# Music by Genre > Celtic, U.K., Nordic, Quebecois, European Folk >  tuning of the Greek bouzouki?

## Nick Royal

This past Sunday night I heard a fine Greek trio with one man playing the
bouzouki.  It looked like it had 8 strings in 4 pairs.

What is the tuning of that instrument?

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## zoukboy

Standard tuning of the tetrachordo is C3/C4 F3/F4 A3/A3 D4/D4

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## DavidKOS

> Standard tuning of the tetrachordo is C3/C4 F3/F4 A3/A3 D4/D4


Yes, like the top strings of a guitar tuned down a step.

The trikordo is tuned DAD, by the way, and is why the tuning is CF*AD*, to keep the top strings the same on both bouzoukis.

The 3-string is making a big comeback.

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## mikeyes

I may be the only owner of a Martin LXM tres which is three two course strings on a guitar body the size of a tenor guitar and a 23" scale.  Since I don't play Cuban music, I am thinking of tuning it DAD.  For those of you who play the tres (I'm looking at you Roger) are the strings in unison, doubled octave, mixed or whatever you want? Are there usable alternative tunings? String guages?  I'm interested in this DAD "big comeback" even if it is in Greek music (although it should go well with ITM) as my son is married into a Greek family.

Sorry if I am hijacking the thread.

Mike Keyes

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## DavidKOS

Funny, I play Greek Bouzouki and Cuban Tres!

The Tres has had several popular tunings over its history but for a while now (over half a century or more) the tuning has been:

Gg CC Ee, with BOTH the 3rd and 1st courses in octaves, this tuning making it easy to play the characteristic montuno figures that are the basis of many Afro-Caribbean music styles.

It's not really used to strum chords - you do play chords, but it's much more of a linear instruments, playing rhythmic melodies that set up chord changes. 

I checked out that link, and Gonzales is a great tresero. Looks like a nice instrument.

As for the 3-string bouzouki making a comeback, well since the 50's the 8 string usually electric bouzouki has been the staple of the Greek restaurant and nightclub world, the bouzouki heard in "Zorba", etc. 

But in the last 10-20 years the older 3 string version, along with the no-longer-underground Rebetika music, has had a big revival in popularity and may people are making and playing the 3 string instrument again.

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## mikeyes

I did a little research and I think that I can tune the LMX DD AA dd using existing octave mandolin strings from D'Addario or Pearse (with and extra E string unless I go with DD AA dd.) I'll give it a try this weekend and see what happens after I do the math with a string calculator.

Next stop, talk to the in-laws who dance the dance <G>

Mike Keyes

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## JPL

Just got a zouk (GDAD) and I've been listening to a lot of mountain dulcimer (DAD).  I think that would be a good approach to bring the bouzouki into old-time American music --- think dulcimer.

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## Hany Hayek

I think it should be Dd -aa - dd for the 3 course. 
I have a chance to buy a half bouzouki (μισομπούζουκο). Very old, not in a very good shape but can be restored.
It has the body of a mandolin with a very long fret board  :Grin: 
Very strange frets spacing towards the end of the finger board
Is this tuned like the 3 course bouzouki? What's the scale length ? What are the strings gauges? Where can I find a book for beginners on line?

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## DavidKOS

> Just got a zouk (GDAD) and I've been listening to a lot of mountain dulcimer (DAD).  I think that would be a good approach to bring the bouzouki into old-time American music --- think dulcimer.


Probably so - this is not a Greek bouzouki, though, right?




> I think it should be Dd -aa - dd for the 3 course. 
> I have a chance to buy a half bouzouki (μισομπούζουκο). Very old, not in a very good shape but can be restored.
> It has the body of a mandolin with a very long fret board 
> Very strange frets spacing towards the end of the finger board
> Is this tuned like the 3 course bouzouki? What's the scale length ? What are the strings gauges? Where can I find a book for beginners on line?


Can you post a picture? There are a number of related bouzouki and bouzouki-mandolin like string instruments from the part of the world. The fretting thing makes me wonder which one it is.

I can't say I've heard "μισομπούζουκο" before - there's the baglama, tzouras, tamboura, etc.

http://www.rebetiko.org/

a link about the 3 course bouzouki

With my tetrachordo

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Hany Hayek

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## DavidKOS

some μισομπούζουκο music- it seems to be more popular than I thought....looks like a type of tzouras to me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXGfEdQbrog

http://www.music-instruments.gr/de/s...20090905232333

http://www.music-instruments.gr/de/s...20141010162138

Seems the half-bouzouki is almost like the tzouras


http://andrdellius.blogspot.com/

Made from an old mandolin shell

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltjnutb7ncM

Sounds like a tzouras to me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH7UrHoJysY

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Hany Hayek

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## Hany Hayek

The youtube video with Παρτιδες (μισομπουζουκο)  is great. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltjnutb7ncM
I wish I could find the score sheet for that. It might work well on the mandolin. 
I'll go take some pics tomorrow. It's at an auction house. I'm trying to convince the person responsible to sell it to me before that auction  :Wink: 
I bought a tenor banjo 19 frets from the same place a while back. Cost me 75 USD
But I am afraid I can't play anything that is not tuned in fifth. I had a wonderful failure with the guitar. Maybe I did not have enough learning  material then (mid 90's).
By the way David I am half Greek from my mother side. I assumed you had something Greek, sorry to have been posting some words in Greek. It was to help you search in Google.

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## zoukboy

> Just got a zouk (GDAD) and I've been listening to a lot of mountain dulcimer (DAD).  I think that would be a good approach to bring the bouzouki into old-time American music --- think dulcimer.


Yep. Check out my buddy Chipper Thompson's music for that approach.

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## zoukboy

> I think it should be Dd -aa - dd for the 3 course.


From bass to treble: D3/D4  A3/A3  D4/D4

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## zoukboy

> Since I don't play Cuban music, I am thinking of tuning it DAD.  For those of you who play the tres (I'm looking at you Roger) are the strings in unison, doubled octave, mixed or whatever you want? Are there usable alternative tunings? String guages?  
> Mike Keyes


Didn't see this until now, Mike.  The tres tuning I use(d) is reentrant: G3/G4 C4/C4 E3/E4  but that is complicated by the fact that the E and G courses are octave pairs.

Hope that helps!

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## JPL

I need to dip into his solo work --- "Janissary Stomp" is in heavy rotation for me.

There's some parallel timeline where a bunch of Greek immigrant settled Appalachia and every old-time string band had a bouzouki player.  The Irish group I play with does some old-time (American) fiddle tunes, and I'm convinced that you could figure out something on that zouk that would be a very good alternative to a guitar --- a little lighter, more droney.

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## zoukboy

> I need to dip into his solo work --- "Janissary Stomp" is in heavy rotation for me.
> 
> There's some parallel timeline where a bunch of Greek immigrant settled Appalachia and every old-time string band had a bouzouki player.  The Irish group I play with does some old-time (American) fiddle tunes, and I'm convinced that you could figure out something on that zouk that would be a very good alternative to a guitar --- a little lighter, more droney.


The first track of "Janissary Stomp" has some faux clawhammer bouzouki.  ;-)

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## DavidKOS

> By the way David I am half Greek from my mother side. I assumed you had something Greek, sorry to have been posting some words in Greek. It was to help you search in Google.


My mom's family is all Sicilian - when I played music with Greeks, they said "used to be Greek".

I use the Google translate mode.




> Didn't see this until now, Mike.  The tres tuning I use(d) is reentrant: G3/G4 C4/C4 E3/E4  but that is complicated by the fact that the E and G courses are octave pairs.


Yup, same as the one I mentioned.

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## JPL

> The first track of "Janissary Stomp" has some faux clawhammer bouzouki.  ;-)


I've been doing some kind of frailing thing to back up the fiddle tunes . . . nice thing about an obscure instrument is that no one is sure if I'm playing it wrong.

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## Mike Anderson

Is this your website? Hilarious - and inspiring! I love uncompromising people.  :Grin: 




> Probably so - this is not a Greek bouzouki, though, right?
> 
> 
> http://www.rebetiko.org/
> 
> a link about the 3 course bouzouki
> 
> With my tetrachordo

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## DavidKOS

No, it's not my website - first off I play 4 course bouzouki!

But it is a very good site.

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## zookster

It's  a little known fact that some Greeks settled near Asheville NC in the late 1700s, and that the bouzouki had a large influence on the early old time music  that evolved there.
Many common fiddle tune titles have been changed from the original Greek, including "Jack of Diamonds" and "Little Birdie."  The natives found the Macedonian words too hard to pronounce. 

Unfortunately no pictures exist of any of the early musicians, and those early instruments are locked in a vault in the Greek Orthodox Church in downtown Asheville. The church disallowed its members from playing American music  in the early 1800s, instead requiring Greeks to open up a number of fine restaurants throughout the region.   

A movement has started to reinstate the bouzouki to it's rightful place in old time music with such retro bands as 'The Athenian Daredevils', "Swannanoa Odyssey", and the now legendary  "Ziti Heads", 'who use the very rare bouzouki 'knocking'  style of playing  that has been traced to interaction with the Cherokee.

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DavidKOS, 

zoukboy

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## Hany Hayek

Here is the instrument I mentioned. Is this a Tzoura. Can you explain the bizarre frets up the fret board. 

By the way David my Grandma from my mother's side is Italian from Trani. I speak Italian as my mother tongue and very little Greek

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## Hany Hayek

One more pic of the fret board from the side, it will give you an idea of how the frets are placed

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## DavidKOS

That's very interesting. How old is that tzouras?

I've seen some older instruments that were not in the common 12-tone equal temperament fretting but had fretting that would  accomodate some of the older Anatolian "1/4 tone" musical modes. The overall spacing looks very similar to Turkish saz fretting.
Also if that instrument is from before the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–192, it may have been made in Greek Anatolia.

I can't really be sure but that looks like one. Some of the older Greek tambouras had similar fretting.

I'd love to try that one out! Cool instrument.

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Hany Hayek

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## Colin Lindsay

> "Little Birdie."


When playing in Greece I and the local musicians play a tune they taught me called “All the Birds”… is this the same tune?

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## JPL

Me and my bouzouki will eventually start a band playing traditional Ruritanian folk music.  Maybe I'll never play Irish music or Gypsy music or Greek music "right," but no one will be able to prove I'm doing Ruritanian music wrong.

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DavidKOS

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## ollaimh

if it's any comfort to the trichordia rebels I tune my tetrachordo, adad,  to get the drone..

that old zouk is wild. I would also love to try it.  it really looks old and unusual.

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## Mark Miller

Resurrecting an old thread...I'm on vacation with my wife in Greece and Italy, celebrating our 25th. Saw a fantastic bouzouki player in Santorini who sounded like he could pick up a mandolin and play with any old time or bluegrass band in the world. I have some brief videos I'll post when I get home. When we got to Athens, my wife forced me to buy a bouzouki when we happened upon a music shop. I'm really looking forward to getting back home and figuring this baby out!

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DavidKOS

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## Mike Anderson

> Resurrecting an old thread...I'm on vacation with my wife in Greece and Italy, celebrating our 25th. Saw a fantastic bouzouki player in Santorini who sounded like he could pick up a mandolin and play with any old time or bluegrass band in the world. I have some brief videos I'll post when I get home. When we got to Athens, my wife forced me to buy a bouzouki when we happened upon a music shop. I'm really looking forward to getting back home and figuring this baby out!


Leaving aside the fact that I've always thought Santorini looks like one of the most beautiful human habitations on the planet, and congrats on your lovely trip...your WIFE..._forced_ you...to *buy a bouzouki???*  :Disbelief:

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DavidKOS, 

Drew Streip

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## DavidKOS

> my wife forced me to buy a bouzouki when we happened upon a music shop. I'm really looking forward to getting back home and figuring this baby out!


3 or 4 course?

Great!

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## Mark Miller

Yep, she forced me. We walked by a music store and she saw my eye drift to the bouzoukis inside and she said "let's go look" and it went from there. She knows I'm a penny-pincher and she insisted every time I tried to walk out of there. She said "in 20 years we won't know whether we spent that money or not, but if we buy it you'll get a lot of joy."  I'm the luckiest guy on earth. 

It's 4 course. I know the 3 course is more authentic, or at least older, but I figured the 4 course would be more flexible and more familiar.

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DavidKOS

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## DavidKOS

> It's 4 course. I know the 3 course is more authentic, or at least older, but I figured the 4 course would be more flexible and more familiar.


Well, yes and no.

The 3 course is older and is going through a new period of popularity with the last decade or so's rebetika revival. 

However for laika, syrtaki, etc. the 4 course is the preferred instrument and when I was learning in the 1970's that's what all the "professionals" used.

Frankly most playing is on the top two D and A strings anyway!

Have fun.

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## Colin Lindsay

> It's  a little known fact that some Greeks settled near Asheville NC in the late 1700s, and that the bouzouki had a large influence on the early old time music  that evolved there.
> 
> Unfortunately no pictures exist of any of the early musicians, and those early instruments are locked in a vault in the Greek Orthodox Church in downtown Asheville. 
> 
> A movement has started to reinstate the bouzouki to it's rightful place in old time music


I thought it was 100%, undisputable and Gospel fact that the Irish invented the bouzouki? I've been threatened with death, emasculation and the curse of bl**dy Saint Patrick for ever daring to suggest otherwise, by players who are about twenty years old and therefore know from personal experience. 

Takes tongue out of cheek and runs away very fast.....

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derbex

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