Greece Culture: Music and Dance Intro Page 4
One very important aspect of traditional music played anywhere in Greece is the emphasis put on the ability of musicians to embellish (ornament) the pieces played in the local repertoire, which demands a high level of skill and deep knowledge of the music. After having played certain much loved melodies for decades (some musicians performing at events by or before the age of ten) a good musician shapes the melodies in a highly individual way to make it his own (the masculine pronoun used here because up until recently, most instrumentalists in Greece were always boys and men, though this finally changing, though more so in the cities). The ability to play an unmetered, improvised kind of solo known as 'taximi' (from the Turkish 'taxim') is also required of any good musician in most areas, a high art form requiring some knowledge of the complexities of the shared modal systems of Greek and Turkish music.
The dynamic relationship between the dancers and the musicians is at the heart of any music and dance event, with musicians observing the dancers movements closely as they play and gearing their playing to those movements, in order to inspire the dancers, and also to be ready for increases in tempo (or, conversely, the need to stop before the dancers drop), or changes to an alternative rhythym determined by the musical convention. Dancers thus inspired also improvise, the sign of a good dancer also being the ability to embellish the steps rather than simply perform them.
Dance rhythms
in Greek music, as in the music of the Balkans in general, are quite varied , though more so in 
northern Greece than in
other regions, and especially in the largest Greek 'nomos' (prefecture) of Macedonia, where asymmetric rhythms such as
3/8, 7/8, 9/8, 11/8/ 12/8 are used. This area is also extremely rich in numbers of dances. Thrace also has a good number
of such complex rhythms include 9/8/ 7/8, 5/8, etc, as does the music of the Pontic Greeks from the southeast shores of the
Black Sea (a region now in Turkey).
Despite the kinds of special Greek schools dedicated to the learning of traditional kinds of Greek music mentioned above, the emphasis in most public schools (and in local private 'odeia' where children are sent for private lessons) is very much on western musical notation. Not only does this approach mean that children are learning to read from notes rather than by ear (as has been the case with traditional music everywhere), but that the essential knowledge of the modes is being lost, the modal systems on which older Greek music is based not conveyed by western musical notation.
There is also a negative attitude among many Greeks towards traditional music, which is part of the larger turning towards western Europe (and the west in general) as a model of culture, accompanied by a general rejection of traditional village life as backward. Electrification of previously unamplified music, as well as the use of electric instruments (such as electric bass guitar), has had a huge effect on the performance of 'traditional' music in Greece during the last twenty years, as well as the increasing use of such instruments as guitar or the drum set. On the subject of amplification, it is not just the increase in volume that has altered the music, but a typical increase to ear-splitting levels, the use of poor quality sound systems, and excessive 'reverb', all of which alter the sound of many instruments often to the point of being almost unrecognizable. Playing styles have also become increasingly flashy and commercial. Children growing up hearing these sounds inevitably try to imitate them, many never hearing anything else. All of these factors have heavily contributed to the disappearance of the older sounds and playing styles that belonged to traditional music played by Greeks, and also to the disappearance of instruments and repertoire.
