Thursday 24 May 2007

JC's ABC Tune Finder

Design: Thierry Chabanis
http://perso.orange.fr/youkoustudio/












You are looking for the melody of a certain tune? Here's a great finder. Just type in the name of the tune and you'll find the abc-file.

http://banwarth.free.fr/finder.htm

Often there are gif files with notation and midi files available, too.

Tuesday 22 May 2007

Christy Moore, Declan Sinnot, Donal Lunny

Bad video quality and sound and movie are not in sync. But a great song. You don't see much of Donal. Just sit back and listen.

Monday 21 May 2007

Sofia Karlsson

Sofia Karlsson is a Swedish singer, bouzouki and wooden flute player. In her homeland she is well known.





Listen to her new single at:
http://www.myspace.com/sofiakarlsson

Her website:
http://www.sofiakarlsson.com/

EXPLORING THE BOUZOUKI by Jim Cowdery


I haven't got this book yet, but I think I will buy it soon. Does anyone has got it? What do you think about it? Please leave a comment.







You can buy it at:

http://www.andysfronthall.com/paypal/fhbooks.html

or here:

http://elderly.com/also/books/items/40-4.htm

Plan for building bouzouki




If you are looking for a plan to build a bouzouki there are some websites which may be of interest:

You can buy the plan on the right here:
https://luth.org




And here's an article of building one of them:
https://hilmarhanssoninstruments.blogspot.com/2013/06/georges-irish-bouzouki.html


Dunwell guitar: Let's build a bouzouki:
http://www.dunwellguitar.com/BuildBouzouki/BuildZouk1.htm

Here's an article on building a bouzouki from McDonald Strings:

http://www.mcdonaldstrings.com/docs/bb_moulded_soundboards.pdf

This book might be a good start:
https://www.amazon.com/Bouzouki-Book-Workshop-Building-Bouzoukis/dp/0646436023

Or use a kit for building your instrument:


http://flipflopflyers.com/bouzouki/

Musichord 3.0 - Chords for Bouzouki



If you are looking for a program which is able to show chords and much more have a look at this:

http://www.rpsoft2000.com/music/mandolin-chord.htm

Here's what they say on the website:

If you have a mandolin, cittern or bouzouki and are looking for a chord reference for its specific tunings, we believe that Musicord 3.0 is very much the right place to look. Musicord 3.0 will handle string instruments of 4, 5 or 6 "courses" of strings. By "course" we mean sets of either one string, a string pair, or a string triplet. The actual image shows the "courses" (fingering positions) and not all of the strings for multi-string instruments as mandolins, bouzoukis and citterns. So an 8 string mandolin or an 8 string bouzouki will each be displayed as a 4 string instrument. A ten string cittern will be displayed as a five string instrument.

Both right hand viewing and left hand viewing is available. Also "capo" or bar fingering down the neck or fretboard of the instrument. Many presets are available for what we understand may be the more common tuning for mandolins, bouzoukis and citterns. If none of these preset string tunings work for you, Musicord also allows setting up a custom string tuning - and even the save of a set of custom tuned stringed instruments to be used later.

Unfortionally this programm isn't available for MAC-users. So I did not test it. If you have got any experience with this program please leave a comment.

Sunday 20 May 2007

Stephen Doherty & Zac Leger

A set of two tunes. The first one is left unknown, the second one is called "The Mother Reel". http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif



Zac Leger comes from San Diege, Ca. He now is living in in Columbus, Ohio. He has got a homepage at myspace:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=86613720
Listen to the music samples there.

Stephen Doherty's page at myspace:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=141440977

Saturday 12 May 2007

Fred Morrison & Steve Byrne

Pipes and bouzouki. A nice pair.



DRD - Ende

I don't know anything about this group.



Another Video, the song "Poro":

LLAN DE CUBEL-LA CASA GRIS

Lovely Asturian folk. I love this rhythm.


Cormac Breatnach & Deiseal

Cormac Breatnach is one of my favourite low flute players. Here he plays together with the band Deiseal. Zouk Player is Niall Ó Callanain, Paul Ó Driscoll on Bass.






On this video Special Guest: Michael Mc Goldrick


Wednesday 9 May 2007

Mandolin Tablature


















Ok, this one is not really bouzouki-ish, but if you play GDAE you can use it as it is. Nigel Gatherer's Traditional Music Pages is a fine site containing lots of tunes for Mandolin, Whistle or mixed instruments. You'll find Scottish and Irish tunes there in ABC and Mandolin tab. If you play GDAD like me you have to work a little bit on the tunes. But nevertheless this one's a good plays for finding good tunes. Look at this great website and decide for yourself.

http://www.nigelgatherer.com/tunes/tab.html

Tuesday 8 May 2007

Beth Patterson - Once Again

Beth is one of my favourite Bouzouki players. I'd love to see her live, but she mostly tours the US. Here's the song Exodus with her band Kalafka.

Humberto Carás - A Olvidarte

I just found this video on youtube. Don't know anything about the two musicians but I like this song.


Strange Bouzouki - Night Rider

Look at this weird improvisation on the night rider TV theme.