As this is more a personal
encounter with the Bouzouki, you can
click here to read excerpts from Wikipedia.
My story for the instruments
that I love and play, is actually my story about music. And it has a
kind of a logical progression. I started with the
Acoustic Guitar, progressed to the
Electric Guitar, and the time came to discover the Bouzouki. The
story follows.
It's based around a holiday, as
you can probably imagine. It was 1981-82, I believe. I was a hippy at
time: long hair, beard, two earrings on one ear, wasn't washing the
hair so often - a rebel, basically. Was playing in a band, wrote my
own songs.
We went on a holiday with my
girlfriend on Lesbos, Greece. It was so beautiful - and expensive.
Soon, after a week, we run out of money. I didn't want us to leave,
so I decided to work as a waiter at some restaurant, so we could
prolong our days on that beautiful island.
I found a job - don't remember
the salary but the shifts were a killer: 11am-11pm, 7am-11pm and 7am
to 5pm. The third day was supposed to be our break-day, free day.
Pure Capitalistic exploitation of two Socialist souls, what else
could I say?
By the end of the second day, I
was dead. I could barely stand on my own two feet, let alone work
decently. I was righteously fired.
As we were heading to the port
with my girlfriend, I saw a band playing a lunch-time gig in some
beautiful restaurant garden. It was a Greek band: bouzouki, guitar,
bas, keyboards and drums. There were dressed in some white clothes,
sitting comfortably and effortlessly playing their Greek tunes, the
bouzouki being the lead instrument. I listened for some time and
thought: I could do it! I can play the bouzouki as good as he
can. I already play the guitar, which is a string instrument. Plus,
I could earn some money.
On the way back home to Skopje,
Macedonia, we passed through Thessalonica, the city where I was
born (Northern Greece). I bought there a few cassete tapes with
Greek Instrumentals. Went home, and started learning them on the
guitar.
Oh, it was a wonder, a new
world. All my life I used to play Blues, Rock and other "Western"
music from far away. I never looked seriously in my own backyard:
Greek and Macedonian.
The shock was great. This Greek
music was good, meaningful, difficult to master. There was a lot of
music in it.
After manically practising
Greek tunes on the guitar, I borrowed some money from my father,
promising that I would return them, it was an investment. I bought
my first bouzouki!
I already knew a number of
Greek tunes, so it was only a mater of getting used to the double
strings. At that time I would dream scales, musical ladders, all
night through. so much I practised, so big was the enthusiasm.
Because to me, in Rock music
there's this Pentatonic Minor and major scale, with the Blue Note,
the Natural Minor and major scales, the Harmonic, eventually the
Dorian mode and that's basically all there is in terms of scales.
Two scales with a few variations.
While in Greek music I
discovered over
20 different scales and variations.
Every new song I was learning on the bouzouki at that time would
have a totally new scale or a variation of it.
~~~
I guess I managed to learn the
Bouzouki easily, because I have it my blood, genes. It allowed me to
express a side of me which I firstly wasn't aware that it exists,
and secondly didn't ever imagine I would be able to express.
I am not sure that I believe
much in Astrology. I am Gemini and surely there are two sides of me
- I am Greek/Macedonian, I play Electric Guitar (Western) and
Bouzouki (Eastern). The only logical consequence to this duality was
to create a fusion between the two cultures, which I did many years
later and which is present on Meditera.Co.Uk. Even the name of this
website is dual: Mediterranean/United Kingdom.
~~~
That's the identity part..
What's more, soon I started
earning money from music with the bouzouki. I didn't mention before,
but there was no way one could earn money by playing Rock music in
Skopje in the '80's. Unlike now, where I have friends/musicians that
are doing rock gigs as a full time job.
anyway, at that time the only
option was folk. That sleazy, tasteless newly-composed music in a
folk manner. I couldn't do it.
But by learning the Bouzouki, I
had an answer in hand: I could play quality music and still earn
some moewny6 with it. It was a marriage off interest.
And it worked fine for around
25 years so far. I never really liked the idea of playing
restaurants - while people eating. but, since that was the only
descent source of income by doing music, I did it. And with the
bouzouki I have been playing in (old) Yugoslavia, Greece,
Netherlands and UK. It's a great bread-earner - there are Greek
restaurants everywhere.
Bouzouki
