The Irish Bouzouki - a book/CD for beginners in Irish bouzouki, by Tommy Walsh and Niall O Callanain

I have been looking around on the web to find an introduction to play the Irish bouzouki. It was easy to find material on DVD and book for the intermediate player. But for the beginner it's hard. Here it is. It is a combined tutor for the beginner on Irish bouzouki and an introduction to the instruments role in Irish music as well. A music cultural book for an interesting instrument that has traveled from Greece to Ireland and transformed to fit an other kind of music.

Av Per Jakob Skaanes

This book is a book for the beginner on bouzouki and for those who want to know a bit about the instrument as well. It begins with a chapter about parts of the bouzouki and about instruments in this family of the Irish bouzouki, like the cittern, the Greek bouzouki, and a bit of history behind the develoment of the Irish bouzouki from the Greek ancestor (8 pages). Thereafter follows how to hold the instrument, about accesories to the bouzouki, strumming and chord diagrams for GDAD and ADAD tunings and tips and advices for capo. The chords are mainly major, minor and 7th-chords. But they operate with an interesting "diad"-chord where the 3rd is omitted. In a D-chord this will only consist of D and A. The F# is excluded. The effect is that you neither have a minor or a major chord, but something in between. This kind of chords works very well in Irish and Norwegian traditional music (and probably many other countries' traditional music too) (17 pages).

In the presentation of the instrument's role in Irish music, Walsh and O'Callanain have written short biographies of famous Irish musicians and included some of their songs with melody and chords in the book. They are also on the CD that is included with the book (20 pages). The songs on the CD are very good as examples of Irish music, but as excercises for the beginner on bouzouki, I think they will be a bit too complicated. Of cource you'll manage to play them if you are an experienced guitar player or have played other instruments before you start on bouzouki. But if bouzouki is your first instrument, this is going to be tough. So I think it is a gap between where the instruction ends and the level of the songs. But here we have to have in mind that the book is both instruction and introduction to the Irish bouzouki. It is a good CD to listen to if you like Irish music. Great varition of music played with Irish bouzouki in the lineup, on lead or accompaniment. The music is nice and the musicians at famous Irish musicians like Andy Irvine, Dònal Lunny, Manus Lunny among others.

Niall O'Callanain and Tommy Walsh' book isn't merely a tutor but also an introduction to an instrument which is playing an increasing role in the continuous development of Irish music. Very interesting if you like to know about the background of an instrument you are playing too. But this is an instruction for the absolute beginner. The instruction covers the first basic steps in strumming, chords and the fingerboard.

The book has a discography and a bibliography if you would like to find more books about Irish music and bouzouki and CDs with the artists mentioned in the book.

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