Jins kurd is built from the semitone offsets 0, 1, 3, 5 — a minor second first, then a whole step, then another whole step. Anyone who has studied Western modes will recognise that shape immediately: it is the lower tetrachord of a Phrygian scale, note for note. Maqam kurd is often introduced to Western-trained players as "the easy one" for exactly this reason — the ear already owns the interval pattern, even if it has never heard the name jins kurd before.
That overlap is not a coincidence this site is smoothing over; it is a genuine, exact match between two independently named traditions, and it is precisely why kurd belongs on this page alongside hijaz and nahawand: every one of its four tones sits on a real twelve-tone equal-tempered pitch class, with no neutral second or neutral third anywhere in the shape. A position chart for jins kurd is not an approximation of the tradition — it is the tradition, drawn exactly.
Positions on every course, rooted on C
The table below is derived, not typed by hand: for the root C, every one of the jins's four pitch classes is checked against each of the oud's six courses, and its POSITION on that course — semitones above that course's own open string, within the twelve-position board this fretless neck is approximated with — is recorded. Course 1 is the highest-pitched course, course 6 the lowest, the same numbering the chord and scale pages use.
| Course | Open note | Positions (semitones above the open course) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | C (4th octave) | 0, 1, 3, 5 |
| 2 | G (3rd octave) | 5, 6, 8, 10 |
| 3 | D (3rd octave) | 1, 3, 10, 11 |
| 4 | A (2nd octave) | 3, 4, 6, 8 |
| 5 | F (2nd octave) | 0, 7, 8, 10 |
| 6 | C (2nd octave) | 0, 1, 3, 5 |
As with every jins this site charts, courses 1 and 6 carry identical position sets — both are tuned to C, two octaves apart, so any tetrachord rooted on C always lands on the same twelve positions on both of them. That pairing is a fact about the C-F-A-D-G-C tuning itself, unrelated to which jins you are tracing.
Hearing it against what you already know
Because this shape doubles as a Phrygian tetrachord, the fastest way to internalise it is to play it exactly like one first, on a single course, without thinking about maqam vocabulary at all. Once the four-note shape is comfortable, the real work starts: a jins is a melodic cell to travel THROUGH, joined to a neighbouring jins at a shared tone, rather than a fixed scale to sit inside for a whole phrase the way a Western mode usually is. Try landing on the fourth tone and treating it as a new, temporary root — that hand-off is the maqam habit this exercise is meant to build.
Where it sits
Set this tetrachord's four tones beside a tertian triad on C major on the oud to feel the difference between a four-note cell built for travelling and a three-note chord built for sustaining. Then keep the shift itself honest with the daily drills, which practise clean left-hand movement independent of any one jins.