Gilad Weiss takes us on a visit to his music studio and improvises on several of his instruments, including the fretless guitar, and some of the instruments from Turkey and Central Asia, such as the kopuz, the baglama and the Turkmenistani dutar. He also spoke to me about his duo project with the Anatolian kamanche player Melisa Yildirim and we’re including a track from their beautiful album, which is linked below, along with Gilad’s album Improvisations on Fretless Guitar Volume 1, and the ways to connect with Gilad. He shared his valuable insights about teaching music, and teaching the guitar, improvisation and interesting details about the modes and tuning systems for the various instruments he demonstrates. This episode has a lot of improvised music; Gilad spent much of the interview with an instrument in his hand; please use the detailed timestamps (below) to navigate the episode, which like all my episodes you can either watch on my YouTube or listen to on all the podcast platforms, and the transcript is here too: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/gilad-weiss

https://giladweiss.bandcamp.com/album/improvisations-on-fretless-guitar

https://www.youtube.com/@TheShfanfan

https://www.facebook.com/giladweis

https://www.instagram.com/gilad.weiss.hadad/

https://talus.info/

It’s a joy to be able to bring these meaningful conversations to you, but this project costs me quite a bit of money and lots of time; please support this series through either my merchandise store or on my Ko-fi page:
https://ko-fi.com/leahroseman

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You may be also interested in my episodes with lutenist Elizabeth Pallett, guitarists including masters Derek Gripper, Daniel Ramjattan, or Marc van Vugt, along with many episodes featuring traditional and improvised music from around the world.  Catalog of Episodes: ⁠https://www.leahroseman.com/about⁠

photo: Daria Perelmuter 

Timestamps: 

(00:00) Intro

(02:24) saz, dutar, guitar, fingernails

(06:31) intro to “Late Night” from Improvisations on Fretless Guitar, Volume 1

(07:16)fretless guitar “Late Night” from Improvisations on Fretless Guitar, Volume 1

(11:50) Gilad’s fretless guitar, Erkan Oğur 

(14:29) fretless guitar improvisation

(16:30) album with kamancheh player Melisa Yildirim

(24:49) Yeldeğirmeni Zeybeği | Windmill Zeybek from Talûs with Melisa Yildirim and Gilad

(28:11) musical experiences in Turkey, Engin Topuzkanamış

(33:40) kopuz (tambur) history and demo, tuning system

(36:50) kopuz improv

(39:37) huseyni mode and tuning systems 

(43:18) kopuz improv

(44:00) kisa sap baglama 

(46:23) other episode you will enjoy, different ways to support this series

(47:15) different playing techniques, history of microtonal frets

(55:48) tambur 

(58:46) Turkmensitani dutar 

(01:04:08) Gilad’s early musical influences

(01:11:07) Gilad’s approach to teaching music and guitar

(01:18:25) improvising and different approaches to learning 

(01:28:35) different guitars, approach to tuning and teaching guitar

(01:34:44) next recording project