The Guitar in Turkey: Erkan Oğur and the Istanbul Guitarscape

Abstract

The authors' ethnographic research on the guitar in Turkey has begun to reveal the instrument's 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 Oğur who is known as the inventor of the fretless classical guitar. As well as Oğur's 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.

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