Pat Kelly's Irish Summer School

And again this year's summer school in Elmstein, Germany has a workshop for Irish Bouzouki as well as numerous other courses for instruments in Irish Music. It takes place from 2nd to 8th August 2015.

The tutor for the workshop for Irish Bouzouki will be Tobias Kurig, a well known Bouzouki player from Germany. He will be joined by Colman Conolly on pipes. The course is not fully booked yet, so come on and join the fun! And of course there will be concerts and sessions every evening!

Here's a video:


and another one:


and another one:



And finally a video from the teacher's concert 2014:


Have a look at: http://www.irishmusicschool-elmstein.de/
for further details.

Wikibooks book about Irish Bouzouki in German

Some who calls himself soylent green (Remember the movie?) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_jGOKYHxaQ
startet a wikibook about the Irish Bouzouki some time ago in German. I wonder who he can be. Do I know him?
Well, the last post dates about two years ago. Nevertheless there are some good hints to be found there. Maybe some other bouzouki players may contribute to this work? I wonder, how he made the chord charts etc.? What programs do you need to produce the pictures? If anyone can help, please comment.
Here's the link to the book:
https://de.m.wikibooks.org/wiki/Irische_Bouzouki

Is there a project like this in Englisch existing, too?

Andy Irvine at Mighty Fine Guitars

Andy Irvine at Mighty Fine Guitars, Lafayette, CA, September 2012.
A Vortex Production, filmed and edited by Jeff Peach. A full concert. Many thanks to "ThreeTime Through" who posted the videos.

Andy Irvine performing at a house concert in Chico at the home of Steve & Cathy O'Bryan

Fantastic Videoshots of Andy performing on a house concert. A must-see!

Full Concert of Andy Irvine on youtube

A full Concert of Andy performed on June, 28, 2014 is to be found on youtube now. A must see for all bouzouki lovers. Nothing more to say about that.

Jens Wollschläger's ABC Transposer

This is a very useful tool if you have to transpose an abc-file from one key to another. Just paste in the abc and transpose it with the buttons on the right. And by the way look at the other pages of this website, too. It's the website of the Swiss band Sláinte and they are really worth listening. Many thanks to Jens for providing us with this tool.

You can find it here:
http://www.slainte.ch/abc.asp

Irish Bouzouki Method by Roger Landes

So here's a new Bouzouki Book which will help the beginner to get in touch with our beloved instrument. I ordered it via Amazon, it took some time but finally it arrived. The book has got 48 pages and no CD, therefore it's only 7,95€ which is a really fair price. But don't worry, the audio files which go along with the book can be heard and downloaded from the website of the publisher (halleonard.com/mylibrary). Just fill in the Enter Code from within the book and here you go.

The book itself is aimed to the absolute beginner. It starts with an introduction on the bouzouki, it's anatomy, playing position, left and right hand and tuning. A short introduction on music notation, tablature and time signatures. That's pages 1-12.

After that you'll find some open-string studies with different pickings and one page on the fretboard.

On page 18 you'll find an introduction to Double Jigs (6/8 time). Lots of exercises which bring the jig rhythm to the beginner, which isn't easy for them. But after all the studies you should understand the jig rhythm when finished page 21.

And off it goes with the first tune, a jig called "The Kinnegad Slashers". First you have the chance to learn to play the melody on your bouzouki. Then follows the accompaniment. I really like the way Roger develops the accompaniment. First he drones without chord changes. This gives a feeling for the melody and the changes in it. After four different sorts of Droning he starts to build up the rhythm, step by step, also only with droning. Really interesting! After you have tried 6 different rhythmic drones there comes an exercise with simple chords. And that's really simple chords. By the way - you won't learn many chords in this book. But that's ok.
Right after the chords follows the first introduction to counterpoints which leads to another simple chord progression. Two more counterpoint exercises and that's it for the first tune.

What I miss after that is a hint to other tunes which can be accompanied with the things just learned.

Second tune is a reel called "The sunny banks" and it is almost the same way of exercises.

Third tune is a slip Jig "Drops of brandy". This one is in the key of G. First without capo and then with capo on the 5th fret, now you can use everything you learned before.

The last tune is a reel in Em "Dunmore Lasses". Here only two chord exercises, that's all.

So for a very good price you get a well thought book for the absolute beginner. If you play the bouzouki for some time give it a try for the later exercises. I'm pretty sure you'll find some new thoughts on how to play the bouzouki.

All in all I really like the way Roger concentrates on the playing of the right hand. Most teachers concentrate on chords and on the left hand. If you want that buy another book or the fantastic DVD by Zan McLeod.

More information:
http://www.mandolincafe.com/news/publish/mandolins_001680.shtml

http://www.amazon.com/Hal-Leonard-Irish-Bouzouki-Method/dp/1423479637

JULIE FOWLIS & SPECIAL GUESTS Thatcher Set

Just got her fantastic new album. Here's a little live set from a concert at the Old  Fruitmarket, Glasgow on Jan. 22nd 2014. Eamon is playing his guitar-bouzouki. Nice set.

Aoife Scott - What you do with what you got

Fine backing for a wonderful song. Aoife Scott, born into the legendary Black Family, her mother is Frances Black, her aunt Mary. In spring she started working on her solo cd, in summer she became singer of the band "The Outside Track", a fantastic band, currently touring with the Irish Folk Festival 2013. Yesterday I saw them in Karlsruhe, fantastic show.

http://www.aoifescott.com
http://www.theoutsidetrack.com



  qrcg

James Fagan

James Fagan plays a guitar shaped bouzouki most of the time. On the first video he plays the bouzouki of Andy Clarke, which was made by Andy Manson. On the website of his Project "The James Brothers" you can find his bio, which I include here: (I hope you don't mind, James)
  http://www.thejamesbrothers.co.uk/bio_jamesfagan.php

 • Born Canberra 1972, son of Margaret and Bob Fagan. Younger sister is Kate Fagan. Together they are "The Fagans", one of Australia's best-known folk bands for 30 years.

 • Met Nancy Kerr in 1995 and formed a duo that has become on of the most popular and respected duos on the UK circuit, winners of BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for Best Duo (2003 and 2011). Together they have toured in the UK, Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

 • Main instruments - Vocals (Spiral Earth Male Vocalist of the Year in 2012). Bouzouki - James plays a Sobell guitar-shaped bouzouki.

 • Current projects: Nancy Kerr and James Fagan, The James Brothers, Melrose Quartet, Cara Dillon Band, The Fagans, Kerr Fagan Harbron, Glorystrokes

 • Record labels: Fellside (1997-2008) Navigator (2010-present) • Main musical interests: Singing, arrangement, composition, accompaniment

 • James is a sought-after session player and has appeared on albums by Martin Simpson, Eliza Carthy, Cara Dillon, Brian Finnegan, Spiers and Boden, Andy Irvine, John Kirkpatrick, Alistair Hulett. *

James teaches voice and bouzouki to undergraduate students on the Newcastle University Traditional Music Degree course.

 




One of his projects is the duo Nancy Kerr and James Fagan, where James sings and plays bouzouki and Nancy plays fiddle and sings, too. I post some of the many videos you can find on youtube.

 



http://kerrfagan.com

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Andy Clarke - Bonny Irish Maid

I already posted a video from Andy some time ago (look here): http://irish-bouzouki.blogspot.de/2013/05/andy-clarke.html Now he wrote me an E-Mail in which he suggested to put up his new video. So it's a pleasure for me to have it here on my blog. Fine singing and playing. Love this song.

Celtic Fonts

The website with celtic fonts I linked to some years ago is no longer available. So here is another website with lots of celtic fonts for free. Have fun! http://www.fontspace.com/category/celtic

Build any chord, anywhere

This is an interesting concept by a man called Frank Geiger. Made for instruments tuned in fifth. He writes, that it doesnt require reading music, knowledge of key signatures or chord spellings. Looks interesting. If you try it please comment, if it is useful for players of bouzouki. http://www.calgaryuke.com/ukerichard/tenor/Chord%20Builder%20For%20Fifths%20Tuned%20Instruments.pdf

Bouzouki Chord Chart and Fretboard Poster GDAD Tuning on ebay

This is what I found on ebay today. A poster containing the fretboard of a bouzouki GDAD tuning and some chords for $6.95 or 5,26€. Maybe this could be helpful to someone? In my opinion the price is much too high. Of course it is a good idea to put the info on a poster, so you can have a look at it if in doubt, especially for the fretboard. I did this for myself years ago and it still hangs on my wall. But the few chords are of no great help. In my opinion no chordchart is of any help for the bouzouki, because you seldom play full chords on the bouzouki. You need to have several different shapes for each chord and try everytime which one fits best into the structure of the other chords you play. But decide for yourself.

Tim O'Brien On Mandolin Warmup Exercises

Tim O'Brien speaks about Mandolin Warmup Exercises. What works on mandolin must work on bouzouki also. So have a look at it and decide for yourselves. By the way, some years ago Tim produced a DVD where he explains some of his techniques on Mandolin and Bouzouki. If you don't know it already have a look at it. I bought it some time ago and I think it's great. http://www.amazon.com/VHS-The-Mandolin-Bouzouki-Tim-OBrien/dp/B00021TDRI Introduction to his DVD