Irish Bouzouki

The bouzouki began to be used in Irish sessions in the 1960s, and was originally the Greek instrument with a round back and three pairs of strings. By 1970 or so flat backed instruments with 4 pairs of strings were made - at first these were referred to as Irish bouzoukis to distinguish them from the Greek ones. I think Donal Lunny instigated the design, and it soon caught on.

This might save me rambling on too much - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_bouzouki

They tend to be tuned an octave below mandolin, either as GDAE or GDAD in unison pairs, though other tunings can be used - ADAD, GDGD etc. The lower pairs can be unison or octaves according to taste. For playing tunes the stretches are a quite long unless used with a high capo position - which they are! Zouks also make fab accomp instruments using a combination of strummy bits and picked fills and twiddles, harmonies, countermelodies etc. As you saw, there's a lot can be done with two fingered shapes moved up and down leaving other strings as drones.

Check out Andy Irvine, Donal Lunny and James Fagan, aong others, for some great playing!

It's an easy enough instrument on which to achieve a basic oompetance, but not an easy one to master.

This is one of the classic reference sites if you want to explore further - hspeek.home.xs4all.nl/bouzouki/

Keith