What's a Bouzouki?

[Robert Jentz]

Can anyone tell me what kind of instument this is?
I have the Mark Knopfler CD , Golden Heart and it's used in some of
the songs. Is it a type of violin? Is it an Irish instrument?

[Han Speek]

In article <6qmomh$rr8$1...@bunyip.cc.uq.edu.au>,

Hi,

Think of it as an oversized mandolin: same body design, but about twice as
long, and tuned about an octave lower. Like the mandolin, it has 4 pairs of
2 strings, which gives a different sound then a guitar with it's single strings.

The bouzouki is originally Greek, but has been changed quite a bit since it
was introduced in Irish music. Most important changes would be the change from
the round back to a flat back (make sit easier to hold the instrument when you
play it standing up), the neck is now typically shorter than on the Greek model
(which makes it possible to use somewhat thicker strings, and thus get a fuller
sound) and the tuning was changed as the Greek tuning is not too suitable to
play in the keys used for Irish music (which would be D, G and the related
modal keys).

For more info and pictures, see my Irish Bouzouki pages at:

http://www.ice.el.utwente.nl/~han/bouzouki/

Hope this helps,

Han.

--
H. Speek, B.Sc. E-mail: h...@ice.el.utwente.nl,
Univ. of Twente, Dept. EL, ICE group H.S...@el.utwente.nl
The Netherlands WWW: http://www.ice.el.utwente.nl/~han/

[Jeff Doty]

Robert - Originally a Greek instrument rather like a large mandolin, the
bouzouki has a bowl back and three or four (or five) courses of paired
strings. Since the bouzouki's introduction to Britian, its use has become
widespread among British Isles musicians - who usually tune it an octave
below the mandolin, or employ various drone tunings. Donal Lunny of the
Bothy Band (disbanded) uses the bouzouki to play chords and contrapuntal
harmonies. DeDanann's Alec Finn has perfected a different rhythm style,
playing key harmonic notes while maintaining a droning chord. Johnny
Moynihan's style was somewhat melody oriented.

[Somewhat/scantly taken from (the now-defunct) Frets Magazine, April 1980]

Hope this helps.

Jeff Doty

(You'll also see people referring to other instruments such as a cittern,
octave mandolin, octave mandola, blarge, bouzouki-guitar, etc.)

Robert Jentz <rje...@uq.net.au> wrote in article
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