Saturday 24 February 2007

Chris Smith - Celtic Backup


Some years ago Chris Smith released his book "Celtic Back-Up For All Instrumentalists". I havn't read it until now, but on his website there are some great articles on various aspects of folk music.

You can buy the book here:
http://www.melbay.com/product.asp?ProductID=97205BCD&Heading=Flatpicking+Guitar%3A+Rhythm%2FBackup&category=G78&catID=&head1=&head2=&sub=&sub1=&mode=


Here are some links to interesting articles on his website:

Instruction: Triplets for plucked strings
http://coyotebanjo.com/music-57.html

Instruction: Building chords
http://coyotebanjo.com/music-29.html

Instruction: Modes and modal substitutions

http://coyotebanjo.com/music-38.html

Instruction: Learning to accompany
http://coyotebanjo.com/music-40.html

Instruction: Picking jigs
http://coyotebanjo.com/music-45.html

Instruction: Time and technique

http://coyotebanjo.com/music-49.html


There are lots more tutorials on his site. Please check out for yourself.

http://coyotebanjo.com/

Tuesday 20 February 2007

Chordhouse


A site for guitarists, but you can use the advanced guitar room for bouzouki, too. Custom tunings are possible. Look for scales, notes etc on the fretboard.

http://www.looknohands.com/chordhouse/



Example for Bouzouki D major scale. Now you can figure out possible chord shapes.

Celtic Fonts


You need some Celtic fonts for your website or Groups logo? Try this website with a lot of great fonts:

http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Alley/1557/fonts2.htm#fantasy

Capo transpose helper



Here I have a little helper for all the capo-players. Just download, cut out and find the correct chords. Please tell me if you find it useful.

You can download my helper with a cute little picture of my Stevens-Bouzouki at:
http://insel.heim.at/jamaica/320453/downloadable/Transponierscheibe-Bouzouk.pdf

Stevens Bouzoukis at:

http://www.guitars.de/modelle.html#ib

You can buy a professional thing at:

www.m-fokuhl.de
They have got a patent to this helper but gave me kind permission to leave it on my website if I mention the focuhl website. Thank you very much!

Acoustic Music Webtools



Mark Klan provides us with a lot of little tools to help us make our musician's life a little bit easier.

ChordSpell, NoteFind, ChordMatch and CapoCalc are the names of the tools. Have a look at them and tell me if you find it useful.






ChordSpell: If you play a chord and don't know what http://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifit is ChordSpell can help you.
http://www.markabout.com/tools/csgf/csgfset.htm

NoteFind: You want to know where the notes are on your fretboard?
http://www.markabout.com/tools/notefind/nfset.htm

ChordMatch: You are trying to find correct chords to a melody and stuck? Try this little helper.
http://www.markabout.com/tools/chordm1.htm

CapoCalc: You have a capo on and want to calculate the chords to play?
http://www.markabout.com/tools/capocalc.htm


http://www.markabout.com/tools/

Banshees in the Kitchen


Banshees In The Kitchen, what a name!

The Banshees are a US based all female folk trio consisting of Brenda Hunter (fiddle, hammered dulcimer, Jill Egland (flute, accordion, whistle) and Mary Tulin (six- and twelve-string guitar, bouzouki).

They play a lively mix of trad tunes and songs. Currently you can find three songs and tune on youtube. I chose the one with the bouzouki playing, of course. It's called "war hent".




The Banshees website:
http://www.bansheeinthekitchen.com

Monday 12 February 2007

Gerry o' Connor & Donal Lunny - Reel

Two Zouks, a banjo and a mandolin. Who are the other musicians? If you know, please let me know.

Donal Lunny & Friends - April 3rd

Great example of Donal's world music approach. You only see Donal for a very short while in this great video. But the music is so fine.

Sunday 11 February 2007

The Bothy Band

One of the great Celtic bands. On this video they play Pretty Peg and the reel Craig's Pipes. Pure Magic.

Saturday 10 February 2007

John McGann - Bouzouki Book


About two years ago John McGann published his book "A guide to Octave Mandolin & Bouzouki". It's a great collection of instrumental tunes arranged for these instruments. There are both melody and rhythm lines notated and recorded on the CD.


Myspace Mp3 Player, MySpace MP3 Players, Flash MP3 PlayersCheck out this MySpace MP3 Player!


Monday 5 February 2007

Bret Blackshear

I discovered Bret Blackshear about two years ago on CD-Baby Records
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/blackshear

On his album he mainly plays bouzouki and sings. I don't like too many songs on the album, but it's an interesting album for zouk-players, I think. Have a listen on cd-baby.

His website:
http://www.imcurious.com/music.htm


Donal Lunny and Paul Brady

Two old heroes of mine. Donal, bouzouki player of Planxty is well known for his great rhythm playing. Together with Paul Brady they perform a track called "Nothing same story".