Cem Köksal

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Cem Köksal
Birth name	Cem Köksal
Born	July 3, 1976, Istanbul, Turkey
Genre(s)	Rock
Instrument(s)	Guitar
Website	http://www.cemkoksal.com/

Cem Köksal (born July 3, 1976) is a Turkish rock guitarist. He plays electric guitar, acoustic guitar and classical guitar.

[edit] Biography

Cem Köksal was born on July 3, 1976 in Istanbul, Turkey. His first encounter with music was in his primary school years, where he started playing the mandolin. His parents made him listen to the music of the 60's during his childhood. He started playing the guitar in 1987.

During 1991-1992, he took music theory classes from Derya Yener, which played significant role in his development as a musician. He practiced music in his basement with his friends, and also attended musical activities in his high school Alman Lisesi in Istanbul. At first he was influenced by the popular rock groups of those times, but after a while he began to search for new directions. Musical pieces such as Air by Bach guided his musical perspective and creativity in a new direction. At this point he started preferring tonal modes in his music. Listening to Odyssey by Yngwie Malmsteen made him search for a new synthesis of classical music elements with contemporary tunes using the advanced guitar techniques, while still preserving the melody.

Koksal also continuously worked on improving his guitar playing, and sought improvement not only in standard techniques but also in extended ones (e.g. sweep picking). He was interested in learning how to make a guitar, and read books such as Make Your Own Electric Guitar by Melvyn Hiscock, and Building Electric Guitars by Martin Koch. After months of work, he built a guitar from scratch, and named it Shark.

His musical style was influenced by Yngwie Malmsteen. He worked with world famous musicians such as Joe Lynn Turner.