Fretless Guitar

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The Guitar in Turkey: Erkan Our andthe Istanbul GuitarscapeKevin Dawe & Sinan Cem EroluPublished online: 19 Apr 2013.

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The Guitar in Turkey: Erkan Ogur andthe Istanbul GuitarscapeKevin Dawe & Sinan Cem Eroglu

The authors ethnographic research on the guitar in Turkey has begun to reveal the

instruments multi-faceted role within Turkish music, culture and society. We discuss the

emergence and development of unique playing styles alongside several customisations of

the instrument, focusing on the work of Erkan Ogur who is known as the inventor of the

fretless classical guitar. As well as Ogurs ongoing contribution, several other Turkish

guitarists continue to expand and deepen the role of the guitar within the Turkish

soundscape. This has been accompanied by a growth of local interest in the guitar, guitar

making, pedagogy and retail, all of which are bound up with wider historical, cultural

and technological changes and developments, and issues and tensions, within Turkish

society.

Keywords: Turkey; Istanbul Guitar; Fretless Guitar; Guitar Making; Music Retail;

Guitar Technique; Erkan Ogur

Introduction

In their recent guitarplayer.com blog video, Bilal Karaman (soloing on fretless solid-

body electric guitar) and Ahmet Bilgic (accompanying on nylon-strung acoustic

guitar) are so moved by the Call to Prayer or ezan that they decide to play along

Kevin Dawe is Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of Leeds, UK. His publications include the single-

authored books The New Guitarscape (Ashgate, 2010) and Music and Musicians in Crete (Scarecrow, 2007), and

the co-edited collection Guitar Cultures (Berg, 2001). His current writing projects include a co-edited

volume on ecomusicology and a co-authored book on musical instruments, politics and natural

resource use. Correspondence to: Kevin Dawe, School of Music, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK.

Email: [email protected]

Sinan Cem Eroglu is a multi-instrumentalist, concert and recording artist, record producer, composer and

arranger from Istanbul, Turkey. He plays kaval, guitar, fretless guitar and kopuz (three-stringed baglama). As a

fretless guitarist, he has given lecture-recitals at Codarts Rotterdam World Music Academy in the Netherlands.

Sinan has released two albums. His PhD continues at Istanbul Technical University on the Musicology and

Music Theory Programme, where he is also a teaching assistant. Correspondence to: State Conservatory of

Music, Istanbul Technical University, Macka Campus 34357, Macka, Istanbul. Email: [email protected]

# 2013 Taylor & Francis

Ethnomusicology Forum, 2013

Vol. 22, No. 1, 4970, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17411912.2013.774157

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with it.1 The muezzin (the one who calls to prayer) is clearly audible through therooms open window. The two Turkish guitarists would seem to be respectfully

acknowledging the influence of a wide range of sonic phenomena upon their musical

sensibilities, demonstrating their openness to a wide range of local cultural

phenomena. Of course, musicwhich is considered haram or unlawful, forbidden

in Islamic thoughtdoes not normally feature in discussion of the ezan, even if the

modal basis of Karamans improvisationmakamdoes.2

Karaman and Bilgic can be considered representatives of a large body of artists who

have embraced the guitar in Turkey and continue to use it in diverse but locally-

responsive ways. Despite the increasingly international profile of some of Turkeys

guitariststhe example above is taken from guitarplayer.com, which also features

videos and blogs by musicians as well known and as varied in their playing styles as

John McLaughlin and Andy Timmonsthe absence of a substantial academic study

and overview of the guitar in Turkey was of great surprise to the authors. However,

the overwhelming evidencesome of it subjected to critical examination in this

articledoes indeed suggest that the guitar has become a significant musical vehicle

and means of cultural expression for instrumentalists within the Republic. Yet the

extent of the guitars popularity was a further surprise, at least to the author-as-

outsider (Dawe), despite the growing profile of Turkeys guitarists and given the fact

that there are many other different types of musical instrument played throughout

the country, including those known to be crucial to the construction of the Republics

complex musical identity (particularly the long-necked, plucked lute, the saz, which

comes in a range of sizes, including the ubiquitous baglama). Indeed, when writing of

metal musicians in Istanbul, Pierre Hecker refers to their refusal to accept social and

dominant cultural codes with open resistance to religious conservatism and Islamism

(Hecker 2012). In our minds then was the question: If metal music with its use of the

guitar can fuel tensions within Turkish society, is it the same for all guitars and

guitar-based music? Fortunately, Pierre Hecker reports that in his experience this is

not the case (Hecker, email, 21 December 2012). Moreover, such a view is shared and

confirmed by wide-ranging guitarist and author-as-insider, Sinan Cem Eroglu.

However, we must also note Irene Markoff s recollection of the moment when

Preston Reed, the American acoustic steel guitarist, jammed impromptu with

phenomenally popular Alevi musician Arif Sag during a live satellite broadcast on

Turkish national television in 1997 (Markoff 2001). According to Markoff:

this broadcast reached 100 million viewers and drew a flood of calls. In an e-mailthat he sent to a number of people after his return from Turkey, Reed described theexperience as having taken on a cosmic transformational quality as he applied hisWestern chord voicings, syncopated rhythms, and simple harmonic progressions

1www.guitarplayer.com/video.aspx?bctid=1787043576001&section=Artists (accessed 21 December 2012); see

also Introducing Bilal Karaman. www.guitarmoderne.com/tag/bilal-karaman (accessed 21 December 2012).2Makam (plural: makamlar) are melodic modes used in urban art music and in some rural folk-music

traditions. See Deniz Atalays Turkish Makam for Fretless Guitar. http://www.unfretted.com/loader.php?LINK

=/classes/makam (accessed 21 December 2012).

50 K. Dawe and S. Cem Eroglu

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to the snake-like quarter-note trilling and Middle Eastern licks. In Arif Sags view,Prestons percussive guitar technique has actually been a part of baglamaperformance practice for centuries. (Markoff 2001: 7912)

Our study of the guitar began to open a complex world of musical meanings that

were impossible to separate from questions about history and ideology, ethnicity and

identity, moral beliefs and values, and processes of modernisation, westernisation and

Turkification. Given this emerging complexity, the main problem for the authors was

to know where to start in a largely uncharted area. In some more recent academic

publications on Turkish music (as already noted), the guitar does receive some

mention, providing important clues as to how one might begin to frame and situate

the instrument within the Turkish musical and cultural landscape. Further scholarly

examples include comments by Martin Stokes (2010) on the use of the flamenco

guitar within the Turkish popular genre Arabesk (in the Arabic style), which, he

argues, provided trans-Mediterranean colourings in the songs of Orhan Gencebey in

the 1980s, for example, in the song Batsin Bu Dunya (A Curse on the World), where

flamenco guitar features alongside elektrosaz (the electric version of the long-necked

lute mentioned above). Moreover, yet another erudite contributor to the study of

Turkish music and culture, Elliot Bates, notes that in the hands of Turkish multi-

instrumentalist Erkan Ogur the perdesiz [fretless] guitar has practically become a new

Anatolian folk instrument (Bates 2011: 97). In these examples, the guitar has both

musical and culturally-symbolic significance. Moreover, Sinan Cem Eroglu also

confirms the guitars embeddedness in contemporary Turkish music culture:

When one looks at albums chosen randomly on the shelves of music markets, it canbe seen that guitar is used on most albums, across a wide range of genres, butespecially in the performance of Turkish folk music. This demonstrates that guitarhas become an important if not principal instrument in the Turkish music scene.Spanish, nylon-stringed, classical guitar is played on many albums. It was not easyto establish the guitar as an instrument of Turkish traditional music becausetraditional musicians generally are conservative and are resistant to change. Butgood guitarists and accompanists have broken down this idea and have skilfullyemployed it. Erdem Sokmen (b.1957) has played on thousands of traditionalalbums to the extent that people realized that guitar could be used in traditionalmusic. I think its not just about the player. It is also about the arrangement of thepiece. If the arrangement is bad, people can say that guitar is not played well and itdoes not fit with that particular form of music. (Eroglu, email, 15 December 2012)

The history of the guitar in Turkey is, of course, connected to the entry of western

pop, rock, jazz and classical music into the Turkish soundscape, all of which

influenced the development of the Turkish music industry, the music featured in

State-controlled media, the emergence of such genres as Anatolian rock (in the mid-

1960s), the establishment of guitar departments in conservatoires (the first one

founded by Ahmet Kanneci in 1975 at The Middle East Technical University in

Ankara) and the organisation of the first Istanbul International Jazz Festival in 1986.

We steer a route and maintain a focus through this complex history of musical

Ethnomusicology Forum 51

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developments and interactions by charting the career of Erkan Ogur later in this

article. As is well documented in Turkey, changing political and economic contexts

have played a crucial role in determining not just matters of the freedom of

expression, but also the ability of the majority of people to spend money at any time

on what might be regarded as non-essential items. In other words, guitarists at

various times have either gone underground or emigrated, and guitars remain an

expensive item for many people in Turkey. Nonetheless, there is a thriving guitar

scene in Turkey today, especially in Istanbul. In this article, we begin our discussion in

the 1970s; the history of the guitar in Turkey goes back further, but is beyond our

scope here. We keep to our timeframe with good reason: in 1976, Erkan Ogur built

his first fretless classical guitar. His work provides a point of entry and departure in

this preliminary study. But, as is noted later, his travels with a guitarfor instance,

around Europe in the 1970sreflected both his academic and musical ambitions and

aspirations, and introduced him to a wide range of musicians, musical styles, musical

instruments, musical equipment and manufacturers that would not have been

accessible in Turkey at the time.

Despite military coups in 1971, 1980 and 1997, and insurgencies against the

Turkish government since the 1980s with great loss of life, the country experienced

stronger economic growth and greater political stability from the 1980s onwards. This

was the time when music retailers, such as Zuhal, report a growth in sales of their

guitars (along with the teaching of classical guitar in schools and the heavy-metal

guitar phenomenon) that carried sales into the 1990s. Martin Stokes suggests that this

also

marked the tipping point at which guitars and saz-s became more or less equallyavailable and affordable in cities, and coincided with the emergence of the rock barsin Istanbul (and thus the seeming need for all middle class Istanbul kids to buyguitars and form bands). Before this, forming a band and finding an audience for ittook money, effort, contacts and imagination. (Stokes, email, 20 December 2012)

Among the many musicians who have lived through various periods of crisis

within the Republicwhen their work was in danger of censorship and when many

of them had to leave the countrysome names remain commonplace in any

discussion of the history of the guitar in Turkey, and in several cases are crucially

linked to the establishment of particular musical genres and styles (with the guitarist

featuring either as a soloist, group leader or part of a group). There are, therefore,

several musicians who must be mentioned at this point in what amounts to a long

but by no means exhaustive list. (The reader might also wish to sample some of these

artists work on YouTube at this point.) In writing the first substantial article on the

guitar in Turkey, we must mention the following musicians and their attachment to

various genres: Erkin Koray (b.1941; Anatolian rock), Kamil Ozler (b.?; jazz), Neset

Ruacan (b.1948; jazz), Erkan Ogur (b.1954; Anatolian folk music, classical, jazz,

blues), Onder Focan (b.1955; jazz), Asim Can Gunduz (also known as Awesome

John, b.1955; blues and rock), Ahmet Kanneci (b.1957; classical guitar), Bekir


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Kucukay (b.1958; classical guitar), Hasan Cihat Orter (b.1958; Anatolian folk music,

classical, jazz, rock), Akin Eldes (b.1962; blues and rock), Cem Nasuhoglu (b.1962;

jazz), Hakan Utangac (b.1965), Tarkan Gozubuyuk (b.1970) (guitarist and bass

guitarist, respectively, of heavy-metal band Mezarkabul/Pentagram) and Yavuz Cetin

(19702001; blues, rock, psychedelic rock).3 Younger musicians, such as Cem Tuncer,

Cenk Erdogan, Sarp Maden, Ozgur Abbak, Deniz Atalay, Cem Koksal, Cem Duruoz,

Ozgur Cali and Metin Turkcan, Tolgahan Cogulu, Sevket Akinci and the group

Mutant (Eylul Bicer, Jose Blasco, Deniz Gungoren, Giray Gurkal, Cansun Kucukturk,

Bakis Ustun) and Erdem Helvacioglu (see Cleveland 2007) help to maintain and re-

affirm the guitars established high profile in the media and in concert within the

Republic, and, furthermore, such guitarists have established their own niche within

an international context. Pierre Hecker also reminds us that the guitar has been an

important component of contemporary Turkish protest music (see, for example, the

bands Bulutsuzluk Ozlemi and Bandista) (Hecker, email, 21 December 2012).

It is also clear that the influence of a great many guitarists from outside Turkey

including such contemporary luminaries as North Americans Joe Satriani and Pat

Metheny, and Spaniard Paco de Lucaprovide inspiration alongside those guitarists

(as mentioned above) from within Turkey. In many cases, there is a relatively

unadulterated adoption of the style of such guitar luminaries, without recourse to or

incorporation of Turkish musical concepts and ideas. This is common throughout

the world, of course. However, as noted in Dawe (2010), guitarists of many cultures

are also keen to take their own local music to the guitar (from Brazil to Madagascar

to India). The focus here is on those Turkish musicians who have recast the guitar in

the light of ideas, concepts, sensibilities, sounds and techniques found in Turkish art

and regional Anatolian folk-music. Moreover, we propose that this is more than a

passing fad with guitar a la Turka, where the instrument might provide for a mere

pastiche of local music. We propose that the guitar has become firmly embedded in

Turkish musical culture, to the extent that it has become one instrument among

many that is used in the musical expression of Turkish ethnicity and identity (at least

sonically and in the hands of the musicians who play it). Perhaps this is most clearly

seen in the work of Erkan Ogur, whose provenance lies in eastern Turkey where his

home city of Elazig continues to function as an important cultural landmark on the

political map of Turkey. Such deeply-rooted cultural sensibilities involving a strong

sense of place directly inform not only his musical style, but also his approach to the

guitar as shall be revealed later.

3This shortlist, combined with the other guitarists mentioned elsewhere in this article, will give the reader a

reasonably comprehensive entree into the world of the Turkish guitar (with, at the time of writing, performances

by most of the guitarists mentioned available on YouTube). See also the collection of videos on the blog: http://

istanbulmusic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/best-turkish-guitarists.html (accessed 21 December 2013). Discussion of

the (electric) bass guitar in Turkey is beyond the scope of this article, but three names provide a starting point:

Alp Ersonmez (see the Quartet Muartet and his work with Tarkan, Sarp Maden, Telvin (Erkan Ogur) and Ilhan

Ersahins Istanbul Sessions); Ismail Soyberk (well-known studio musician and Akin Eldes Group); and Nurhat

Sensesli (studio musician).


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It is proposed that the guitar has been crucial to the establishment and

development of contemporary musical instrument retail within the Republic,

involving both import and export and the movement of musical instruments into,

through and out of Turkey into neighbouring countries (e.g., Azerbaijan). This has

been a particular achievement of retailers such as Zuhal who report links with other

and, generally, smaller musical retailers throughout Turkey and across its borders. A

number of Turkish luthiers have now turned their attention to the guitar, following in

the footsteps of Ekrem Ozkarpat, who is said by some to have been the first

professional guitar maker in Istanbul (but, in fact, he was originally apprenticed to

fellow Istanbul guitar maker Murat Sezen).4 Ozkarpat has made guitars for Erkan

Ogur, Cenk Erdogan, Sinan Cem Eroglu and Tolgahan Cogulu, among others. Thus a

complex web of musical, historical, social and cultural relations started to reveal itself

as we began to enquire more deeply into the guitar phenomenon in Istanbul.

Foundations of the Research Project

In a special Turkey-focused issue of the online journal Music and Anthropology,

Martin Stokes (2006) argues that new directions in Turkish music study will benefit

greatly from a critical and systematic consideration of everyday popular culture,

which has long been neglected. On reading this, it struck us that we might try to

contribute to this critical and systematic study through our research on the guitar;

after all, studies based on or around the guitar have revealed much about popular

culture elsewhere in the worldwith popular culture conceived of as a broad area of

study involving ethnography, performance studies, cultural history, the media and

music industryso why not Turkey? Moreover, the notion of everyday popular

culture, as experienced in our field-site of Istanbul, is also taken here to mean the totality

of the experiences bombarding the senses. For example, as one traverses the city,

especially through the long, winding and steep road that runs through the Tunel district,the sight and sounds of musical instruments, including guitars, are striking. In this

location, one also hears the sounds of a wide range of musical genres and styles booming

out of music shops (mainly Turkish popular and regional Anatolian genres and styles).

Some Turkish musicians move among these genres, as well as other more globally

mobile musical forms, such as rock, blues and jazz, seemingly with ease and with

virtuosic facility. Erkan Ogur is one such musician. Our research also shows the extra-

ordinary influence that his guitar playing has had on a younger generation of guitar

players in Turkey, including the author-as-local-musician, Sinan Cem Eroglu (Figure 1).

In order to provide a preliminary explanation for the role and significance of the

guitar in Turkey, various methods of research were considered by the authors. The

claim here is that top-down models of globally mobile popular culture forms are

readily complemented by bottom-up collaborations among ethnomusicologists and

4See www.gitaratolyesi.com/ekip.html; www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSO3n3r_AFI. Online guitar makers in-

clude: www.kirliguitars.com/Pages/default.aspx; www.sinanrifat.com/; muratsezenguitars.com (all websites

accessed 21 January 2013).


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members of musical communities (Titon 2012 [2003]: 84). It must be stated that in

developing our collaboration, the insideroutsider dialectic provided for a critical

stage in the launch of our project.5 It was a useful conceptual tool and structural

framework that enabled us to think through and be more aware of the processes

involved in moving in and standing back from our sources and informants. But this

framework began to quickly fall away (or, at least, we became less conscious of its

value) as views merged and a consensus was achieved from the evidence collected by

two researchers with a common goal and shared enthusiasm: one a professional

musician and academic, the other an academic and fan of the Turkish guitar, but

both guitar players.

At every twist and turn of this research, the outsider was able to discuss his

findings with a highly informed and articulate insider, involving a process of acute

dialogical editing (see Feld 1990 [1982]) and constant on-the-spot translation into

English.6 As the work progressed, the outsider was able to question and probe the

views of the insider, sometimes challenging his point of view on particular subjects

and not taking his interpretation as the only valid one. Nevertheless, this was more

than a notional encounter with the natives point of view (Bloch 1998; Geertz 1976),

Figure 1 Sinan Cem Erolu (left) with Erkan Our, 2008.Source: Photograph by Sinan Cem Erolu.

5Despite the doubts cast regarding the usefulness of the insideroutsider (dialectical) model during this research

project, we note Ergun and Erdemirs solid account of the theory (Ergun and Erdemir 2010: 17).6This might be seen as a corruption of the basic ethnographic enterprise, which might claim to see the world as

the insider does through an outsiders eyes, with the local language a fundamental aspect of, if not central, to

establishing that worldview. But we would argue that we still had all the benefits of a local linguistic

consciousness (after Bakhtin 1981) in the field, and access to vital and constant testing of accuracy and detail in

translation (see Clifford 1997).


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acknowledging and respectful of his and others beliefs, religious or otherwise

(Engelke 2002). And, moreover, this ethnographic study employs a range of data

collection techniques and observational strategies, providing for the kind of thick-

descriptive, context-sensitive reportage (Geertz 1973, 1983) that hopefully makes for

substantial and convincing evidence, as well as a faithful representation and

evaluation of locals beliefs and values. In fact, we were both eager to acknowledge

that the subjects of our research might actually know something about the human

condition that is personally valid for the anthropologist (Ewing 1994: 571), even if it

was, in this case, what may be seen as a shared enthusiasm for making music and

talking about the guitar with two guitar enthusiast-ethnomusicologists.

Into the Field: Istanbul and its Guitarscape

Istanbul is a city that bridges two continents. As such, it provides for an intriguing

place to study a world-travelling instrument such as the guitar, given its birth in a

European context and its more recent appropriation into Turkey (and thus across

into Asia). Present-day Istanbul still has the Fortress Europe (Rumeli Hisari), built by

Mehmet the Conqueror in 1452 prior to his attack on Constantinople, which stands

on the western shore of the Bosphorus, whilst the Fortress of Asia (Anadolu Hisari),

built in the late fourteenth century by Beyazit 1, stands on the eastern shore.

Ironically, perhaps even tragically, Fortress Europe as we know it today and as

conceived of in Brussels is now defensive (or, at least highly cautious) about Turkey

entering the European Union, for a host of reasons too complex to go into here,

despite Turkeys dogged pursuit of full membership. It is too facile an idea to conceive

of the guitaramong many other phenomena in contemporary Turkeyas a further

musical bridge between European and Asian worlds in Turkey, its value as a medium

for cultural expression in Turkey being well established. Its difference seems to

matter more to purists and ethnomusicologists than most of the musicians we spoke

to. Yet we do not believe it to be completely an un-contentious instrument, especially

when linked to certain musical genres (such as metal).

In focusing on Istanbul, a bustling megacity (or alpha city) of an estimated 13

million people in the Greater Istanbul Municipality (see Aksoy and Enlil 2011: 181),

one is immediately thrust into an intensely dynamic and hyper-complex social and

cultural milieu where a seemingly endless stream of contemporary connections are to

be made between music, history, culture and society. There are, of course, key

indicators of nation-building at work, of the effects of mass immigration (relevant to

all the musicians interviewed herein), and the effects of the powerhouse that is the

Turkish music industry, consisting of recording studios, radio and satellite television.

Related to the development of immensely popular musical genres such as Arabesk,

multi-track audio production technologies have also become central tools in the

production and modernisation of arranged folk and Anatolian ethnic music in

Turkey (see Bates 2011). Moreover, the appropriation and ongoing development of

new instruments, including some mentioned here, add further to the tools of


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production and modernisation available to realise the changing aspirations of many

Turkish musicians.

Tunel is the district of Istanbul where one finds the guitar most in evidence, along

with many other aspects of Turkish popular culture, both musical and otherwise,

incoming and outgoing (from McDonalds to Starbucks, specialist kebab houses to

restaurants specialising in regional Anatolian cooking). It is clear to see that musical

instrument retailing dominates one end of the business landscape of this large area of

Istanbul, based around a long descending road to the Genoese-built Galata Tower

into Beyoglu, the heart of modern European Istanbul. Here the outsider-as-author

was overwhelmed by the seemingly endless displays of musical instruments in shop

windows, with the great variety of musical instruments simply stunning in their

variety. Dawe was struck by the guitar-shaped baglama-like instrument as featured in

Figure 2a. It is actually a solid-body instrument unlike the commonplace baglama to

its left, but it does have electronic pick-ups like an electric guitar and is thus

amplified like an elektrosaz (see Stokes 1992a).

Amidst the great variety of Turkish musical instruments and musical instrument

hybrids was the large and wide-ranging selection of acoustic and electric guitars.

Given the scope of this article, it is only possible to mention a small selection of

instruments available, but these included top-end electric guitars from Gibson and

Fender, as well as metal guitars from BC Rich and Ibanez, and acoustic steel-strung

Figure 2 (a) Balama and guitar-saz (centre, left and right) in Tunel, 2010. (b) Fenderand Gibson guitars in Tunel, 2011.Source: Photographs by Kevin Dawe.


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and classical acoustic guitars from the more expensive hand-made guitars to the least

expensive copies. Istanbul-based music retailer, Zuhal, note their difficulty in selling

high-end guitars in Turkey and the predominance of what they define as cheap

Chinese-made guitars.7 Indeed, they are able to sell up to 32,000 cheap to mid-range

classical guitars per year in the Republic (the classical guitar is taught in schools), and

they also report strong sales of guitars used in metal music. Ali imseker, Zuhals

manager, glowing with pride, claimed that his company was the largest (with 70

employees) and longest-running music retailer in Tunel and that both his company

and guitars are now crucial to the business of music retail in the country (Interview

with Ali Simseker, 7 September 2011). However, they now also face competition from

international companies such as Yamaha who have established dealerships in Turkey.

Zuhal admit that they are keen to encourage guitar companies (such as Fender and

Ibanez) to manufacture in Turkey in order to cut down their own import costs.

The guitarists whose work we discuss briefly here operate within, and can be seen

to respond to, the distinctive, intense and concentrated cultural milieu that is the

guitar quarter of Tunel. (To the author-as-outsider, it did seem that every guitar

player knew of, or was actually a friend of, every other guitar player in the city, as if

the guitar fraternity in Istanbul was one big family.) In addition, the evidence that the

guitar was firmly established as an instrument of both popular culture and the

academy in Turkey, at the hub of a guitar network that encompassed but reached

beyond Istanbul, began to multiply as we searched both offline and online. A sample

of such evidence includes: the establishment of classical guitar departments in both

Ankara at the Middle East Technical University and also Istanbul Technical University

(as noted elsewhere);8 leading teachers as heads of music departments;9 guitar

societies and Internet communities;10 guitar festivals;11 the occasional publication of

Gitar dergisi (Guitar Digest) magazine; and the appearance of such programmes as

Istanbul-based tv8s Disko KraliGitar Gecesi (Disco KingGuitar Night).

Yet even if musicians are conscious of and support the well-established local esprit

de corps, professional guitarists remain eclectic and cosmopolitan musicians,

entrepreneurs and opportunists highly skilled in a range of musical fields, from

Turkish classical music to jazz, guitar playing to film scoring and arranging, and they

are prepared to travel widely to secure work. Cenk Erdogan (b.1979), for instance,

studied composition and arranging as a scholarship student (first class honours) at

Bilgi University in Istanbul. Cenk has since given lectures at Berklee College of Music

7www.zuhalmuzik.com (accessed 21 January 2013).8See http://www.gitar.metu.edu.tr/ (accessed 21 January 2013). The site includes the following information:

METU Classical Guitar Society (Klasik Gitar Toplulugu) is Turkeys first guitar society [] The society has

raised some talented artists (such as Ahmet Kanneci, Cem Duruoz, Orhan Anafarta, Emre Sabuncuoglu, and

Gutay YIldIran) and organizes voluntary classical guitar lessons, continuous music activities, and the annual

International Classical Guitar Festival (which is also the longest running classical guitar festival in Turkey).9See, for example, http://muzik.yasar.edu.tr/en/kursad-terci/ (accessed 21 January 2013).10See, for example, gitardernegi.com; www.facebook.com/perdesizgitar; www.facebook.com/ClassicalGuitarAs-

sociationOfTurkey (accessed 21 January 2013).11See, for example, http://antalyagitarfestivali.com/ (accessed 21 January 2013).


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and has studied the yeyli tanbur (a long-necked upright bowed lute) with a master of

Turkish art music.12 He has his own recording studio, is in demand as a producer,

arranger, songwriter and session musician, and regularly accompanies Turkish pop

stars on their tours of the Republic. A national award winner for his film scores (he

won the Yesilcam Soundtrack of the Year award in 2009), he has also performed with

international jazz/world music luminaries, such as Kai Eckhardt and Trilok Gurtu.

Cenk Erdogan uses both fretted and fretless electric and acoustic guitars, and is

regarded locally as an expert in terms of how to record and compose for them. His

playing style and technique are built from a unique blend of knowledge of local

Turkish music with international jazz styles and Spanish flamenco. He uses a variety

of tunings on his guitars and also occasionally employs the use of the E-Bow, an

electronic bow, in performance (as seen in Figure 3c) as well as looping techniques.13

A rich history of experimentation with musical instruments in terms of the ways

in which they have been used in various genres and ensembles is in evidence at the

State Conservatory of Music, Istanbul Technical University. For Kevin Dawe, this facet

of the Conservatorys work was evidenced during his attendance at the Cuneyd Orhon

Kemence Sempozyumu at the State Conservatory in December 2010, where the life

and work of Cuneyd Orhon was celebrated and his and other musicians experiments

with the klasik kemence (three-string, pear-shaped bowed lute) were revealed.14 It is at

this conference that Dawe met Sinan Cem Eroglu and Tolgahan Cogulu (b.1978).

Both of these musicians are employed by the State Conservatory, where Tolgahan

teaches classical guitar. Sinan and Tolgahan recently joined forces to form The

Microtonal Guitar Duo.15 Tolgahan has developed and plays the adjustable

microtonal guitar, as made to his specifications by luthier Ekrem Ozkarpat in

2008 (Figure 4). Probably the most instantly-accessible introduction to Tolgahans

microtonal guitar and how to play it can be found in the videos that he has uploaded

onto YouTube.16 In his book The Adaption of Baglama Techniques into Classical

Guitar Performance Cogulu (2011) aims to overcome not just the ways in which

guitarists appropriate the playing techniques and styles of certain Turkish instru-

mentshe includes a range of techniques, studies and arrangements to facilitate this

but also extends the use of the guitar in the composition and performance of

Turkish classical music, which is expanding its sonic horizons like its western

counterpart. This is particularly true in terms of the guitar, the music composed for it

and the widespread use of extended guitar techniques (see the more globally-based

12For historical and contemporary overviews and perspectives on Turkish music, involving surveys broad

enough to provide background for both the yeyli tanbur and the electric guitar, see Bates (2011), OConnell

(2005), Picken (1975) and Stokes (1992a, b). See also a recent article by Bates that focuses on the power of the

saz within Turkish culture and society (Bates 2012).13See E-Bow, www.ebow.com/home.php (accessed 21 January 2013).; looping pedals allow the live and

simultaneous recording, playback and multi-layering of parts by a single instrumentalist or vocalist.14The conference site was still active at the time of writing: www.kemencesempozyumu.itu.edu.tr/en/ (accessed

21 January 2013).15http://uk.myspace.com/microtonalguitarduo; see also: www.tolgahancogulu.com/ (accessed 21 January 2013).16See Microtonal Guitar Part 1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYK_PF9WTRE (accessed 21 January 2013).


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discussion of this process in Dawe 2010). In this way, Tolgahan is further securing the

role of the guitar as an instrument of Turkish music whilst further extending its range

within the world of contemporary classical music.

It is interesting to note the contrast between the work of such guitarists as Erkan

Ogur and Tolgahan Cogulu. Ogur is strongly rooted in the folk music of Anatolian

and baglama/saz technique, whereas Cogulu uses the guitar to think polyphonically

and harmonically about Turkish folk music (a fact drawn to Dawes attention by both

Sinan and Martin Stokes). The work of Cenk Erdogan evidences further an approach

Figure 3 (a) Cenk Erdoan in his studio playing the yeyli tanbur. (b) Cenk Erdoans six-string and eight-string (nylon-strung) fretless Spanish classical guitars made by Ekrem

Ozkarpat. (c) Cenk Erdoan in his studio playing on the fretless neck of his double-necked electric guitar (made by Ekrem Ozkarpat) whilst using an E-Bow (hand-held

electronic bow) in his right hand.

Source: Photographs by Kevin Dawe, 201011.


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to the incorporation of the guitar into the Turkish soundscape by an individualistic

stylist and interpreter. Such contrasts show the unique contributions made by a

number of guitarists across the generations. However, it is to the work of Erkan Ogur

Figure 4 (a) Tolgahan Coulu playing his microtonal guitar. (b) The movable frets of themicrotonal guitar, which are adjustable in every position and under each of the guitars

eight strings.

Source: Photographs by Kevin Dawe, 2010.


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that we now turn, having set the scene for a closer examination of his career, music

and relationship to the guitar within the wider Turkish musicalhistorical context.

A senior and well-established musician within Turkey, Erkan Ogur may be

regarded as one of the key contributors to the establishment of the Turkish

guitarscape, with many of the guitar players mentioned above acknowledging his

influence. By consensus and supported by the range of evidence presented here,

Erkan Ogur would seem to be the best case study for this article-length introduction

to the guitar in Turkey. As he is also a close friend and colleague of Sinan Cem Eroglu,

Sinans thoughts on his own experiences of working and conversing with Erkan Ogur

over many years are intertwined with our overview of Erkans work.

Erkan Ogurs work has been well documented, especially in Turkey where he is a

regular and celebrated guest on television and radio, and in Eliot Bates wide-ranging

overview, The Music of Turkey, he receives some attention as a celebrated artist who

has found new ways of articulating the core musical aspects of Anatolian music

(Bates 2011: 96). What is crucial here, in furthering the established research dialectic,

is to include discussion of Sinans relationship with Erkan, his interpretation of

Erkans work, and the influence Sinan has had on Erkan. It should become clear why

the ethnomusicologist-as-outsider decided to work closely with the guitarist-as-

insider, given Sinans invaluable and, for an outsider, largely unattainable knowledge

of Erkans life and music.

The Making of a Turkish Guitarist

Erkan Ogur is not just a guitarist but a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, concert artist,

recording artist and film music composer.17 His compositions combine a range of

techniques and styles, including the microtonal scales and melodies of Turkish

makam music, jazz harmony and free improvisation. He has played with many

different artists, including Djivan Gasparyan, Philip Catherine, Sylvain Luc, Paco

Pena, Joe Levano, Bulent Ortacgil, Ismail Demircioglu, Mikail Aslan, Derya Turkan

and his Anatolian Jazz Project, Telvin. In evaluating his contribution to the

establishment of the guitar in Turkeythe Turkish guitar style, as we may call it

it is claimed that he invented the classical fretless guitar in 1976,18 popularised the use

of the E-Bow as a feature of Turkish guitar performance, created new types of

arrangements for Anatolian folk songs, and developed a new improvisation style for

the fretless guitar. He plays fretless and fretted classical guitar and a variety of electric

guitars in fretted and unfretted form. Crucial here is the relationship between Erkans

guitar style and his knowledge of and virtuosity upon instruments played in Turkish

art music and Anatolian regional musics. This includes the kopuz (a fretted long-neck

17http://erkanogur.gen.tr/ (accessed 21 January 2013). Erkan Ogurs soundtrack for the 2004 movie YazI Tura by

Ugur Yucel won two awards: the 2004 Golden Orange for Best Music at the Antalya Golden Orange FilmFestival, and the 2005 award for Best Music at the Ankara International Film Festival.18See, for example, the interview with Erkan Ogur: www.rootsworld.com/interview/ogur.html. For more

information on the history of the fretless guitar inside and outside Turkey: www.unfretted.net/loader.php?LINK

=history (accessed 21 January 2013)


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lute with movable frets), to which he made alterations in terms of the conventions of

playing style and construction, and the six-stringed baglama called the Ogur Sazi,

designed by Erkan and built by Sinans father, Kemal Eroglu.19

Sinan cannot remember the first time he met Erkan as they have known each other

since he was a little boy. Kemal, Sinans father, is a luthier who has built instruments

to Erkans design since the 1980s (Figure 5). As a little child, Sinan recalls that Erkan

became a family friend and, moreover, he remembers Erkans appearance being the

epitome of a rock guitar player, including his puffy hair. Sinans father recalls that, as

a little boy, Sinan played Erkans electric guitars as if they were his toys and acted like

a rock guitarist himself. When Sinan first listened to Erkans Fretless20 album, he was

immediately moved by it:

I liked the tunes and mood of the album as an 8 year-old boy. It was only after someyears that I began to realise Erkans importance as a musician and the innovationshe was making. I couldnt explore his musical world too much. Every time he cameto our house he was always in my fathers instrument making studio. (Eroglu,email, 15 September 2012)

Placing Erkan Ogurs Music

Born in Ankara in 1954, Erkan Ogur grew up in eastern Turkey in the city and district of

Elazig, which has a strong and distinctive culture of folklore, songs and dances influenced

by the nation-states surrounding Eastern Turkey, especially Armenia. For instance, in

eastern Turkey, many of the regional dances are accompanied by davul (double-headed

drum) and zurna (a type of oboe), but in Elazig, dance also includes the use of the

clarinet, and the repertoire features unique melodic progressions that are played out at

weddings and other celebrations (events at which Erkan performed as a child). We argue

below that todays fretless guitar style in Turkey, as popularised by Erkan, is a reflection

of his formative years amidst Elazigs music, musicians and musical instruments.

There are various components to this story. When Ogur was five, he started

playing the violin without a teacher. This situation stimulated Erkan to explore the

frequency spectrum of the instrument, unhindered by the demands of learning a

particular style or repertoire. He subsequently mentioned to Sinan that this was a

significant training ground for his ear and his ability to play and intone notes

accurately, an experience that was later to support his turn to the fretless guitar. At

the age of six, he started to play the kopuz, performing microtonal makam music.

Moreover, throughout his childhood, several local musicians affected Erkans musical

approach and outlook; for example, Enver Demiebag, Fikret Memisoglu and Hafiz

Osman Oge. Such musicians were part of the local professional performance scene

19See the following for information on Kemal Eroglu: http://www.kopuzsazevi.com/k_eroglu.htm (accessed 21

January 2013). Yuzume Gulen Agac. 20067. The Tree that Smiles at Me. Goldsmiths College, UMA Films Co-

Production.20Erkan Ogur. 1994. Fretless. Feuer und Ice FUEC 714.


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and nightlife in the cities of the region, with musicians from this area also going on to

dominate musical genres that were in themselves a mix of both folk and urban

cultures, such as Arabesk.

Moreover, the cumbus, which resembles both the American banjo (metal body) and

the Turkish u^di or oud (with its wooden fretless neck), is very common in the region

around Elazig. Erkans picking technique and ornaments on the fretless guitar reveal

the influence of traditional cumbus and oud styles. Traditional melodies from Elazig

are a prominent feature in Erkans improvisations. On Erkans Bir Omurluk Misafir

album, fretless guitar improvisations, ornaments and microtonal melodies were based

on traditional Elazig makam music, which Erkan has said he learnt by listening

to older musicians there.21 Sinan was able to identify the makam and traditional

ornaments, as discussed with Erkan on several occasions (see the examples in Figure 6).

When Erkan was 13, he returned to the violin, but whilst he was at high school he

started to play the guitar after listening to Jimi Hendrix on the radio in Elazig. After

Figure 5 Sinan Cem Erolu (left) and Erkan Our (1993) at Kemal Erolus workshop.Source: Photograph by Kemal Erolu, with permission.

21Erkan Ogur. 1996. Bir Omurluk Misafir [A Guest for This Life]. KALAN CD184.


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high school, he studied physics at Ankara University Faculty of Science during 19703.

Then he moved to Germany in 1974 to study physics on a scholarship at the Ludwig-

Maximilians University in Munich. For three years he studied there but decided that

he would make a better musician than scientist and did not finish his doctorate. He

started to study classical guitar by himself, and at that time he also played electric

guitar in a local band in Munich.

Erkan Ogur and the Fretless Guitar

When he started to play regular nylon-strung Spanish classical guitar, he played for

1012 hours a day (eventually injuring his wrist), again without a teacher or

schooling, just with scores, including the transcriptions of Giuliani, Bach, Villa-

Lobos, Leo Brouwer and other composers whose pieces he found in the music library

at Munich University. Then he gained a place at the Paris Conservatory to study with

Oscar Casseras, but realised that he had neither the desire nor the inclination to

become a classical concert guitarist. In 1976, he made his first fretless classical guitar

with the intention of playing Turkish makam and microtonal music upon it. The

fretless classical guitar does not need the player to have a high-tension muscle posture

Figure 6 (a) Airlama (a traditional melody). Note: The melody is written in Uakmakam where 2 and 3 are actually 35 cents lower than their notated pitch. (b)Airlama as played by Erkan Our on fretless guitar with the addition of ornaments.


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(which is helpful if you have sprained your wrist through over-practice), because the

tension of the strings is completely different from the normal classical guitar. This

guitar has a very low action with the smallest possible space between the strings and

fretboard of the instrument. This low-tension instrument has become a standard for

all fretless players and luthiers in Turkey. If the space between strings and fretboard

was high, the characteristic sound of fretless classical guitar would be different. Thus

players expend very little energy in performance on the fretless classical guitar. Erkan

designated those standards, mindful of both ergonomic and aesthetic principles.

In 1980, having come back to Istanbul, he finished his undergraduate music

studies at the State Music Conservatory at Istanbul Technical University. There he

studied oud and Turkish chamber music. (Now a visiting professor at the State

Conservatory, Erkan has his own office there.) After military service on coming back

to Turkey, he worked as an oud teacher. At this time, his fretless guitar and kopuz fills

were soon in demand by producers of popular music and can be heard on Sezen

Aksus CDs, for example. During this period he also produced and packaged his own

album Perdesiz Gitarda ArayIslar (1983), which features Anatolian regional melodies

alongside Bachianas Brasileiras No 5 by Heitor Villa-Lobos and Charles Minguss

Goodbye Pork Pie Hat (Figure 7).

We mentioned previously that his original fretless playing style, when experiment-

ing with makam, came from the cumbus. But after he learned to play oud, this

radically affected some aspects of his fretless playing style. For example, on the album

Gulun Kokusu Vardi (The Smell of the Rose) and his duo album with Armenianmusician Djivan Gasparyan, Fuad (Movement of Life), there are many fretless

classical guitar solos that sound like oud taksim-s (improvisations), especially when

Figure 7 Erkan Ours 1983 album Perdesiz Gitarda ArayIlar (Fretless Guitar Pursuits).Reproduced with permission.


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one looks closely at the type of ornaments used.22 Realising and playing the historical

genres, styles and ornaments of Turkish music on fretless guitar is the most

distinctive feature of Erkan Ogurs work. In this context, Erkan has examined the

recordings of Tanburi Cemil Bey, Yorgo Bacanos and Udi Hrant Kenkulian. In Sinans

opinion, he imitated and practised Tanburi Cemil Beys tanbur and oud playing and

Figure 8 Erkan Ours trademark Steinberger double-neck electric solid body guitar.Source: Photograph by Kevin Dawe.

22Erkan Ogur. 1998. Gulun Kokusu Vardi, KALAN CD086; Erkan Ogur and Djivan Gasparyan. 2001. Fuad,KALAN CD231.


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picking styles. Tanburi Cemil Bey developed a rich and agile picking technique on the

tanbur (long-necked lute with movable frets), which Erkan has been said to emulate.

On the fretless classical guitar, Erkan generally plays with a right-hand plucking

technique. He uses apoyando (resting) and tirando (touching) techniques adapted

from the Spanish classical guitar technique. When he plays with those techniques, he

uses oud ornaments and melodies because the fretless guitar does in fact sound like a

cross between classical guitar and oud through the very timbres and textures created

by the interaction of wood, strings and fingers. Also all chords can be played easily on

fretless guitar with these finger techniques. When Erkan plays with a plectrum, he

uses tanbur ornaments and melodies. In this case, the wrist of the hand holding the

plectrum needs to be near the bridge where the tension of the strings becomes harder

to trigger and sustain. Both these techniques were taken on to the fretless guitar by

Erkan, and he uses them to realise makam-based music.

Erkan Ogur has also designed various fretless/fretted guitars, or, at least, has made

what can be considered to be innovative changes to standard forms, including a

double-neck classical guitar (fretless/fretted), a double-neck solid body electric guitar

(fretless/fretted) and an eight-stringed fretless solid body electric guitar.23 He has

different fretless/fretted guitars for jazz, rock, and Turkish folk and classical music.

Erkan has also tried out the use of new materials, especially for the fretless guitars and

necks. His Steinberger guitar has a carbon fibre neck, which provides the instrument

with strong sustain, also enabled by specially-selected EMG pick-ups (Figure 8).

Erkans choice of amplification and effects processors must have also been deemed

crucial for the production of his instantly-recognisable sound. He uses a Peavey

amplifier, a Mesa Boogie preamp, Boss CS-3 Sustain/Compressor pedals and a

volume pedal with the Steinberger guitar. Therefore, his tone can be described as

compressed and further enhanced with use of distortion and sustain.

Conclusions

Our research on the guitar in Turkey has begun to reveal its multi-faceted role within

the Turkish soundscape. The guitar in Turkey has to some extent also become the

Turkish guitar, with the emergence and development of several unique facets of

playing style and customisation. But the guitar is still recognisably a guitar with

modifications made to suit local musical practices, aspirations and sensibilities. The

musical directions and, indeed, destinations of many Turkish musicians across the

world are the routes that many of them travel with a guitar in hand. Moreover, some

of them find new work opportunities as guitarists abroad (e.g., Mesut Ozgen and

Emre Sabuncuoglu are now university-based teachers of classical guitar in

California), whilst some guitarists, still based in Turkey, tour the world (Sinan

Cem Eroglu with Aynur), perform in metal bands (Metin Turkcan) or fly across the

23See Eroglu (2011) for a discussion of Erkan Ogurs experiments with other instruments.


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Atlantic Ocean for recording sessions with jazz maestros based in North America

(Cenk Erdogan).

The ways in which the guitar has become plugged into the Republics political

economy are noted above, as are the ways in which it has been appropriated and

accustomised into the local musical context and Turkish expressive arts through

various musical, social and cultural processes. In this, the role of new media and

technologies cannot be underestimated in terms of generating links and national

interest. It is clear that musicians bring a sophisticated local musical aesthetic to

bear upon their performances on the guitar. The evidence suggests that this is set to

continue with a likely increase in the niche that Turkish guitarists, makers and retailers

have already established within the international guitar community. It is through deep

immersive fieldwork, in this case the lifetime of one young researcher and the tentative

steps into the Turkish guitar scene by a senior researcher, that we establish some

baseline data and evidence for the role of key individuals in the establishment of

Turkish guitar culture. It is clear that Erkan Ogur has been a driving force behind the

establishment of this instrumental culture and that he has made a broader contribution

to Turkish musical life beyond the guitar. In an exchange of research interests,

information and friendship as established between Erkans student and colleague and

an English ethnomusicologist, we have tried to set the scene for further research into

the guitar in Turkey as both an instrument of popular culture and the academy.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the following for their input, comments and wise

counsel at various stage of this project: Erkan Ogur, Tolgahan Cogulu, Cenk Erdogan,

Pierre Hecker, Ekrem Ozkarpat, Ali Simseker, John OConnell and Martin Stokes.

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Documents

Fretless Guitar