A little transcription help

[jstegeman]

Hello everyone,

I'm a long-time guitar player just getting back into things after a long layoff. One thing that I struggle with is that I'm deaf - I had worn a hearing aid most of my life, but things deteriorated to a point where I needed the cochlear implants to get along in life. It has been great... A very common struggle for Cochlear Implant people, however, is not being able to distinguish pitch that well. I'm fortunate in that I'm able to appreciate music and play guitar.

There's a style of music that's very popular in Kenya, where my wife is from. I've always wanted to be able to play this style of music, but I wasn't active playing guitar when I was over there for a visit and therefore didn't think to ask anyone to teach me.

So, my question - I am wondering the best way to try to work out how it's played. This video on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXS01aQ0GTE is a classic example of the type of guitar music. If you listen - you'll see that it is ever so simple from the perspective of chords - I think the whole song is just D-A-D-A-D-A-D-A-D-A-D-A from start to finish. What I can't work out is the "riff" - it is straightforward, and starts at about 15 seconds into the song and is just a four-bar cycle of D-D-A-A.

Could someone point me to any resources, tools, or techniques that would be helpful in figuring out how to play this? Or, if it's easy for someone to tab/transcribe for me, that would be a huge help too. Many of the songs in this genre use very similar riffs, and once I have one or two down, I think I would be able to make progress from that point.

Thanks for any pointers,

J

[T1mothy]

Its actually D - G - D - G - A - G - A - G. Im about to go to sleep but can tab it out for ya tomorrow if you wish.

Timothy

[jstegeman]

Originally Posted by T1mothy

Its actually D - G - D - G - A - G - A - G. Im about to go to sleep but can tab it out for ya tomorrow if you wish.

Timothy

Timothy, if you're willing to, I'd be thankful...

[stanron]

OK I'm getting something like this.

E╓─────────────2───┬─────────────────┬────────────2────┬─────────────────┐
B╟─────────3───3───┼─────────0───────┼─────────3──3────┼─────0───3───0───┤
G╟───────2─────────┼─────0───────0───┼───────2─────────┼─────0───4───0───┤
D╟─0───────────────┼─────────────────┼─0───────────────┼─────────────────┤
A╟─────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────┤
E╙─────────────────┴─────────────────┴─────────────────┴─────────────────┘

. .1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + . 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + . 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + . 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + .



┌─────────────5───┬─────────────────┬─────────────5───┬─5───3───────────╖
├─────────2───────┼─────2───3───2───┼─────────2───────┼─────────────────╢
├───────2─────────┼─────0───4───0───┼───────2─────────┼─6s4───4s2───────╢
├─────2───────────┼─────────────────┼─────2───────────┼─────────────────╢
├─0───────────────┼─────────────────┼─0───────────────┼─────────────────╢
└─────────────────┴─────────────────┴─────────────────┴─────────────────╜

 .1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + . 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + . 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + . 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + .

I'm not convinced it's absolutely right but it's something like.

[jstegeman]

Stan,

Thanks a lot, I'll try it out after dinner

[jstegeman]

Stan,

To my ears it sounds reasonably close. Not sure about the slides in the 8th bar, I have to work on that a bit.

I actually can't tell whether this is electric or acoustic guitar. In sure it's not a Taylor acoustic (what I play) because the Taylor is much brighter than this recording. If it's an electric, do you think the sound is fairly clean, or does the guitarist have something like chorus or reverb added in?

This type of guitar playing is I believe known as the mi-solo, or "half solo" which is kind of a fill between the rhythm and lead parts (neither of which feature in this piece). I've always been fascinated by soukouss guitar and how intricate the guitar parts are as they weave around each other. Alas, I'll probably not find a teacher here in rural Michigan to give me lessons.

[stanron]

Originally Posted by jstegeman

Stan,

Not sure about the slides in the 8th bar, I have to work on that a bit.

.

You are right. As soon as I looked at that last bar this morning I saw the mistake. The third string slides come after the first string notes. More like this.

─┬─5─────3─────────╖
─┼─────────────────╢
─┼───6s4───4s2─────╢
─┼─────────────────╢
─┼─────────────────╢
─┴─────────────────╜

 . 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + .

The guitar sounds acoustic rather than electric but the recording process can change sounds a lot.

The rhythmic feel is uniquely African. You might want to look up Highlife Music although that seems to mean something different today from what it meant when I first came across it in the 1960s.

Cheers

Stan.

[LeftArm]

Would this be Benga style music?

[jstegeman]

Originally Posted by LeftArm

Would this be Benga style music?

Left Arm - you are pretty close - the same country as Benga. There are certainly similarities with Benga, but the language is different and the guitar is similar.

Here's some Benga from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeQb...E767310A9C357F

[jstegeman]

Stan - thanks. I have a large collection of various East and Central African music - learning to play it is the challenge. There are some videos on YouTube that purport to teach how to play Soukouss guitar, but they aren't particularly good at teaching the details - just a high-level overview.

[DCCougar]

Originally Posted by jstegeman

There's a style of music that's very popular in Kenya...

That one seems fairly straightforward. There's a similar style they play over there that is more, uh, contrapuntal, where they emphasize certain notes on the off-beat, but it's still very rhythmic. I'm not sure if it's a Kikuyu thing or a broader style. Very catchy. Likely kind of tricky to play, too.

[jstegeman]

Half the trick is learning the basic language of how to do the improvisation. The chord progressions are usually brain-dead simple, but unlike, for example rock and blues, there's not much instructional material out there on YouTube.

It is very catchy indeed.

[jstegeman]

Originally Posted by DCCougar

That one seems fairly straightforward. There's a similar style they play over there that is more, uh, contrapuntal, where they emphasize certain notes on the off-beat, but it's still very rhythmic. I'm not sure if it's a Kikuyu thing or a broader style. Very catchy. Likely kind of tricky to play, too.

Here's a nice little demonstration of the style I think you're referring to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HIGCUMEJcg