Irish bouzouki - Up Against the Buachalans, The Star of Munster

[@trevorjones7276]

Another superb rendition from Tijn. I simply love the ecstatic and sensitive playing, which is so outstanding in every musical way.

[@pangur780]

Love this guy's playing, inspires me to keep working at my bouzouki every day.

[@ramiropita269]

Your great man!! Come to Ortigueira celtic festival in Galicia on the northwest of Spain!! 10 to 17th August.To the camping. I learnt the Bucks of Oranmore from you with the whistle!!! amazing!!!

[@lynnhayes2540]

Gorgeous transition there.

[@LewisPugh777]

Outrageously bloody good. Gwan lad.

[@jacobsladder72]

pure class.

[@DarrenLynchFolkMusic]

Lovely playing

[@CelticMandoDude]

Wonderful as always. The transition to Star is just brilliant!

[@manuelvicente9614]

We love you! Awesome!

[@rkhan5725]

Just got my bouzouki and ordered your tune book! Keep posting

[@mikelafleur441]

Nice key change!

[@johnlarkin8226]

Love your playing, as always. Martin Hayes plays Star of Munster in Gm.

[@craigchad99]

Thanks tijn.... as well as enjoying your playing, its also a great reference for how you chabge positions! Your zouk is sounding great!

[@ombrablu7155]

I'm always so happy when you upload, you're my favourite bouzoukist

[@jycath4122]

Very nice picking. Very beautiful sound. Thank you for sharing your video. I enjoy each time. Hartelijk nieuw jaar.

[@JoshyAASpidey]

Brilliant!

[@desbehan2727]

Mighty stuff great timing and feeling.

[@turnipsociety706]

inspired by you, i just my irish bouzouki

[@MrViken-pc9sb]

wow! this is good!

[@radharcanna]

That’s beautiful playing.

[@toddley2939]

I have been playing Celtic music for 3 yrs on an octave mandolin. I got my bouzouki 3 weeks ago. You have been a constant source of motivation and inspiration. Beautifully played. So clean and great shifting up and down the neck. Keep up the posts. I am sure i will see you playing at a music festival in Australia at some stage in your life.

[@MegaSkycap]

Hello -- I was wondering if you could help me with a decision between the OM and the IB. I have played guitar for years. Is there anything to consider? I like the sound of both so much. I'm primarily a lead guitarist and would probably be trying to figure out melodies but, would also want to strum some chords I think. If you could help, I'd really appreciate it.

[@crush.harrington92]

Beautiful triplet 2:08

[@ryanmckenna7481]

so nicely played man!

[@Radaep1]

Great stuff Tign, love it !!

[@DamienConway666]

Love this set of tunes,

[@jycath4122]

The Star of Munster is a very beautiful irish tune played here by a wonderful musician.

[@alexbenson3011]

Great to hear some more playing from you, excellent as usual.

[@timryan8306]

You are like a magician. You make it look so easy but I know it's incredibly hard. Incredible playing and musicianship.

[@samwise4669]

This is Unbelievably good!! I have been playing Bouzouki for a few years and am always looking for good quality videos to play along to! Thank you for making this!

[@davidoverhoff1837]

Ah, Tijn. Finesse on the fingerboard. You make it LOOK easy, but I know better! Truly inspirational. Thank you for your posts, and Happy Christmas!

[@bevwigney881]

Beautiful!

[@jldrumm]

Extremely nice picking and strumming as always! Good to see a fresh video. Merry Christmas to you and yours!

[@colford5833]

Always a joy to listen to you play that thing, has inspired me to look at buying an octave mandolin so I can play such beautiful music.

[@kieronseamons3466]

fabulous

[@kostaurus]

Always such a delight to see a new video from you mate. The reels sound fantastic together, especially when played so amazingly. Cheers

[@jamesmccarty8988]

Very well played

[@cittern]

Excelente trabajo.

[@peterbyrne178]

Superb playing ...love the guitar backing!

[@warh0rn]

I hope you give lessons because I want to see more people playing like you do... I also hope to play as well as you do someday. Good job.

[@jycath4122]

Magnifique !

[@nathananderson8935]

Beautiful. I'm not certain of the context intended by the title of the tune, but "buachalan" is Irish for "ragwort" which is a weed to farmers, but legendarily a favorite of fairies. It's pronounced "boo-ah-cha-lawn", with a gutteral "ch" like in "loch". Well played and lovely regardless.

[@DamienConway666]

indeed the buachalan is poisonous to cattle as far as I know, certainly in sufficient quantities and farmers will often knock any growth of it on the fields. it's also a favourite of the cinnabar moth, its caterpillar form can be found in large numbers on each plant in summer.

[@daniellyne9420]

Yes buachalan is ragwort, it's full name is buachalan buí .kind of means the yellow boy! Buachal is irish for boy. I love the tunes as always of course! Danny in kerry!

[@jeanpaulbarbona7376]

Awsome man

[@inderneilboseroychowdhury]

Soothing & smooth playing indeed.. Traditional Irish Harmonica in the background would have furthermore enhanced this wonderful play..Nothing like traditional music can surpass any other kind of Music.. With good greetings from Hamburg, Lohbrügge.. Germany.. Love to the Irish people..

[@stevedean6463]

Superb

[@amokreutz]

wow

[@brendandunne4401]

Great playing! It looks like you hold the pic with thumb and second finger. Is that right?

[@mrjono999]

WOuld love to know those dadgad shapes your using on guitar! especially the relative minor and around that area on the first tune!

[@gearoiddom]

Is it DADGAD or dropped D?

[@timmace2689]

you good

[@billthetailor]

What capo are you using on the Martin? I use a Kaiser and it can't move that fast.

[@WWS322]

I bought a very nice bouzouki but I'm disappointed with it because I don't know what to do with it since there are no bouzouki instruction books.

[@MrPendell]

Hope you’ve found some bouzouki learning resources in the months since you posted your comment? Lots of stuff is available on line. I bought a cheap Romanian factory made one a couple of years ago- about every fourth Irish bouzouki I see in a KZbin video looks to have come from the same place- distinctive shamrock inlay in the wooden pickgurd. Action was a bit high on mine right out of the box, and the intonation needed a tweak (if you’ve never set up a floating bridge you might need to look up some information on how to do that- basically the same process as for a mandolin or an arch top guitar) but after some setup work mine plays like butter now, and I’ve since found plenty of chord charts and a bunch of pretty decent song tutorials on the interwebs. Probably helps if you’re coming to it from having played some guitar, banjo or mandolin, but part of the beauty of the bouzouki is that many of the chord shapes aren’t very complex, so it’s relatively easy to actually see what a player is doing with only one or two fingers at a time planted on the fretboard, and I find I can often reverse engineer parts from just watching KZbin performance videos as well, especially if you can stand the sound quality at half speed playback. My biggest challenge is getting my own playing up to full speed- I started out as a bass player many years ago, and had played a fair bit of finger style guitar and some banjo before I ever saw a bouzouki, but I had never done much flat picking, and my skills there leave a whole lot to be desired, so I despair of ever being able to master the cross-picking meets strum technique of somebody like Daoiri Farrel. What seems to be working for me is more of a Travis picking/ banjo roll type of thing for the rhythmic picking parts, interspersed with full chord strums and the occasional single note run. I’m mostly playing these days in a just for fun ensemble with repertoire leaning towards 70s-90s soft rock with some alt country mixed in, and I mostly play 12 string or Banjo there, but I’ve hashed out bouzouki parts for a few of those tunes, so mine is starting to make its way out of the basement occasionally now ; ) Definitely adds a bit of a unique flavour to things. The under saddle piezo pickup on my zouk isn’t the greatest quality, but with a bit of EQ tweaking I can usually get something coming out of a speaker which sounds pretty much like it should. Please don’t give up if it doesn’t fall into place right away for you- I started out thinking that my interest in the bouzouki was what was going to finally spur me on to developing some flatpicking skills, and when that turned out to be a longer and rockier road than I had hoped for, I got a bit discouraged, and didn’t pick the thing up much for a while, but since I’ve settled into my banjo roll thing, I’m having lots of fun with it. Bottom line, near as I can tell, for Irish trad music, as with most folk traditions, is honour the roots, learn some of the songs, but do it however the hell works for you.

[@bronzeladdy53]

Love that transition! How do I pronounce your name? rhymes with?

[@TijnB42]

Thanks! The Dutch "ij" sound does not exist in English, but "tine" (as in the thing at the end of a fork) comes fairly close.

[@linda_guitar8869]

I see a number of other replies below, from people who are inspired by your playing and want to get a bouzouki too. Now you can add me to that number! The more I listen to your music, the more I want to play it! When I search online for Irish bouzoukis, the main company that comes up is Hora, in Romania. (The cost of shipping to the U.S. is going to raise the total cost of the instrument by about 50%!) Would you recommend getting a bouzouki from them? Who else makes good Irish bouzoukis? If I have to order one from abroad, I'd like to know which ones are considered good.

[@michaeladams2644]

Some serious finger stretching 😂

[@williamlawrence5040]

what the tuning on this bouzouki? big strings to small...

[@CHRISTYBLUELOO]

have u a email i can contact

[@samwise4669]

What microphone set up do you use?