Stefan Grossman's
John Low : African Fingerstyle Guitar (w.booklet) (US,2007)***''
Guitar Workshop
Stefan Grossman, very known from the 60s for his fingerstyle research in blues, bluegrass and American folk also established a guitar workshop with a label, which pretty much explores further new territories, with other specialists in different fields. Published amongst a few other things are various instructional fingerstyle guitar videos dedicated to several styles. John Low grew up in Kenya, has worked in Guinea, Somalia and Sudan and has been playing African guitar styles for over twenty years. He did some research in East and Central Africa and met most of the important musicians. This video shows a resume of what he learned. He picked out some tunes to learn by these artists, of which some were never recorded before.
The introductive booklet tells how the golden age of African fingerpicking guitar was in the 50s and 60s with artists like Jean Bosco Mwenda, Losta Abelo (Zaire/Congo), and George Mukabi (Kenya). From these artists and a few others the arrangements have been worked out well. There’s a tablature booklet of 56 pages which set out the guitar, vocal and bottle rhythm parts. Difficulties for playing them (left hand finger movements can be very quick, and sometimes move because they also deal with pitches of surrounding strings), are explained well, and there are taught a few tips how to learn them. Also thoroughly explained is why some of the playing is like it is. African guitar playing for instance often is played by only two fingers : the thumb mostly for the bass string rhythms, and the forefinger mostly for the higher notes, also within the same rhythmical patterns. This 2 fingers-style has a reason. First of all much of the African guitar style derived from thumbpiano ideas, played with a certain rhythmical directness. By playing the tunes with two fingers the finger can make a much more clawed hammer style that fits best with these kinds of rhythmical evolutions. The guitar pieces usually are accompanied by rhythms on a bottle (also to show the dancers where to come in), where the fanta bottle has a different sound and place to a normal small bottle. The screen is split in two in parts where you can see better how John Low moves both hands. Before the songs a bit of background on the listed artists is also provided, so that the material isn’t too dry and a part of essential background opens up just a little with the listed songs.
No doubt that for guitarists who want to get an introduction into how African Guitar playing must be performed, this is a valuable starter.
See also the "African Guitar" documentary DVD reviewed on next page
