This website is the online presentation space for the “Method of Tambouras Instrument Technique” by music professor Spyros Ch. Siasos.
The Method of Tambouras Instrument Technique presents the technique of playing the tambouras through clear rules and musical examples written in Byzantine notation. It also introduces the modes (Echoi) of Byzantine Ecclesiastical Music through specially designed diagrams and explains how they are performed on the tambouras. The Method includes a rich anthology of 57 Greek traditional songs and dances from all over Greece in Byzantine ecclesiastical notation, as well as 20 dances in European notation.
The Method is intended for students of Byzantine Ecclesiastical Music and Greek Traditional Music (in Music Schools or Schools of Byzantine Music) who wish to learn the technique of the tambouras. It is a comprehensive method for the teaching and performance practice of the tambouras, based on the musical literacy of Byzantine ecclesiastical music. Beginning from the very first steps, and through a carefully selected repertoire of songs, it presents the fundamental techniques used in tambouras performance practice (such as playing positions, fingerings, plectrum techniques, appoggiaturas, tunings, etc.). The aim of the Method is for the student, beyond developing a repertoire, to also acquire metacognitive skills — that is, to build a solid technical foundation that will allow them to continue their musical journey with their tambouras confidently and independently.
Additionally, the Method publishes the author’s lecture entitled “Interdisciplinary Approaches to Teaching Greek Traditional Music through Tambouras Instruction”, which was presented at a training seminar at Pallini Music School. The lecture presented, in its complete form, the Tambouras Teaching Model, which is aligned and fully compatible with the new curricula of the Greek Ministry of Education for Music Schools.
New Book!!!
The Cycles with their Trails
A Study on Teaching the Tambouras in Music Schools
ISMN: 979-0-9016094-2-6
Dimensions: 297 × 210 mm (A4)
Pages: 101
This book/study focuses on the teaching of the tampouras course in Music Schools and is a compilation of notes and educational material that I have been using in recent years in my classes at the Music School of Ilion/Athens. More specifically, it reflects an effort to bring the tampouras course into the “here and now”; that is, to connect the course material with the everyday life of the school and, by extension, the students themselves. This connection is fully aligned with the functional use of Greek folk songs during the period in which they were originally created within their natural social environment.
The book is divided into three sections. The first section presents a monograph on Greek Folk Song, the second section briefly outlines the fundamental principles of tambouras technique and organology, and the third section includes 39 folk songs specially arranged for tambouras.
The book The Cycles with their Trails is available FREE OF CHARGE!!!
You can download the e-book here.