The Bouzouk Book


Book Description

A workshop guide to building Irish bouzoukis and citterns. In the past forty years bouzoukis, citterns and octave mandolins have become an essential part of acoustic music. The Bouzouki Book is the first, and only, book to guides the reader through the steps to build one of these fascinating stringed musical instruments. The book includes nearly 200 colour and B&W illustrations as well as plans for all major components.




Making a Cittern and a Bouzouki


Book Description

Make a Cittern or Bouzouki both Long & Short scale instruments are described.An easy Step by Step method is used with full detail of each section coupled with drawings.The making of specialist Luthiers Tools are also shown




Guide to Octave Mandolin and Bouzouki


Book Description

Twenty tunes in styles from Irish to American, in a variety of tunings, melody and accompaniment, presented in standard notation and tablature, with a stereo CD (left channel melody, right channel accompaniment). Left and right hand techniques and chord voicings are thoroughly discussed. for the first time, the Celtic style woven texture accompaniment unique to the instrument is fully notated. Unique to the book are melodic Irish ornamentation, blues, jazz, American fiddle tunes with variations and improvisations (all fully notated), and a chapter Breaking Away from Block Chords extending knowledge of the fingerboard.




Hal Leonard Irish Bouzouki Method


Book Description

(Instructional). The Hal Leonard Irish Bouzouki Method is designed for anyone just learning to play the Irish bouzouki. This comprehensive and easy-to-use beginner's guide focuses on teaching the basics of the instrument as well as accompaniment techniques for a variety of Irish song forms.




The Bouzouki Building Bible


Book Description

The Bouzouki Building Bible . The first and only complete guide, in any language, to constructing your Greek bouzouki from scratch. This book covers every aspect of Greek bouzouki building, in great detail. It presents a unique approach to bouzouki building, in which the major parts are constructed, as much as possible, separately, so that any major problems can be easily corrected, or discarded and redone, without damage to the instrument as a whole. More traditional and alternate construction practices are, of course, also discussed. Section 1 is Preparation : basic design parameters, tools, safety, workspace, and detailed construction overview. Section 2 is Building the Body : design and wood selection, making the form, the staves, the sides, and the capping strip. Section 3 is Building the Neck : design and wood selection, building the neck blank, headstock construction, neck reinforcement, truss rod installation, headstock veneer, shaping the headstock, and drilling and slotting the headstock. Section 4 is Building the Soundboard : design and wood selection, gluing the soundboard, the rosette, the pickguard, and bracing. Section 5 is Building the Fretboard : fretboard design and wood selection, fretboard slotting and shaping the fretboard, and fretboard markers. Section 6 is Assembling the Major Parts of the Instrument : shaping the rim and preparing the inside of the body, kerfed linings, reinforcing and lining the body, label, attaching the top to the body, neck tenon and the neck block mortise, purfling and binding, gluing the fretboard and shaping the neck, gluing the neck to the body, and fret work. Section 7 is Finishing and Setup : sanding, pore filling, finishing, level sanding and buffing, bridge, final assembly and setup, and pickups. Appendices cover Names of Parts of the Bouzouki, and Dimensions of Parts. Includes drawings and plans for the form on which to build the body, and instrument. 288 pages, with over 230 color pictures and diagrams. In English. 8-1/2 x 11.




Markos Vamvakaris


Book Description

Markos Vamvakaris, born in 1905 in Syros was a pioneer of rebetiko, the urban folk music of Greece. The bouzouki was a disreputable instrument but he paved its path to glory. He spent many years, first as a stevedore in the port of Piraeus and then as a butcher in the slaughterhouse. During this time he fell in love with a tigress, his first wife, he learnt to smoke hashish and to play the 'sacred' instrument: 'I had a great passion. My life was all bouzouki. It took me over - but it also took me up in the world, way up ...' This is the first ever translation into English of the autobiography compiled by Angeliki Vellou Keil in 1972. It opens a window onto a time of extraordinary creativity in the history of Greek music, an explosion of songwriting in the interwar period. Its composers wrote about themselves and each other, the rituals of hashish smoking and the landmarks of a now vanished city. Markos the repentant sinner and living legend, looks back at childhood idylls in Syros, the arrival of the Asia Minor refugees, the terrible years of the Nazi Occupation, the ceaseless love affairs and disappointments, and the triumphs of the bouzouki. He offers a rare insight into the lives of toiling workers and the lowlife of one of the world's most ancient ports, where East meets West. Out of this melting pot he produced the classic songs that Greeks of all ages still love and know by heart.




The Irish Bouzouki Chord Bible


Book Description

The Irish Bouzouki GDAD Chord Bible, with its 2,520 chords offers a complete solution for both beginner and experienced professional musician alike. The layout is uncomplicated and follows a logical musical progression from standard major chords up to the more esoteric thirteenths used by many jazz players. To accompany the 2,520 chords, a further 576 possible moveable chord configurations are included, together with a useful range of major and minor slash chords, reflecting the popularity of this type of chord in many of today's artist and compilation topline songbooks. To fully exploit the ringing quality of the Irish bouzouki, a selection of open and drone string chords has also been included. This highly comprehensive guide provides the musician with no fewer than 60 different types of chord in all twelve keys, making it the definitive publication for the Irish bouzouki. Whether you play folk, rock, pop, jazz or any other type of popular music, The Irish Bouzouki GDAD Chord Bible makes the ideal reference source for all occasions. Standard Chords covered in The Irish Bouzouki GDAD Chord Bible (using the key of C as an example): C, Cm, C-5, Cdim, C4, C5, Csus2, Csus4, Csus4add9, C+, C6, Cadd9, Cm6, Cmadd9, Cm6add9, Cdim7, C7, C7sus2, C7sus4, C7-5, C7+5, C7-9, C7+9, C7-5-9, C7+5-9, C7+5+9, C7add11, C7+11, Cm7, Cm7-5, Cm7-5-9, Cm7-9, Cm7add11, Cm(maj7), Cmaj7, Cmaj7-5, Cmaj7+5, Cmaj7+11, C9, C9-5, C9+5, C9+11, Cm9, Cm9-5, Cm(maj9), Cmaj9, Cmaj9+5, Cmaj9+11, C11, C11-9, Cm11, Cmaj11, C13, C13-5-9, C13-9, C13+9, C13+11, Cm13, Cmaj13. Slash Chords covered in The Irish Bouzouki GDAD Chord Bible (using the key of C as an example): C/C, C/Db, C/D, C/Eb, C/E, C/F, C/F#, C/G, C/Ab, C/A, C/Bb, C/B, Cm/C, Cm/Db, Cm/D, Cm/Eb, Cm/E, Cm/F, Cm/F#, Cm/G, Cm/Ab, Cm/A, Cm/Bb, Cm/B. Beside the many pages of chord boxes or windows, the book features useful sections on tuning, chord construction, fingerboard layout, FAQs, alternative chord naming, fingering, slash chords, harmonic intervals, chord window blanks for transcribing your own favorite chord sequences etc. The aim of this guide is to provide the musician with the flexibility only really offered to guitar and keyboard players in the past. Now, with the help of The Irish Bouzouki GDAD Chord Bible, musicians will be able to pick up any songbook and instantly have access to even the most complex and advanced chords.




The Mandolin


Book Description

The mandolin is a fascinating and diverse musical instrument that spans across centuries and continents. With photographs and in-depth details, this book traces the history of the mandolin and its family that can be found around the world. There are detailed stories that tell who, where, why, and how each beautiful piece was made. Included are chapters such as "The American Mandolin," "Gibson," "The Middle Ages & Renaissance," and "Spain, Portugal & Beyond."




Celtic Backup for All Instrumentalists


Book Description

This book teaches the most crucial function of a chord instrument in the Celtic seisún (session)- that of playing tasteful, interesting, imaginative, and supportive improvised accompaniment. Celtic Back-Up presents accurate and directly applicable information on the theory, conception, stylistic considerations, procedures, and resources for accompaniment. Every facet of seisún accompaniment is thoroughly explored. with this book you will come to understand why many of our Celtic authors are reluctant to suggest chord accompaniment with their melodies in the first place; the idea is to be open to fresh ideas and improvise the accompaniment as you go.




The Ukulele


Book Description

"The Ukulele is the first comprehensive book on building all styles of ukulele, from the little soprano ukuleles of 19th century Hawai'i to concert, tenor and baritone sizes. The book will lead the first-time ukulele builder through the various steps of crafting a ukulele with detailed written information complemented by nearly 350 photographs and diagrams. Full size plans of all the ukuleles are available to download and print. A full list of tools, hardware and timber required is included. The first chapters are devoted to making the individual parts of a ukulele. These are followed by chapters which focus on combining those parts into completed instruments. Various finishing methods are canvased and there is detailed information of setting up the instrument for optimal playability. Three different methodologies are used for the assembly of the instruments, and these methods can be mixed and matched as the reader desires. There are options for using power or hand tools for most procedures. Author Graham McDonald has almost 40 years of experience building stringed musical instruments and has published two books on the construction of mandolin family instruments, as well as The Mandolin, a highly acclaimed history of the mandolin around the world."--Amazon.com