Greek music, from folksongs to modern commercial albums, is made of characteristic elements like scales common in many kinds of oriental, mediterrenean or eastern european music, singing styles or typical instrumens like the bouzouki. The most intriguing ingredient are the specific rhythms and dances. Many of them consist of "odd" measures rather than the "even" ones which are the only ones common in european, classical and rock music (there are a few exceptions though). Measures of five, seven or nine beats are common in Greek music, even in modern Greek pop. For musicians not familiar with them, a simple Greek folk song can be a hard task to master. I don`t think it's possible just to study the theory and learn the principles - it takes time to get used to a rhythm to deal with it in a natural way, be it by dancing, singing or playing.
Bouzouki player in a greek dance club (c) datafox
On this site, every rhythm is presented by a note staff (the simplest possible), a few sample measures in MIDI format, drum notation (in piano roll or "tracker" format: D means "doum" - low sound of the drum or downstroke/bass on a guitar, "T" means "tak" - high sound of the drum or upstroke/chord on the guitar) and an mp3 sample song to practice. You can try to clap the rhythm, play it on a drum (bongos, darabukka) or play it on a piano or guitar. All samples are in C major. Sorry I won't offer chords to the songs displayed here.
Disclaimer: The audio material on this page is presented for educational purposes only. According to copyright laws, you must delete the files after listening, if you don't own the record.
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Chasapiko
