Greetings everyone!
I want this post to be a short introduction but also a “Thank You” to @Troy .
I live in Turkey. Ever since I discovered fretless guitar ( from an Erkan Ogur recording, that was also the first time I used headphones. So it was really impactful to me) around age 8 or 9 it occupied a space of it’s own in my mind/soul. However I never acted on that impulse. I started playing classical guitar, gravitated towards flamenco and eventually I started listening to and playing the blues. Some time after that I realized that I was feeling “trapped” in my musical expressions. My phrases started to sound(to me), for lack of a better word, dishonest. For me honesty is the most important thing in music, so I decided to stop playing. Even after I stopped playing guitar, I continued my blues journey with my harmonica.
Earlier this year I started making changes in my life in the hopes of getting rid of self imposed limitations, the old mental “Ball and Chain” if you will. During this time I re-watched all the episodes of “Cracking the Code” multiple times. Witnessing Troy’s musical journey all over again was an inspiring, exciting, almost eye opening experience to say the least. That was the first spark my friends. Around that time I lost my grandmother and during that grief period I started to remember myself, my inspiration, what music meant to me.
I took the leap of faith.
After almost 10 years of near complete hiatus from guitar I have decided to start playing fretless guitar.
Currently I am having a 6 string fretless, headless guitar made and I haven’t felt this excited over something for as long as I can remember.
@Troy I humbly thank you my friend.
I leave you (for now) with two recordings from Erkan Ogur. I hope you guys like them
- Fretless Classical Guitar( this is the song I mentioned in the post. It’s an old folk song from Anatolia, played with fretless nylon string classical guitar. In the background you can hear traditional Anatolian string instrument “Kopuz” as well):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyjSrfj6btM
2.Fretless Electric Guitar, fretless classical guitar and e-bow played by Erkan Ogur, Rythm and acoustic played by Yavuz Cetin (late Turkish Blues Guitarist):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvohdtkSoZE
P.S. English is not my native language. I apologise for any mistake in communication.
Best regards to everyone!