Items list
Lesson timetable: 17:00 - 20:00 (total of 21 hours)
* This seminar is full. A waiting list is available.
During this circle of lessons we will try to approach the bouzouki as a solistic instrument but not only.
Being really connected to the Greek folk tradition (rebetiko and laiko repertoire) , we are going to flirt with the idea of dealing with the bouzouki in the sense of a musical instrument that can approach other musical styles, always based on the bouzouki's journey so far.
We will also focus on the musical scales and rhythms of the greek folk music ( starting by analysing them and then practise them in real life on a song of rebetiko or laiko repertoire mainly) and the wider Eastern Mediterranean, based not only on the melodic analysis and presentation but also on the harmonisation of the scales. (Includes exercises of fingering, picking exercises, combination of those and ways to think in order to approach these techniques).
Inpsired by all the previous we will attempt to enter the magical word of improvisation (taximi) in two basic ways:
As free improvisation without musical accompaniment and during a musical piece.
* This lesson will be taught primarily in Greek. Terminology will be explained in other languages as well, according to the teacher’s disposal.
Interpretation will not be provided.
Fotis Vergopoulos was born in 1988 in Melbourne, Australia. He spent his childhood in his ancestral town of Koroni in Messinia. He started playing music at a young age, around 6-7 years old, through the indirect motivation and influence of his father, who had been a member of Apodimi Kompania [diasporic orchestra] in Melbourne.
After graduating high school, he returned to Australia to study civil engineering, and he
started to perform music professionally, playing bouzouki in various venues, while his
music ensemble also participated in various festivals, such as Brunswick Music Festival, Port Fairy Folk Festival, and more.
Since late 2012, he has lived in Athens. He has collaborated with musicians such as Babis Goles, Agathonas Iakovidis, Dimitra Galani, and more, in Athens and in the Greek countryside, and he has been a member of Rebetien, who have performed in many stages and festivals in Greece and abroad.
In the last five years, he has been a member of the “Vasilis Tsitsanis” Orchestra directed by Manolis Pappos, as well as a member of Stavros Xarhakos’s show “Rebetiko - 40 years later.”