Greek folk guitar (workshop)

Tuesday 11th June 2024 @ The Cypriot Community Centre

This workshop is based on the repertoire of Greek urban folk music during the first half of the 20th century. The guitar was a fundamental instrument in the recordings of the gramophone era. Consequently, there is abundant material to study the aesthetics of various guitarists, corresponding to certain periods, but also the development discography. Our primary goal will be to familiarise with the ‘Greek popular modes’ as musical scales owning their space over the fretboard and requiring specific left-hand positions.

We will analyse different recordings of the same song, which will be part of the Greek folk guitar repertoire. The analysis will focus on the

Musical scale
Left-hand position and fingerings
Rhythm
Pick technique
Aesthetics

Akis Pitsanis was born in Northwest Greece, Kastoria. At the early age of 7 he had the first contact with music experience. During the teenage years he created his own rock/metal bands playing the drums and later the guitar. The band named “TELMA” recorded one album with the synonym title. He studied luthiery in Kastoria and musicology in the university of Arta (department of popular and traditional music). He is a composer, multi-instrumentalist and performer of rebetiko/traditional music since 2003. He teaches vocal technique, violin and guitar. He has also been a teacher of cretan lyra in the music highschool in Chania-Crete during the year 2020-2021. He has collaborated on several albums of important artists in Greek discography.

Event Details

Arrival time: 18:45

Start: 19:00

Finish: 22:00

Learning level: open to all levels but participants will be required to read a score or tablature sheet.