”
  • “I read one ayat and it sounds nice but the next one sounds not so nice. and it's difficult to read the entire surah in one beautiful tune”
  • “I don’t know which maqam will suit me … I don’t know which maqam should I pick … I don’t know which maqam is suitable for beginners”
  • “I have difficulty hearing a tone and figuring out where to go high and where to go low.”
  • “Alhamdulillah my tajweed is good … my only problem is that i don’t like my tone” 

In fact, check out this one email I received from a sister:

 You’ll notice three things in her email:

One: She recites with correct tajweed …  

Two: yet she still struggles to recite with a melody …  

and Three: she feels her recitation is boring and she wants to recite with more emotion  

Let’s look at this a bit further … Why are so many struggling to recite with a tune?

From the emails I get from readers like yourself, I know that this is something that you’re struggling with. You know that you want to improve your tune, but you’re not really sure where to start. You know that when you listen to your favourite reciter, you feel something that’s not quite there when you recite on your own. The emotion you feel, the connection to the words, meanings, and stories - it’s tangible - you’re no longer just hearing with your ears; you can feel the ayat being recited, and your heart reacts to that ...  

But when you try to recite with a tune, it’s just not coming out the way you want it to. Maybe you asked someone about this, and they told you “don’t worry just focus on tajweed”. But you did that (alhamdulillah!) but you’re still not happy with your tune. Or maybe you tried to learn on your own - spending hours going from one YouTube clip to another, only to find yourself still stuck in the same place. “How exactly does this whole maqamat thing work, and why is it so hard for me to learn a maqam? Will I ever be able to recite with a tune, or is this just the way my voice is?”

What if reciting in a tune wasn’t as hard as you thought it might be?

I get it - it can seem daunting at first - you're jumping from one youtube clip to the next, listening to one maqamat example after another, and it seems like it just comes so naturally to the reciter. And you’re listening intently - sometimes you close your eyes and you start to get a feel for the tune - but then you try to repeat after them ... and it all slips away ...  

What if you could recite with a tune, and experience even some of the joy of reciting beautifully? What if you could recite with emotion, and actually enjoy the sound of your own recitation? What if you could carry a tune while reciting aloud in Isha, or maybe when you sit down with your mushaf after a long day at work?  

Alhamdulillah for the past eight years, I’ve been teaching the art of recitation and maqamat - helping others like you to recite Quran beautifully. Today I want to tell you about my newest course, designed to help you experience the joy of reciting beautifully ...  

Introducing the Maqam Hijaz mini-course

Introducing the Maqam Hijaz mini-course, a unique online course that will introduce you to the study of maqamat. We’ll cover the structure and pattern for maqam hijaz, show you how to implement it, and practice it in reading so that you can build a feel for it and begin to use it in your recitation.

This is an introductory maqamat course, with an exclusive focus on maqam hijaz. Rather than lightly touching several maqamat, we'll focus on practicing one maqam to help you build a feel for it so that you can use it in your recitation. More importantly, you'll also learn how maqamat work - for almost everyone this is a huge aha! moment, because before this you might listen. and listen. and listen more - but still you're not quite sure why or how a certain maqam sounds the way it does. You'll start to build your ear to be able to hear differences in pitch so that you can understand how maqamat are put together. This is a skill that will help you later on when and if you decide to go further with learning more maqamat.

No more guessing how to go up and down!

So here's the thing: for each maqam there's a pattern - a "key" if you will. Essentially it's a general pattern of how to go up and down in pitch - it's a pattern of pitch progression. Go up a certain way, and it will sound like bayati. Go up a different way, and it becomes hijaz. Once you know that pattern, it becomes a lot easier to follow and implement in your recitation.  

Sounds easy? It's definitely not a piece of cake - there's still the problem of making sure you're properly following the pattern. But having the pattern, and having a capable instructor explain it to you, definitely helps get things moving in the right direction.  

In our Maqam Hijaz mini-course, we start from the ground up - breaking down the structure and pattern of maqam hijaz, so that you can understand how the maqam gets its sound, and more importantly so that you can begin to implement the pattern in your own recitation.  

In the course we'll actually draw out the pattern, so you can follow along visually. No more guessing how to go up and down - we’ll show you exactly how to go up and down so that you can implement maqam hijaz in your recitation. This is a huge 'aha' moment for a lot of my students - going from "I have no idea what's going on" to "Ah so that's how it works!".

"Maqam hijaz course was absolutely amazing"

"Alhamdulillah the maqam hijaz course was absolutely amazing - I managed to feel after this course of course much more confident in reciting the quran, less self-conscious regarding my tune and subhanallah the maqam hijaz flows every time without me even having to think about it."

(Talha Shaikh, UK) 

How this course works:

  • This is an online, self-study course consisting of six main video lessons, plus additional short audio practice exercises.
  • You will get immediate access to the full course, and you can go through the lessons as quickly or as slowly as you'd like. Four to six weeks would be ideal, to give yourself time to fully digest and practice what you're learning - but you could certainly go through the material faster and then spend more time afterwards to practice.
  • In between the main lessons, there are additional short audio exercises to help you practice what you learned.  

"Perfectly catered to my busy schedule"

"For student like me, this course perfectly catered to my busy schedule, and absolutely met my expectations. Since it was only a short course, the course materials that was taught wasn't overwhelming, but was ample and well spaced out. I was new to this subject and had no background in maqamat - this was perfect to get a feel of how things go in learning maqamat. One thing I found interesting was how each maqam has a specific tune, and Maqam Hijaz has its own specific tune, so now I was able to recognize certain Qaris who used this maqamat."

(Saba Shaikh, USA) 

Here’s what you can expect to learn in this program

Lesson One: Introduction to the structure of maqamat - we’ll answer the question “what exactly is a maqam?” - and we’ll introduce the topic of ear training - how to train your ears to hear the pattern of a maqam.  

Lesson Two: The basic pattern of maqam hijaz - this is a huge aha! moment for many of our students, as you’ll be able to finally understand how maqam hijaz gets its sound.  

Lesson Three: How to apply the pattern of hijaz - here we’ll learn how to take the tune pattern we’ve learned, and actually implement it in short ayahs. This is another aha! moment for students - as you’ll see how the recitation in hijaz is actually based on following our simple pattern.  

Lesson Four: Reading in hijaz - in the previous lesson we were focused more on the pattern of the maqam in individual ayahs, but here we’ll zoom out and build a feel for reading longer sections in maqam hijaz.  

Lesson Five: Advanced patterns in hijaz - once you have a grasp of the basic pattern for hijaz, it’s time to add more! Here, we’ll learn a few additional patterns for hijaz that will help your implementation of hijaz sound even more beautiful! You’ll likely recognize these patterns from your favourite recitations!  

Lesson Six: Further reading in hijaz - here we’ll once again zoom out and practice reciting in hijaz, this time adding the additional patterns we covered in lesson five. The purpose here is not to solely focus on the pattern, but rather to recite together to help strengthen your feel for the maqam.

"Very well structured ... the progression is well-thought out ... in an organized, step by step manner"

"I really enjoyed Idrees Ally's hijaz mini-course. It was very well structured and went from basically zero to actually doing some more advanced recitation in a very short time. It is clear that the progression is well-thought out - much more so than in other online maqamat courses that I have experienced. What I enjoyed the most is that you present the subject in an organized, step by step manner, which gave me a sense of direction. I enjoyed the way you explained the hijaz pattern visually (with the lines at different heights) which made it very easy and approachable for people with little-to-no experience. I sincerely recommend this course if you want a clear, guided introduction to Hijaz, and maqamat in general."

(Suleyman, Spain)

Let me answer your questions

When is this course taking place? This is a self-paced, online video course that you can go through at your own convenience. You will get immediate access to the full course, and you do not need to attend live at any fixed date or time. This is the self-study, recorded version of a course that we previously ran live - it includes the full recordings of the main lessons and supplementary practice audios.

What can I reasonably expect from taking this course? Will I master maqam hijaz by the end of six weeks? Mastery (of anything) takes a long time, so it would be unreasonable to expect that. This is not a magic pill - you will need to take what you learn and put in time to practice. In this course, we will teach the pattern for maqam hijaz, show you how to implement it in your recitation, and we’ll practice it in reading so that you can build a feel for it and begin to implement it in your recitation.

What if I’m tone-deaf? Most people who think they’re tone-deaf are not truly tone-deaf - they just haven’t done much practice in this regard, or they haven’t learned a structure/pattern to base their recitation on. I’ve worked with students who thought they were tone-deaf, only to have them reciting in a tune within a few weeks. A minority of students may have difficulty in this regard, and may need to spend a bit more time on ear training.  

I want to learn another maqam! From my experience, maqam hijaz is an excellent start for most students. It offers a good bang-for-your-buck in terms of being fairly easier to learn, yet still sounding really beautiful. Some other maqams may not necessarily sound that great in their most basic of forms. In this course, we’ll also cover the foundation - you’ll understand how maqamat are put together. This is a skill that will help you later on if and when you decide to go further with learning more maqamat.  

Join the Maqam Hijaz mini-course

Begin your maqamat journey - Click below to register now for the Maqam Hijaz mini-course for a single payment of $97 USD, or you can split it into two payments of $49 USD

Join now - single payment of $97

On the fence? Here’s what past students have said about this program:

"I liked the way you broke down the pattern of the maqam in a simple way that I could practice"

"I've tried listening to different maqamat and have only been able to get a feel of the emotions that are associated with it, but could never distinguish between them at all. I liked the way you broke down the pattern of the maqam in a simple way that I could practice. I liked the idea of focusing on one and feeling comfortable with it before moving on. I feel like I now understand maqam hijaz on a very basic level which is a huge success in my opinion. Every class, more and more things started to make sense to me and I kind of just added on what I knew every week. Overall, I loved it and I don't know of any other classes like it so I'm extremely grateful."

(Janna Soliman, USA)

"Definitely exceeded expectations"

"Thank you for providing this course - it was very useful, informative and definitely exceeded expectations. I do believe the most significant thing is the course structure, especially with regards to timing. With this course there is a set webinar, at a specific time, for 4 weeks (very reasonable), with some practice lessons to do during the week, so from my perspective (and I am sure many others) this was very effective. Of course, the content was great and everything you mentioned during the webinars was an "aha" moment, especially as the course goes on and when you connect the dots. Finally, I would just like to say I am very happy that I stumbled across your site and joined both courses (and hopefully more to come!). May Allah reward and bless you and your family."

(Anonymous, USA)

"My recitation is now better than it was before!"

"The hijaz course was fantastic and it was a great way to start in the maqamat field. To be honest it exceed my expectations because the sheikh was following us in every step with extra practices. I felt a bit stuck in the first lessons where it was very difficult for me to understand the pattern, but through practice every thing got better. Even though I need to keep practicing, my recitation is now better than it was before!"

(Mohamed Sow, Italy)

"Maybe one day my kids will be your students too!"

"Maqamat has always been a mystery to me, but through this course I got an insight into the maqamat. A lot of things have been made clear - I learned basics and it’s helpful in building up on it. I have already started looking into other maqamat and understood those. Alhamdulillah by the third class and with some practice it was very rewarding and those were "yes i know now", "i got it" moments. Please keep doing the good work, so far you are the only teacher I came across who is doing this work in english language. so, JazakAllah khairan katheeran for making this knowledge available to us. and inshaAllah maybe one day my kids will be your students too!"

(Hanan Mohammed, USA)

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