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The Guitar in Turkey: Erkan Our and

the Istanbul Guitarscape
Kevin Dawe & Sinan Cem Erolu
Published online: 19 Apr 2013.

To cite this article: Kevin Dawe & Sinan Cem Erolu (2013) The Guitar in Turkey:
Erkan Our and the Istanbul Guitarscape, Ethnomusicology Forum, 22:1, 49-70, DOI:
10.1080/17411912.2013.774157
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17411912.2013.774157

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Ethnomusicology Forum, 2013

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

The Guitar in Turkey: Erkan Ogur and

the Istanbul Guitarscape

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Kevin 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 solidbody 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 singleauthored 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: k.n.dawe@leeds.ac.uk
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: info@sinancemeroglu.com
# 2013 Taylor & Francis

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K. Dawe and S. Cem Eroglu

with it.1 The m

uezzin (the one who calls to prayer) is clearly audible through the
rooms 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 locallyresponsive 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-asoutsider (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 Erog lu.
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-mail
that he sent to a number of people after his return from Turkey, Reed described the
experience as having taken on a cosmic transformational quality as he applied his
Western chord voicings, syncopated rhythms, and simple harmonic progressions
1
www.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).
2
Makam (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).

Ethnomusicology Forum 51

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to the snake-like quarter-note trilling and Middle Eastern licks. In Arif Sag s view,
Prestons percussive guitar technique has actually been a part of bag lama
performance 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 multiinstrumentalist Erkan Og ur 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 Erog lu also
confirms the guitars embeddedness in contemporary Turkish music culture:
When one looks at albums chosen randomly on the shelves of music markets, it can
be seen that guitar is used on most albums, across a wide range of genres, but
especially in the performance of Turkish folk music. This demonstrates that guitar
has 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 easy
to establish the guitar as an instrument of Turkish traditional music because
traditional musicians generally are conservative and are resistant to change. But
good guitarists and accompanists have broken down this idea and have skilfully
employed it. Erdem So kmen (b.1957) has played on thousands of traditional
albums to the extent that people realized that guitar could be used in traditional
music. I think its not just about the player. It is also about the arrangement of the
piece. If the arrangement is bad, people can say that guitar is not played well and it
does not fit with that particular form of music. (Erog lu, 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 mid1960s), 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

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K. Dawe and S. Cem Eroglu

developments and interactions by charting the career of Erkan Og ur 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 Og ur 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 equally
available and affordable in cities, and coincided with the emergence of the rock bars
in Istanbul (and thus the seeming need for all middle class Istanbul kids to buy
guitars and form bands). Before this, forming a band and finding an audience for it
took 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
zler (b.?; jazz), Nes et
various genres: Erkin Koray (b.1941; Anatolian rock), Kamil O
Ruacan (b.1948; jazz), Erkan Og ur (b.1954; Anatolian folk music, classical, jazz,
nder Focan (b.1955; jazz), Asim Can G
blues), O
und
uz (also known as Awesome
John, b.1955; blues and rock), Ahmet Kanneci (b.1957; classical guitar), Bekir

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Ethnomusicology Forum 53

rter (b.1958; Anatolian folk music,

kay (b.1958; classical guitar), Hasan Cihat O
K
uc u
classical, jazz, rock), Akin Eldes (b.1962; blues and rock), Cem Nasuhog lu (b.1962;
jazz), Hakan Utangac (b.1965), Tarkan Go z
ub
uy
uk (b.1970) (guitarist and bass
guitarist, respectively, of heavy-metal band Mezarkabul/Pentagram) and Yavuz C etin
(19702001; blues, rock, psychedelic rock).3 Younger musicians, such as Cem Tuncer,
zg
Cenk Erdog an, Sarp Maden, O
ur Abbak, Deniz Atalay, Cem Koksal, Cem Duruo z,
zg
O
ur C ali and Metin T
urkcan, Tolgahan C og ulu, S evket Akinci and the group
kt
Mutant (Eyl
ul Bic er, Jose Blasco, Deniz G
ungo ren, Giray G
urkal, Cansun K
uc u
urk,

Bakis Ust
un) and Erdem Helvaciog lu (see Cleveland 2007) help to maintain and reaffirm 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
zlemi and Bandista) (Hecker, email, 21 December 2012).
bands Bulutsuzluk O
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 Og ur, whose provenance lies in eastern Turkey where his
home city of Ela zig 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.
3

This 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 Erso nmez (see the Quartet Muartet and his work with Tarkan, Sarp Maden, Telvin (Erkan Og ur) and Ilhan
Ers ahins Istanbul Sessions); Ismail Soyberk (well-known studio musician and Akin Eldes Group); and Nurhat
S ensesli (studio musician).

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K. Dawe and S. Cem Eroglu

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
zkarpat, who is said by some to have been the first
the footsteps of Ekrem O
professional guitar maker in Istanbul (but, in fact, he was originally apprenticed to
zkarpat has made guitars for Erkan
fellow Istanbul guitar maker Murat Sezen).4 O
Og ur, Cenk Erdog an, Sinan Cem Erog lu and Tolgahan C og ulu, 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 T
unel 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 Og ur is one such musician. Our research also shows the extraordinary influence that his guitar playing has had on a younger generation of guitar
players in Turkey, including the author-as-local-musician, Sinan Cem Erog lu (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
4
See www.gitaratolyesi.com/ekip.html; www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSO3n3r_AFI. Online guitar makers include: www.kirliguitars.com/Pages/default.aspx; www.sinanrifat.com/; muratsezenguitars.com (all websites
accessed 21 January 2013).

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Ethnomusicology Forum 55

Figure 1 Sinan Cem Erolu (left) with Erkan Our, 2008.

Source: Photograph by Sinan Cem Erolu.

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),
5
Despite 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).
6
This 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).

56

K. Dawe and S. Cem Eroglu

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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 thickdescriptive, 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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Ethnomusicology Forum 57

production and modernisation available to realise the changing aspirations of many

Turkish musicians.
T
unel 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 Beyog lu, 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 T

unel, 2010. (b) Fender
and Gibson guitars in T
unel, 2011.
Source: Photographs by Kevin Dawe.

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K. Dawe and S. Cem Eroglu

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 ims eker, Zuhals
manager, glowing with pride, claimed that his company was the largest (with 70
employees) and longest-running music retailer in T
unel and that both his company
and guitars are now crucial to the business of music retail in the country (Interview
with Ali S ims eker, 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 T
unel. (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 Erdog an (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
7

www.zuhalmuzik.com (accessed 21 January 2013).

See http://www.gitar.metu.edu.tr/ (accessed 21 January 2013). The site includes the following information:
METU Classical Guitar Society (Klasik Gitar Toplulug u) is Turkeys first guitar society [] The society has
raised some talented artists (such as Ahmet Kanneci, Cem Duruo z, Orhan Anafarta, Emre Sabuncuog lu, 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).
9
See, for example, http://muzik.yasar.edu.tr/en/kursad-terci/ (accessed 21 January 2013).
10
See, for example, gitardernegi.com; www.facebook.com/perdesizgitar; www.facebook.com/ClassicalGuitarAssociationOfTurkey (accessed 21 January 2013).
11
See, for example, http://antalyagitarfestivali.com/ (accessed 21 January 2013).
8

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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 Yes ilc am 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 Erdog an 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 C
uneyd Orhon
Kemence Sempozyumu at the State Conservatory in December 2010, where the life
and work of C
uneyd 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 Erog lu and Tolgahan C og ulu (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
zkarpat in
microtonal guitar, as made to his specifications by luthier Ekrem O
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 Bag lama Techniques into Classical
Guitar Performance C og ulu (2011) aims to overcome not just the ways in which
guitarists appropriate the playing techniques and styles of certain Turkish instrumentshe 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
12

For 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).
13
See 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.
14
The conference site was still active at the time of writing: www.kemencesempozyumu.itu.edu.tr/en/ (accessed
21 January 2013).
15
http://uk.myspace.com/microtonalguitarduo; see also: www.tolgahancogulu.com/ (accessed 21 January 2013).
16
See Microtonal Guitar Part 1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v = MYK_PF9WTRE (accessed 21 January 2013).

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K. Dawe and S. Cem Eroglu

Figure 3 (a) Cenk Erdoan in his studio playing the yeyli tanbur. (b) Cenk Erdoans sixstring and eight-string (nylon-strung) fretless Spanish classical guitars made by Ekrem
zkarpat. (c) Cenk Erdoan in his studio playing on the fretless neck of his doubleO
zkarpat) whilst using an E-Bow (hand-held
necked electric guitar (made by Ekrem O
electronic bow) in his right hand.
Source: Photographs by Kevin Dawe, 201011.

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
Og ur and Tolgahan C og ulu. Og ur is strongly rooted in the folk music of Anatolian
and baglama/saz technique, whereas C og ulu 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 Erdog an evidences further an approach

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Ethnomusicology Forum 61

Figure 4 (a) Tolgahan C oulu playing his microtonal guitar. (b) The movable frets of the
microtonal guitar, which are adjustable in every position and under each of the guitars
eight strings.
Source: Photographs by Kevin Dawe, 2010.

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 Og ur

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K. Dawe and S. Cem Eroglu

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 Og ur 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 Og ur 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 Erog lu,
Sinans thoughts on his own experiences of working and conversing with Erkan Og ur
over many years are intertwined with our overview of Erkans work.
Erkan Og urs 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-asinsider, given Sinans invaluable and, for an outsider, largely unattainable knowledge
of Erkans life and music.
The Making of a Turkish Guitarist
Erkan Og ur 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
Pen a, Joe Levano, Bulent Ortacg il, Ismail Demirciog lu, 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
17

http://erkanogur.gen.tr/ (accessed 21 January 2013). Erkan Og urs soundtrack for the 2004 movie YazI Tura by
Ug ur Y
ucel won two awards: the 2004 Golden Orange for Best Music at the Antalya Golden Orange Film
Festival, and the 2005 award for Best Music at the Ankara International Film Festival.
18
See, for example, the interview with Erkan Og ur: 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)

Ethnomusicology Forum 63

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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 Erog lu.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 some
years that I began to realise Erkans importance as a musician and the innovations
he was making. I couldnt explore his musical world too much. Every time he came
to our house he was always in my fathers instrument making studio. (Erog lu,
email, 15 September 2012)

Placing Erkan Ogurs Music

Born in Ankara in 1954, Erkan Og ur grew up in eastern Turkey in the city and district of
Ela zig , 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 Ela zig , 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 Ela zigs music, musicians and musical instruments.
There are various components to this story. When Og ur 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 Memisog lu and Hafiz
g e. Such musicians were part of the local professional performance scene
Osman O
19

See the following for information on Kemal Erog lu: http://www.kopuzsazevi.com/k_eroglu.htm (accessed 21
January 2013). Y
uz
ume G
ulen Ag ac . 20067. The Tree that Smiles at Me. Goldsmiths College, UMA Films CoProduction.
20
Erkan Og ur. 1994. Fretless. Feuer und Ice FUEC 714.

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K. Dawe and S. Cem Eroglu

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

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 ^
udi or oud (with its wooden fretless neck), is very common in the region
around Ela zig. Erkans picking technique and ornaments on the fretless guitar reveal
the influence of traditional cumbus and oud styles. Traditional melodies from Ela zig
are a prominent feature in Erkans improvisations. On Erkans Bir Om
url
uk Misafir
album, fretless guitar improvisations, ornaments and microtonal melodies were based
on traditional Ela zig 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 Ela zig . After
21

Erkan Og ur. 1996. Bir Om

url
uk Misafir [A Guest for This Life]. KALAN CD184.

Ethnomusicology Forum 65

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 LudwigMaximilians 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.

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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, VillaLobos, 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 Uak
makam 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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K. Dawe and S. Cem Eroglu

(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 experimenting 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
G
ul
un Kokusu Vardi (The Smell of the Rose) and his duo album with Armenian
musician 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.

Ethnomusicology Forum 67

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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 Og urs 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.
22

Erkan Og ur. 1998. G

ul
un Kokusu Vardi, KALAN CD086; Erkan Og ur and Djivan Gasparyan. 2001. Fuad,
KALAN CD231.

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K. Dawe and S. Cem Eroglu

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 Og ur 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
zgen and
of them find new work opportunities as guitarists abroad (e.g., Mesut O
Emre Sabuncuog lu are now university-based teachers of classical guitar in
California), whilst some guitarists, still based in Turkey, tour the world (Sinan
Cem Erog lu with Aynur), perform in metal bands (Metin Turkcan) or fly across the
23

See Erog lu (2011) for a discussion of Erkan Og urs experiments with other instruments.

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Ethnomusicology Forum 69

Atlantic Ocean for recording sessions with jazz maestros based in North America
(Cenk Erdog an).
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 Og ur 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 Og ur, Tolgahan C og ulu, Cenk Erdog an,
zkarpat, Ali S ims eker, John OConnell and Martin Stokes.
Pierre Hecker, Ekrem O
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