This course will acquaint you with the guitar style unique to rebetiko, which rests heavily on the relationship of rhythmic bass with melody and chords. We will focus on rebetiko guitar both as solo and accompaniment instrument.
This course is for students who already play guitar, though not necessarily rebetiko, though a familiarity with the music is helpful. By playing melodies, we will learn rebetiko scales (dromoi) and makam theory. We will investigate ways of harmonizing these scales, as well as the rhythmic patterns used in their accompaniment. We will devote special attention to the bass line, which has three purposes: melody, harmony and rhythm.

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Theodora Athanassiou – guitar
Taxiarchis Georgoulis – oud
Loukas Metaxas – percussions

 

alpha (άλφα) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet.

steritiko (στερητικό) comes from the Greek verb: steroúmai (στερούμαι) which stands for being deprived of something or someone

“alpha steritiko” is a greek prefix. It’s the letter “a” that stands in front of a word

30/4/2018
alpha steritiko @ TV Control Center

This concert will be the debut presentation of “Theodora Athanasiou Trio” launching a series of live music events that will lead and add to the main performance, called “No Words”. In this first concert there will not be many words to hear. Just three song. The rest will be just notes… Organic music, mainly from primary compositions

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By Theodora Athanasiou and Sofia Labropoulou @Lumen Kávézó (Budapest)

Rebetiko, also known as the Greek blues, is a very rich music genre regarding the melodic and lyric content, because is both based on makam modal system (a complex modal construct which was brought to a high level of development under the Ottomans) but also strongly influenced by the eastern Mediterranean and Asia Minor music heritage. Rebetiko is a genre of music that offers to any musician a great chance to study standards for eastern and greek folk and urban music.

Saturday, 24 February 2018
17:00-19:00
2 hour lecture about Rebetiκo music (History, Periods, Styles and presentation of the most important representative artists and instruments of each style) and presentation of Kanun, Lafta and Folk style Guitar (description of their characteristic role in Greek Folk and Rebetiko music).

20:00 Concert of Rebetiko music with Theodora Athanasiou and Sofia Labropoulou
Sofia Labropoulou (kanun) and Theodora Athanasiou (vocals, guitar, lafta) present a crossover through Rebetiko music, “Cafe Aman” and contemporary personal compositions based on the Eastern Mediterranean music heritage. Two of the most renowned musicians in Greece that trust their musical insights and offer an amazing musical journey through the routes of Rebetiko.

Sunday, 25 February 2018
4 hour Seminar with Sofia Labropoulou and Theodora Athanasiou
Instrumental music of the tradition of Rebetiko (Practical Seminar)
11:30-13:30
30 min break
14:00-16:00
The seminar will be focused on instrumental compositions from the Rebetiko tradition. It is being referred to musicians and instrument players of all levels).

By: Theodora Athanassiou & Pavlos Spyropoulos

The seminar intention is to study and highlight accompaniment as a living and inalienable component of the art of music focusing primarily on its relevance to the modal musical traditions of the southeast Mediterranean.

Given that in the context of the musical idioms in question the melodic line has a singularly powerful presence, many players of what we might call accompanying instruments have a tendency to concentrate almost entirely on the melody itself, with the intention of improving to the best of their ability its rendition, whilst simultaneously not paying enough attention to other accompaniment possibilities which could potentially work more effectively in support of a composition or an improvisation. It is exactly this observation which serves as the starting point for this seminar which employs two instruments frequently encountered in an accompanying role in almost all of the musical idioms (folk and “classical”) of the broader region: the Guitar and the double bass.

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