More Maids

More Maids is a German Folk Group which plays Irish Folk for many years now.

Barbara Coerdt, Marion Fluck and Barbara Hintermeier are all well known musicians in the German Folk Scene. Until now they produced three CDs.

More information at: http://www.moremaids.de


Here is a video which contains two of the songs from their latest CD.






Here's another video from 2011

Elmstein Summer School 2017 - Bouzouki Workshop with Tobias Kurig

This year Elmstein Summer School will take place from July 31 to August 6th. Look at all the workshops that will take place. And as a special guest Paddy Keenan will give a MasterClass for Uilleann Pipes and Whistle.

The teacher of Bouzouki Workshop is Tobias Kurig, like last year. So take the chance and subscribe here:

http://irishmusicschool-elmstein.eu/summer-school-2016/#

Tijn Berends Solo Gig @ Gluren Bij De Buren, Utrecht

Tijn is a multi-instrumentalist from the Netherlands. He plays with the band/Duo "Itchy Fingers". Don't confuse with the German Band of the same name.

I already postet some of his videos before. Here is a live gig filmed in a living room somewhere. Tijn plays Bouzouki, Guitar and sings. If you search for him on youtube you'll find lots more videos.




Here's another video from Tijn:




He writes about this tune:

Here's a tune I learned some time ago called "Escapade in A minor". I don't play it in A minor because of reasons. Suzanne created a really awesome bodhrán part to go with it and it sounded so cool that we decided to record it. So here you go!

Hans Eckert Luthier, Mühltal, Germany near Frankfurt

Today I visited a Luthier near Frankfurt in Germany. Hans Eckert is a relatively new Luthier in Germany. heckertguitars.de

I first met him by chance at a session 2 years ago. I did not know he was a luthier, then. Just heard about his profession a few weeks ago. As he lives not too far from my hometown I thought it would be a good idea to visit him at his workshop.

We met at his workshop in a little town called Mühltal where he lives. He builds stringed instruments for some years now. In 2015 he regularly worked with Heiner Dreizehnter at his workshop in Allgäu, Germany. Heiner is a famous German Luthier who made Guitars and Bouzoukis for many famous musicians. http://www.irish-bouzouki.de

Now Hans has got his own workshop where he builds Guitars, Mandolins, Bouzoukis and Banjos. He also repairs all kinds of stringed instruments. I brought an old Böhm Waldzither and he will restore it for me. He also will do some repair work on my Dreizehnter Guitar Bouzouki.

We talked a lot about his efforts in building instruments, the difficulties to get good tone wood and building techniques. He has a good knowledge of building instruments and I really think about ordering a 10 string bouzouki from him.

After a long conversation about the restoration of my Waldzither we sat together and played some tunes on Mandolin and Bouzouki. I really enjoyed the afternoon with him and hope to see him soon at a session somewhere.

Here are some more photos from his workshop

Michael Chapman and Rino Eriksen

Lovely playing here by Michael and Rino on Cittern and Flute. Old Maid of Galway and The Green Mountain. Hope you enjoy it.

Beginner Tutorial Position of the Left Hand Fingers

Duncan Ross Cameron shows some basics for playing the bouzouki in this video. A good starting point for beginners.

Irish Bouzouki Tutorial by Declan Plummer

Declan Plummer is a musical teacher of classical and irish music and an amateur website designer. You can find his website here:
http://www.declanplummer.net/
There you'll find some lessons for the bouzouki, chord charts and handouts.

Here are two videos from his youtube channel:

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.