So I'm on the committee for our town's 300th Anniversary closing festival, and we went over to talk to a BBQ vendor today. BBQ is his passion but he also runs a Greek restaurant and that is where we met him. As we walked into the bar where we were meeting, my eye went directly to a fine looking bowlback bouzouki on the wall. At the end of the meeting, I asked him if he played. He's pretty good guitar player, but hadn't had a chance to find a teacher. He asked me if I played. Not bouzouki, but some mandolin, I said. "You want to check it out?" "um, yes!" He took it off the wall, it was pretty out of tune. Here's where it would be good to know how to tune your instrument without an electronic tuner. Especially hard with 4 sets of strings tuned to octaves. I did mess around with it a bit, but was not successful in tuning it. He told me it took him an hour and a half to tune it, so I didn't feel so bad It was pretty fun, and a neat looking instrument. A bouzouki. From Greece. Pretty long neck on that puppy. Bowlback. It did sit nicely in my lap. I liked it, it was cool
When are you buying a bouzouki, Sue? #Thestruggleisreal
Ha, unlikely. I was reading Graham MacDonalds The Mandolin - A History in bed last night and read that Greek bouzoukis are usually tuned CFAd (the top four strings of a guitar tuned down two semitones). So a whole 'nother tuning of which I'm totally unfamiliar with.
Sue, this is basically why I haven't ever made an attempt to play my saz, or at least not a serious attempt. I actually bought it for a wall hanger and I've strummed it now and then for fun, but even though it is superficially similar to a mandolin, the actual play style is so different both due to the differences in the instrument but also differences in style of music, the learning curve is just too steep.
Somebody out in the main forum has advised against telling the airport security guy, "It's a bouzouki".
Haha Hank there ought to be a laugh and/or like button for the discussion forum ��
Jethro Burns always said that mandolin was Italian for out of tune. Do you suppose bouzouki is the the Greek word for it?
