The bouzouki (pronounced "boo-ZOO-kee") is a musical instrument that is popular in Greece. It belongs to the long-necked lute family and has a round body with a long neck that has a fretted fingerboard. The instrument has steel strings and is played using a plectrum, which creates a sharp, metallic sound similar to a mandolin but with a lower pitch.

The Irish bouzouki, a version of this instrument, was developed from the Greek bouzouki and is used in Celtic, English, and North American folk music. Instruments like the buzuq and Balkan tambura, which are similar to the bouzouki, are also found in regions such as West Asia (Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Cyprus), the Balkans, and Turkey.

The bouzouki was introduced to Greece in the early 1900s by Greek refugees from Anatolia. It became a central instrument in the rebetiko music genre and its related styles. Today, it is an important part of modern Laïko pop Greek music.

Etymology

The name "bouzouki" comes from the Turkish word "bozuk," which means "broken" or "modified." This name is linked to a special tuning method called "bozuk düzen," which was often used on a Turkish instrument called the "saz-bozuk." The bouzouki belongs to the same family of instruments as the mandolin and the lute.

At first, the bouzouki's body was carved from a single block of wood, similar to the saz. However, when the instrument arrived in Greece in the early 1910s, it was changed. A back made of multiple pieces, taken from the Neapolitan mandola, was added. The top of the instrument was also shaped like a Neapolitan mandolin to make the body stronger and better able to handle thick steel strings.

The version of the bouzouki used in rebetiko music had three pairs of strings, arranged in three courses. In the 1950s, a four-course version was created and became popular because of the musician Manolis Chiotis.

Construction

From a construction point of view, the bouzouki can have differences not only in the number of strings but also in other features, such as the length, width, height, and depth of the bowl or main body, as well as the width of the staves (the wooden slices that make up the bowl). These differences are chosen by the manufacturer, who uses their experience and knowledge of sound to adjust parts of the instrument to create a louder, deeper, or richer tone.

The size and shape of the sound box greatly affect the instrument’s tone, while the length of the neck, and how long the strings are, determines the range of pitches the instrument can play. This also influences the tone. Although neck length can vary between instruments, most bouzoukis have 27 frets, spaced so they can play all the notes in the musical scale. On modern instruments, the frets are made of metal and fixed in place on the fingerboard. This is different from older instruments and similar ones like the baglama, which used movable gut or cord frets tied to the neck.

The type of wood used is very important for the sound. The best woods for the bowl are mulberry, apricot, cherry, acacia, and elm. Walnut, plane, and chestnut are slightly less preferred. The wood must be solid and come from trees that grow slowly. The top part, called the soundboard, should be made from cedar or spruce, ideally spruce, and cut from a single piece. This part is important because it helps the sound carry and last longer.

Another factor that affects the sound is the varnish and how it is applied. The best varnish is a natural one made from shellac, applied by hand in many layers for both sound and appearance. The neck must be made from very dry hardwood to prevent warping and keep the strings at the right height, which makes the instrument easier to play. Manufacturers use different methods to achieve this, and each has its own techniques. Many modern instruments have a metal rod inside the neck, called a truss-rod, which adds weight but makes the neck stronger and allows adjustments if it starts to warp.

History

The Greek bouzouki is a stringed instrument in the lute family, also called the thabouras or tambouras family. The tambouras was known in ancient Greece as the pandura and comes in many sizes, shapes, body depths, neck lengths, and numbers of strings. The bouzouki and the baglamas are direct descendants of this instrument. A Greek marble relief called the Mantineia Base, now displayed at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, dates back to 330–320 BC and shows a muse playing a version of the pandoura.

During the Byzantine era, the instrument was first called pandoura and later named tambouras. At the National Historical Museum of Greece, a tambouras once owned by General Makriyiannis, a hero of the 1821 Greek revolution, is on display.

Other sizes of the instrument have developed over time, including the tzouras, a smaller version of the standard bouzouki.

The bouzouki came to Greece after the 1919–1922 war in Asia Minor and the population exchange between Greece and Turkey. Early bouzoukia mostly had three courses (six strings in three pairs, called trichordo) and were tuned differently based on the musical scale used. By the late 1950s, four-course (tetrachordo) bouzoukia became popular. Manolis Chiotis helped make the four-course bouzouki widely known by using a tuning similar to a standard guitar, which made it easier for guitarists to play. This change upset some traditionalists but increased the instrument’s versatility and popularity. Recently, the three-course bouzouki has become popular again. The first recording using the four-course bouzouki was made in 1956.

The Irish bouzouki, which has four courses, a flatter back, and a different tuning than the Greek version, appeared later. It was introduced into Irish music by Johnny Moynihan around 1965. Later, musicians like Andy Irvine and Dónal Lunny adopted it, though some, such as Alec Finn, continued to use Greek-style instruments.

Three-course bouzouki (trichordo)

This is the traditional style of bouzouki, introduced around 1900, and was commonly used in rebetiko music. It has fixed frets and six strings arranged in three pairs. In the lower-pitched (bass) pair, one string is thick and wound, and the other is thin, with the two strings tuned an octave apart. The standard modern tuning for the trichordo bouzouki is D3-D4, A3-A3, D4-D4. This tuning was named "European tuning" by Markos Vamvakaris, who mentioned (but did not describe) several other tunings, or douzenia, in his autobiography. The illustrated bouzouki was made by Karolos Tsakirian of Athens and is a copy of a trichordo bouzouki created by his grandfather for Markos Vamvakaris. These bouzoukia from this time usually lacked the heavy mother-of-pearl decorations that are common on modern ones. The instrument has tuners for eight strings but only uses six strings, as the neck is too narrow for eight. At the time, luthiers often used sets of four tuners for trichordo instruments because these were more readily available and also used on mandolins.

Four-course bouzouki (tetrachordo)

This type of bouzouki has 8 metal strings arranged in four pairs, called courses. The courses are typically tuned to C3 C4 – F3 F4 – A3 A3 – D4 D4, which is one whole step below the four high strings of a guitar. In the two higher-pitched courses, the two strings in each pair are tuned to the same note. In the two lower-pitched courses, each pair includes a thick, wound string and a thin string tuned an octave apart. On the bouzouki, the lower-pitched string is placed first in these courses, the opposite of how most other instruments with similar octave-paired courses are set up (such as the 12-string guitar, charango, or bajo sexto). These "octave strings" help make the sound fuller and are used in chords and bass drones, which are continuous low notes played throughout the music. The guitar-like tuning was introduced by composer and soloist Manolis Hiotis, who found it better suited for the skilled and complex playing he was known for. Today, the tetrachordo is the most common bouzouki used in Greek music, though some traditionalists still prefer the trichordo, especially for the older rebetiko style of playing.

Five-course bouzouki (pentachordo)

This bouzouki has 10 strings grouped into 5 pairs. An additional pair of strings, called the octave G course, is tuned to G2 and G3. These strings are added to the other 8 strings, creating a tuning of G2 G3 – C3 C4 – F3 F4 – A3 A3 – D4 D4. This tuning is a whole step lower than the 5 high strings of a guitar. This design allows musicians to play more complex chords and different types of music. The instrument became widely known due to the work of Antonopoulos Giorgos.

Amplification

In addition to creating the modern tetrachordo bouzouki, Manolis Hiotis was the first to use amplification for the instrument, which he may have started using as early as 1945. The earliest known example of amplification for the bouzouki appears in a 1952 photograph showing Vasilis Tsitsanis and Yiannis Papaioannou playing bouzoukis with electric guitar-style pickups attached in the soundholes. Many photos from 1953 to 1959 show bands where both singers and bouzouki players used microphones to make their sounds louder. By 1960, special pickups for the bouzouki, like the German "Ideal," were being made and fixed into the instruments. Today, similar pickups are still used by many Greek musicians and come in two types: active and passive.

Related instruments

The Greek baglamas (Greek: μπαγλαμάς) or baglamadaki (Greek: μπαγλαμαδάκι) is very different from the Turkish bağlama. It has the same tuning as the trichordo bouzouki but is pitched one octave higher, usually with the notes D–A–D. The four highest strings are paired to play the same note together, and the lower D strings are paired to play the same note but an octave apart. In music, the baglamas is most often used to support the bouzouki in the Piraeus style of rebetiko.

• Tzouras
• Irish bouzouki
• Balkan tambura
• Lute
• Mandolin
• Pandura
• Bağlama
• Šargija