# Music by Genre > Jazz/Blues Variants, Bossa, Choro, Klezmer >  help finding gypsy/spanish/balkan/arabic resources

## hikerobby

Hi all. New to mandocafe. Been playing for three years, mostly just learning myself. Been working through Eschliman's jazz mando book and the fretboard roadmap.

I don't really like bluegrass. I don't really like major chords. I like minor keys, I love just jamming with friends in minor keys, my buddy plays accordion and my mando sounds great with it..... but I just plunk around, I'd like to tremolo and sound more spanish or arabic or something. Thats what I need help with.

I don't really even know what I like, I like balkan music like gypsy caravan and I like flamanco and spanish gypsy and arabic music (like with Ouds). I don't like Jewish music as much as what I just mentioned, but I do still like it. I guess my question is where can I find more resources and explore that part of the world? Artists, techniques, theory, advice, history, lessons, groups, etc.? I live in SaltLakeCity, Utah. I also play violin. 

Any help very appreciated.

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## Jim Gallaher

You might try Gypsy Jazz, also known as Jazz Manouche. It's the only form of Jazz developed outside the United States and is generally credited to Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli with their Hot Club of France. Near the end of his life, Grappelli toured with David Grisman, who was a big fan.

Acoustic-based, very "minor" feeling with lots of ornamentation, but still swings like a big freight train and is frequently found in the company of an accordian (that swings!), lead guitar, rhythm guitar, acoustic bass and violin. Gypsy Jazz players also love Latin-flavored tunes (check out "Bossa Dorado").

Visit Youtube for various samples from The Rosenberg Trio, Bireli Lagrene, John Jorgenson, Angelo Debarre, etc.

Instructional materials to get you started are available at www.djangobooks.com, with mandolin chord lessons by the late John McCann here.

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## DougC

There is a lot of stuff on youtube. If I have time, I'll put some of my favorites here. I love oud music too.
For now check out this recording.  It will change your opinion of Klezmer. 
BTW I play a lot of klezmer mandolin and there is video out there for Eisner's Klezmorim on Facebook. 


http://smile.amazon.com/Khevrisa-Eur...11-1&pldnNew=1


Also look up Easy Klezmer tunes on Mandolin Cafe. I'd put the link here but I don't know how.
That discussion has some sheet music and audio.

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AquillaRoseTennant, 

your_diamond

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## Adam Sweet

I too am very much interested in Balkan/Gypsy/Middle Eastern music.  I've been reading, researching and studying what I can find online.  There doesn't seem to be much concensus as to what are the most common dance forms and related melodies.  I am finding that belly dancing is a good place to start with all 3 (balkan/gypsy/me) because the dance style crosses the whole region.  But there are a lot of variations.

Glad to find someone else on here who shares similar interests.  Sending you a friend invite.  Maybe we can collaborate on what we find?

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AquillaRoseTennant

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## Pasha Alden

Thanks Doug, that is useful!


Always wanted to find some jazz/gypsy audio files.   Hard to learn music without sheet music accessible and without any audio.

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Brandon Sumner

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## Pasha Alden

Also enjoy the Balkan sounds.   So pleased to find this thread.

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Brandon Sumner

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## DougC

Some Oud music. 


Rom (Gypsy) music. 


 Gypsy Jazz music.

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Alan Epstein, 

AquillaRoseTennant, 

Mark Levesque, 

your_diamond

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## hikerobby

Wow this is all great. I need some time to get through this before commenting intelligently. But those in the know--keep it coming!

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## DougC

I thought I'd add some mandolin this time. A quick search and I found very little klezmer mandolin.

 But I did find some Spanish stuff on two mandolins. Thanks to Tim and Jack. 






 And some Gypsy Jazz by some guys that are having 'way too much...fun'. Skip to about 2:30 minutes into the video for some great Gypsy Jazz mandolin.

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AquillaRoseTennant, 

John Eischen, 

Nevin, 

Pasha Alden, 

your_diamond

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## Cleveland Joel

Mel Bay's "Gypsy Violin" is a good resource for gypsy music for mandolin. It pulls together gypsy tunes from many countries. It gives the chord names and melody lines and comes with a good CD. It has standard notation, no tablature.

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Pasha Alden, 

tangleweeds

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## Jim Garber

> But I did find some Spanish stuff on two mandolins. Thanks to Tim and Jack.


Close enough, I suppose, but Santa Morena is a Brazilian tune by Jacob do Bandolim.

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DougC

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## hikerobby

Gypsy jazz looks fun but not quite the sound I'm into. I like it and would like to learn it, seems like there is a whole scene around Django festivals and such, thats interesting. But I am more excited by the brazilian tune and the gypsy violinist and the klezmar cd from amazon. Its that eastern european mornful melody with a bit of the middle east thrown in that I love.

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AquillaRoseTennant

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## Dagger Gordon

Check this site (and their Facebook) out.

http://www.labyrinthmusic.gr/en/seminaria

https://www.facebook.com/labyrinthmu...rkshop?fref=ts

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1262...97201/?fref=ts

It's a whole scene of wonderful music.

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AquillaRoseTennant

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## Dan Krhla

:Coffee:  I have this book / CD from Allan Alexander - 



http://www.guitarandlute.com/balkan_mandolin.html

I found Allan while looking for Medieval / Renaissance stuff and have enjoyed all his offerings, the Balkan being no exception.

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tangleweeds

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## hikerobby

Dagger, my life is changed. I want to go to one of those Labyrinth music seminars. Unfortunately they don't have mandolins in traditional cretan or turkish music. Maybe I need to learn the bouzouki, or the saz, or lyra, or Oud;-) But that is more the sound I am after. I studied Indian classical violin for a while and I love it. So narrowing it down to turkey, greece, afgan music more. Though I still like romanyi, klezmer and flamanco. 

And Dan thanks for that book, it looks awesome. I listened to the music on the cd that comes with the book and that is EXACTLY what I want to learn more of!

These are the kinds of sounds I go for: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQNtXRUK9I8
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page...?bandID=889172
and this: http://www.soundclick.com/bands/defa...?bandID=284537

In the future I want to play like this:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUkmd2-o9zU
and this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHanqvcQjOY
and this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EV8nhDcSCo
and this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAzrOF8E28w

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Dan Krhla

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## JeffD

> I have this book / CD from Allan Alexander - 
> 
> 
> 
> http://www.guitarandlute.com/balkan_mandolin.html
> 
> I found Allan while looking for Medieval / Renaissance stuff and have enjoyed all his offerings, the Balkan being no exception.


I think he has a book on Spanish mandolin too.

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Dan Krhla

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## Dagger Gordon

[QUOTE=hikerobby;1279618]Dagger, my life is changed. I want to go to one of those Labyrinth music seminars. Unfortunately they don't have mandolins in traditional cretan or turkish music. Maybe I need to learn the bouzouki, or the saz, or lyra, or Oud;-) But that is more the sound I am after."

Yes they do have mandolin in trad Cretan music. Michalis Stavrakakis has taught it at Labyrinth in the past.

http://www.labyrinthmusic.gr/en/comp...14/04/16/333/-

Have a closer look at the music of Efren Lopez from Spain.  He largely got me into all this by hearing his fantastic old band L'Ham de Foc. Their performance at St Chartier Festival in France in 2007 remains one of my all-time great gigs.

http://www.efrenlopez.net/web_angles/angnoticies.htm

Here he is doing groupwork at Labyrinth this year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=Mq4hIQTWv0w

While we're at it, my favourite CD to come out of all this is Orion by Stelios Petrakis from Crete. A masterpiece.  And his latest group Stelios Petrakis Cretan Quartet does in fact include mandolin.

http://www.steliospetrakis.com/?lang=en

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hikerobby

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## Adam Sweet

> Mel Bay's "Gypsy Violin" is a good resource for gypsy music for mandolin. It pulls together gypsy tunes from many countries. It gives the chord names and melody lines and comes with a good CD. It has standard notation, no tablature.


Thank you for this suggestion!  I've ordered the book.

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## Adam Sweet

> I have this book / CD from Allan Alexander - 
> 
> 
> 
> http://www.guitarandlute.com/balkan_mandolin.html
> 
> I found Allan while looking for Medieval / Renaissance stuff and have enjoyed all his offerings, the Balkan being no exception.


Can you tell me if this is in music or tab?

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## hikerobby

If you go to the site it says tab and notation and guitar accompaniment music for $8 extra, and a great cd

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## tangleweeds

I noticed this book of Eastern European Fiddle Tunes (Amazon link) in a "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" array. Has anyone out there seen it in person?

It also comes with a CD, which is always a plus in my book. I like to play along with an MP3 + Slow Downer program.

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## hikerobby

I wanted to post these other events people might be into: 
http://www.wim2014.com/#!application/cgfo this is an awesome gathering of musicians in Europe for ten days, oh and they gather in the ruins of a castle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bknw1DsaXB8  This is an awesome balkan festival on Crete
http://www.larkcamp.com/information.html This is a balkan/oldtime/turkish/etc adult band camp in the redwoods in california
http://eefc.org/mendoTeachingStaff.shtml  This one is straight-up Balkan Band Camp, balkan music only for 7 days in the redwoods.

I want to go to all of those!! Has anybody been to any of those? Tell me if you have. And if anybody has more festivals/workshops/band camps, etc please list it here. Maybe this thread can be used by people who search in the future.

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## Dagger Gordon

It sounds like you've got the bit between your teeth, Hikerobby!

That's great!

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## Nick Gellie

Hike Robby,

Welcome to the alternative mandolin folk club.  You have found some good resources there, some of which I was not even aware of.  Don't forget Bulgarian folk music with rythmns that can range anywhere from 7/8 to 44/16.  
There is a lot out there.  You have to pick and choose what to play on mandolin.  I play Irish bouzouki which can be adapted to just about anything.

If you want to hear something special, lookup Thierry Titi Robin.

Cheers

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## Adam Sweet

Grr...I ordered that book and it doesn't have common dance forms!  It's just a collection of the author's favorite tunes.

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## JeffD

For those who read notation, a couple of excellent books:

http://www.amazon.com/Eastern-Europe.../dp/1902455894

http://www.boosey.com/shop/prod/Huws...in-Part/645772

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## Dagger Gordon

> Hike Robby,
> 
> If you want to hear something special, lookup Thierry Titi Robin.
> 
> Cheers


I'm with you on that.  Essential listening if you are into this kind of thing.

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## Jim Garber

> Grr...I ordered that book and it doesn't have common dance forms!  It's just a collection of the author's favorite tunes.


Which book are you referring to, Adam?

I did find this *Balkanarama* site with some bare-bones sheet music.

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## Adam Sweet

Got in Mel Bay's Gypsy Violin by Mary Ann Harbar
http://www.amazon.com/Bays-Gypsy-Vio.../dp/078666570X
It's a collection of 45 Hungarian and Russian melodies transcribed for violin and/or mandolin with chords.  While it's certainly not a "fake book", it's a good cross representation of at least the more popular of Slavas entertainment albeit primarily from an urban Hungarian and Romanian origins.

It comes with a CD, which is very helpful.

The musicians are

Greg Harbar - accordion
David Klingensmith - bass
Zhenya Kolykhanov - guitar
Kelly Lancaster - guitar, bass balalaika, mandobass
Dave Peters - mandolin
Barry Roberts - guitar, electric bass, bass balalaika
Alexis Valk - bass

The arrangements are by Greg Harbar, accordionist from Houston-based "The Gypsies".

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## Dagger Gordon

So what you doin' now Hikerobby?
Ethnomusic camps? Crete?

I bet you'd like Swedish music, by the way.

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## catmandu2

> I'd like to tremolo and sound more spanish or arabic or something. Thats what I need help with.
> 
> I don't really even know what I like, I like balkan music like gypsy caravan and I like flamanco and spanish gypsy and arabic music (like with Ouds).


You may wish to begin delving into Arabic maqam - http://www.maqamworld.com/

BTW, violin is an excellent choice for the music.  If you get into oud--there are some very good oud forums too.  It's a very deep source of traditional music, obviously; my favorite--having been into flamenco for a long time--is the music from al-andulus

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## Ronny

This link  : http://www.tousauxbalkans.net/Accueil can be useful...
There's a lot of vids/tune/sheet music, but it's sometimes very difficult to find something (even if you're a french reader !)
Usually, I choose a country ("pays"), then I scroll down the page, and I choose in the "Articles dans la catégorie" part...

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## Louay

Dear all intrested in arabic music and special in Ouds u can check https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...hFhAr_I_MMF-IL
 or Simply go to ListenArabic.com where you can find everything about music, lebanese music, egypt music, araic music, arab music, Ouds lessons, all news about sar academy 9, and many other...



> You might try Gypsy Jazz, also known as Jazz Manouche. It's the only form of Jazz developed outside the United States and is generally credited to Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli with their Hot Club of France. Near the end of his life, Grappelli toured with David Grisman, who was a big fan.
> 
> Acoustic-based, very "minor" feeling with lots of ornamentation, but still swings like a big freight train and is frequently found in the company of an accordian (that swings!), lead guitar, rhythm guitar, acoustic bass and violin. Gypsy Jazz players also love Latin-flavored tunes (check out "Bossa Dorado").
> 
> Visit Youtube for various samples from The Rosenberg Trio, Bireli Lagrene, John Jorgenson, Angelo Debarre, etc.
> 
> Instructional materials to get you started are available at www.djangobooks.com, with mandolin chord lessons by the late John McCann here.

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## violmando

I own this and it has some great tunes; NO tab, however. Do searches for Balkan/Russian/ etc tune books WITHOUT specifying MANDOLIN. There are quite a few out there, mostly in fiddle range (which is of course, mandolin range). TAB, however, is more difficult.  You might do a search to see if there are any Balkan clubs in your area where you might hear some live music....check for all the nationality clubs and churches. They won't have live music that often, but they are the ones who sponsor the ethnic musicians, usually. 
I LOVE Balkan music, but am only able to play Croatian right now.
I second the recommendation Allan Alexander's books---with the CDs, you might not need TAB, too. GREAT stuff!

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## violmando

Another recommendation if you still need more resources is the group East European Folklife Center....www.eefc.org.  They sponsor a couple Balkan camps each summer that are GREAT, but they also have a listserve where you can ask for music, recording, etc.  GREAT resource and the folks on it are SUPER! HIGHLY recommended.
There are a couple sites for ethnic music that I used to have bookmarked; I bet someone there can give those to you.

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