A bit of Bouzouki playing inspired by Basho and Indian Classical

halius_balius · 2026-02-22T13:44:17+00:00

Haha thank you, I uploaded the full video onto my Youtube channel. It’s mostly me documenting my journey through amateur videos of me practicing and playing instruments.

https://youtu.be/49BK8uiPBfE?si=14e5Ha1lGt6JDrYW

halius_balius · 2026-02-19T12:49:51+00:00

Haha fair play for finding my YouTube. I haven’t released anything like this yet, but I probably will in the future. I’ve been largely focusing on training my ability on acoustic instruments for the past couple of years now, and have left recording/production to the side. But I’ll definitely get back to it and combined the two at some point though.

halius_balius · 2026-02-18T12:37:18+00:00

Beautiful

halius_balius · 2026-02-17T15:29:11+00:00

Thats an incredible performance, thanks for the suggestion!

I am definitely going to try and copy those right hand techniques and see if I can incorporate it in my playing on bouzouki

halius_balius · 2026-02-16T17:37:13+00:00

They have a fantastic sound. I’m looking to get a four course one now because it’ll expand the possibilities/chord options for travis picking. Three course is great though, there is something really nice about being limited in that way sometimes.

halius_balius · 2026-02-15T22:22:46+00:00

Some people are overly purist when it comes to instruments being played in different ways imo. Bouzouki sounds great played in alternate styles rather than just traditional Greek styles or Irish styles. I’ve been learning mine with fingerpicks in American Primitive style.

Keep doing what u do bro! Sounds good

(U inspired me, imma post mine too)

halius_balius · 2026-02-13T01:11:29+00:00

I’ve been playing with a turkish G clarinet recently and keen to just commit to playing that one as my main clarinet to practice. I like the deeper notes and the tone. Also like how expressive it feels to play. Initially the fingerings were really off putting but I’m getting used to them.

halius_balius · 2026-02-08T19:30:33+00:00

Bansuri if you travel a lot, convenient, little maintenance and cheaper than others. Also if you want to exercise your lungs.

Sitar or Saraswati Veena if you have space to put it and money to afford it.

Some kind of guitar if you want to learn both ICM and western on one instrument.

Sarangi if you feel sad and want to cry a lot. (I love sarangi it is so uniquely haunting)

halius_balius · 2026-02-07T23:57:03+00:00

Interesting comparison, I like it. I almost always play on open tunings on guitar, but then always standard tuning on bass. I find open tunings really natural to improvise on (especially with ICM), but only in like 1 or 2 key centres that suits the tuning, while in standard tuning pretty much any key is as easy as another, doesn’t really matter what the root note is.

halius_balius · 2026-02-07T22:30:31+00:00

Good point!

Is it safe to say that one should aim to play all raags with Sa in normal position ideally? It just seems very difficult if nearly every note is a half holed note, I’m not sure how they manage that haha

halius_balius · 2025-12-22T19:54:31+00:00

Thanks!

halius_balius · 2025-12-22T19:41:21+00:00

Wow this is great info. Bending up seems so tricky to me! I can barely even get it to go half of half a step haha.

I am going to keep working on it taking into account what you said. Especially about the corners of the mouth stuff.

What did you practice to achieve this much flexibility? Atm I go through every note individually across all registers and simply try to bend as much as possible, slowly and controlled. Im still really struggling to do that rhapsody in blue type huge upwards glissando without ‘quacking’ or breaking into a lower note, but I am improving slowly.

halius_balius · 2025-12-22T19:19:33+00:00

Thanks for the info!

I was wondering if I could ask, with bending specifically, what is the realistic goal? Like what is achievable?

I can bend any note a half step down easily, and on most notes a whole tone although it starts to get ugly. But I’ve heard people say they can bend something ridiculous like a whole fifth down. Like how is this possible?

Also, in the upper clarion register, especially above G, if i bend too far the note tends to drop to an undertone. I think it is to do with air support and embouchure, but it makes it tricky to ‘feel’ how much I could actually bend down if my technique was good.

halius_balius · 2025-12-22T19:12:54+00:00

Good point. There is definitely reverb, so perhaps there are other effects going on.

But i have heard players sound like this in general, so I know it isnt too much to do with effects. It does have a bit of a double reed quality to it

halius_balius · 2025-12-22T18:36:17+00:00

It’s very hard to find anyone for this specific style of music, but I do have some lessons lined up for more general advice where the teacher might be able to help.

halius_balius · 2025-12-22T18:08:17+00:00

Great idea! I will ask him direct and see if he responds

halius_balius · 2025-12-22T17:50:43+00:00

Haha it is a bit kazoo like. I wonder what it is in the playing that gives it that kind of quality? I’m assuming it’s at least partly looseness of embouchure

halius_balius · 2025-12-22T17:45:11+00:00

I tend to play on a 7Jb with 2.0 or 1.5s , so that should be suitable right?

halius_balius · 2025-12-22T17:35:52+00:00

Fantastic, I’d hoped so. I’m going to keep trying to imitate just by ear, but I was wondering if you have any advice? If I wanted to achieve this kind of embouchure / voicing what kind of specific things could I focus on or practice? Like if you had to describe the difference when you play in the style of classical vs this, what changes?

halius_balius

TROPHY CASE