...Hey guys, I'm very excited to finally be spreading the word about this. For those of you who know me or have followed my blog postings in the past, you probably already know that I've been involved in a long term project in Istanbul. I'm proud to say that Sound Fabrika Studios has finally finished preparations and we're open for business!

What we're doing here is trying to help foreigners who come to Turkey connect with some of the great musicians in the city here for lessons and music research. Right now we're running this place as a sort of guest house, but a guest house with a sound-insulated practice space, and some of the best of the youngest generation of musicians teaching and helping people like us network and get involved in the diverse and wonderful music scene here.

For a price comparable to most pensions in the area we are offering a warm bed, bathroom w/ shower, turkish breakfast and free reign to use the practice rooms here from 8am-midnight whenever classes or private lessons aren't going on. (and finding somewhere to play a davul at 11pm at night is no easy task here!). We've also spent a lot of time working out agreements with some really phenomenal musicians, and we can arrange lessons with all forms of percussion (darbuka, bendir, kudum, asmi davul, udu drums etc.) as well as oud, baglama saz, kanun, clarinet, roman violin and many more....

I'd be happy to send you more information about specific teachers and more details about our lesson programs if any of you guys are interested in what we're doing here. I'm also happy to provide some references from some of the americans that I have met coming through who have studied with some of these teachers as well, so feel free to ask. We also have connections with some prominent oriental dance teachers in the city and are happy to help dance students connect with them as well.

I got involved in this project originally because of my own experiences living in the city here my first year and trying really hard to find good teachers.... it's no easy task. I've recently been making an effort to get more video online of what some of these guys can do. You can check out Hakan, our resident percussion teacher on some of the clips I've uploaded the other day:

www.youtube.com/watch


I love being able to find these great musicians work as much as I love being able to help students find really good teachers, and I think the sentiment is shared by everyone working on this with me. I hope some of you guys get a chance to take advantage of this stuff!

Feel free to drop me an email at raghebn@gmail.com with any questions, or you can try me on tribe (though I check my account here less often lately)

Kolay gelsin!