The history of bouzouki is actually intertwined with the rebetika songs, which is among the most distinctive Greek music sounds. Greek bouzouki is different from the Irish bouzouki that looks like a mandolin. The bouzouki is played with a plectrum (pena or pick), which, in older times, would have been made from a bird’s feather, a horn or the bark of a cherry tree. Regarding the intervals, the new D-A-F-C tuning became identical to the first four strings of the traditional guitar. There are variations such as the G-A-D or A-E-Aoct., which is not currently used.Īt some point in the 1960s, a fourth string was adopted into the bouzouki’s configuration. It has three double metallic strings (each pair tuned in unison). The bouzouki has a pear-shaped sound-box and a fretboard of about 60-70cm in length, populated with metallic frets. This tambouras bears the main morphological characteristics of the bouzouki used by the rebetes playing rebetika songs. On display in the National Archaeological Museum of Greece is the tambouras of General Makriyiannis, hero of the 1821 Greek revolution. In ancient Greece, an instrument similar to bouzouki was known under the name “pandouris”, and from Byzantium onwards, it became known as the “tambouras”. Instruments of a similar shape can be found in Pre-Hellenic civilizations (Egypt, Assyria, China, India). Bouzouki is written as mpouzouki (μπουζούκι) in Greek, but the true sound of the word is closer to bouzouki than mpouzouki.īouzouki is a stringed instrument, which belongs to the family of the long-necked lutes. The bouzouki is by far the most recognizable and distinctive Greek music instrument.

Classic greek stringed instrument