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  #1  
Old 05-14-2015, 01:17 AM
sirwhale sirwhale is offline
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Default Boubacar Traoré

I'd really like to learn his style but I'm finding it very hard to get the information. Does anyone know where I could find some direction?

Does anyone know what scale he uses? I'm pretty sure he plays in standard tuning.

Thanks a lot.
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Guitar: Camps Primera Negra A (a flamenco guitar)
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  #2  
Old 05-14-2015, 02:27 AM
JonPR JonPR is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sirwhale View Post
I'd really like to learn his style but I'm finding it very hard to get the information. Does anyone know where I could find some direction?

Does anyone know what scale he uses? I'm pretty sure he plays in standard tuning.

Thanks a lot.
He plays in standard tuning, and uses the same scales we all use, as far as I've heard. (Major scale or minor pent mainly.)

Even his fingerpicking style is not too different from American styles like Mississippi John Hurt or John Lee Hooker.
It's only the way he puts the notes together - the timings, rhythmic placements - that's African!

You get a good view of his technique - on one of his tunes at least - here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMhWV1YjeMk
Key Db major, ie C shapes (C, F/A, G) with capo on fret 1.

On this one, he's jamming a Malian blues with Ali Farke Toure
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4-uq8cTF7o
Scale? A minor pent

To "get the information", you only need to listen and copy. (A slowdowner might help, although I didn't need one to get the above.)
Admittedly, the Mali vibe is what's tricky, but enough listening and copying should do it!
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Last edited by JonPR; 05-14-2015 at 02:33 AM.
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  #3  
Old 05-14-2015, 05:01 AM
stanron stanron is offline
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You might want to put 'African Highlife Guitar' into a search engine to find more of this style. Back in the sixties I had a landlord from Sierra Leone who picked up my guitar one day and started playing this stuff. Amazing.
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  #4  
Old 05-14-2015, 06:43 AM
JCook1 JCook1 is offline
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This DVD might give you some help:

http://www.guitarvideos.com/products...erstyle-guitar

Not specifically about Boubacar, but it does cover some Malian music, and looks like it will help a lot with the rhythm. I don't have it at the moment, but I'm planning to order it soon.

I love the music of Boubacar Traore and Ali Farka Toure. Habib Koite is another fabulouis musician from Mali.

Jack
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  #5  
Old 05-14-2015, 07:07 AM
JonPR JonPR is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by stanron View Post
You might want to put 'African Highlife Guitar' into a search engine to find more of this style. Back in the sixties I had a landlord from Sierra Leone who picked up my guitar one day and started playing this stuff. Amazing.
High life is more Ghana/Nigeria, played by bands, but yes the guitar style is very similar.

This guy (also from Sierra Leone) was great:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd_-p2R0U3w
They (or he, at least!) called that Palm Wine Music.

More African guitar:

Soukous from the Congo - also 3-chord major key stuff, but on electric:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mOkwaj2wf0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFR6HD13z08

Zimbabwe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhXGyer-cIg

The music of Mali is usually more bluesy/Arabic, often on one chord. Ali Farke Toure, Tinariwen, Bassekou Kouyate, Salif Keita are among the best known names there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJbr0W8_X0k - in G major pent, mostly, with the occasional blue 3rd.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U2f4eA_K9A - in what we'd call "D minor" (aeolian/natural minor).
(Dig the wah-wah ngoni!)
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Last edited by JonPR; 05-14-2015 at 07:25 AM.
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Old 05-14-2015, 07:12 AM
sirwhale sirwhale is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JCook1 View Post
This DVD might give you some help:

http://www.guitarvideos.com/products...erstyle-guitar

Not specifically about Boubacar, but it does cover some Malian music, and looks like it will help a lot with the rhythm. I don't have it at the moment, but I'm planning to order it soon.

I love the music of Boubacar Traore and Ali Farka Toure. Habib Koite is another fabulouis musician from Mali.

Jack
I had just bought this! It's amazing stuff, highly recommended. It's all in open D, so a new tuning for me, but I like it. Seems very easy to noodle with. It will be my summer holiday.

Thanks for all the other replies I'll check out the links. I just love Traoré's groove. Hopefully Steffan Grossman Videos will bring more lessons for west African music. I love it.
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Christian
Guitar: Camps Primera Negra A (a flamenco guitar)
Strings: Aquila SugarAquila Rubino, Knobloch CX, Aquila Alchemia
I play: Acoustic blues & folk
Videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/sirwhale28/videos
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  #7  
Old 05-14-2015, 07:17 AM
sirwhale sirwhale is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JonPR View Post
He plays in standard tuning, and uses the same scales we all use, as far as I've heard. (Major scale or minor pent mainly.)

Even his fingerpicking style is not too different from American styles like Mississippi John Hurt or John Lee Hooker.
It's only the way he puts the notes together - the timings, rhythmic placements - that's African!

You get a good view of his technique - on one of his tunes at least - here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMhWV1YjeMk
Key Db major, ie C shapes (C, F/A, G) with capo on fret 1.

On this one, he's jamming a Malian blues with Ali Farke Toure
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4-uq8cTF7o
Scale? A minor pent

To "get the information", you only need to listen and copy. (A slowdowner might help, although I didn't need one to get the above.)
Admittedly, the Mali vibe is what's tricky, but enough listening and copying should do it!
I'll have a go at listening and copying. I still have only been playing the guitar for a year, so I imagine it'll be so to start with.

I'm visiting Gambia in a couple of weeks, I'm looking forward to finding interesting music.
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Christian
Guitar: Camps Primera Negra A (a flamenco guitar)
Strings: Aquila SugarAquila Rubino, Knobloch CX, Aquila Alchemia
I play: Acoustic blues & folk
Videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/sirwhale28/videos
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  #8  
Old 05-14-2015, 07:19 AM
JCook1 JCook1 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JonPR View Post
This guy (also from Sierra Leone) was great:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd_-p2R0U3w
They (or he, at least!) called that Palm Wine Music.
I had never heard this fellow before. He is excellent. I will check out more of his music. Thanks for the link!

Jack
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  #9  
Old 05-14-2015, 08:33 AM
stanron stanron is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JonPR View Post
High life is more Ghana/Nigeria, played by bands, but yes the guitar style is very similar.

This guy (also from Sierra Leone) was great:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd_-p2R0U3w
They (or he, at least!) called that Palm Wine Music.
This was back in the sixties. He was ten, maybe twenty years older than me. He could have been learning guitar back in the thirties or forties. He called it Highlife, not me. What I can recall was alternating thumb and the most amazing syncopation. Quite distinct from, say, Travis picking.
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  #10  
Old 05-14-2015, 10:09 AM
JCook1 JCook1 is offline
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Yeah, it's the rhythm that's really the core of it, and it's not easy. In a lot of this music the thumb has to keep the rhythm and the fingers play the syncopated melody, but sometimes the thumb is also syncopated. Also many of these guys seem to play with only thumb and forefinger, like Rev. Gary Davis, and I find it amazing that they can do all that with only those two fingers. I use thumb and two fingers, and sometimes thumb and three, and I struggle with playing this music. Once you get it into your head, though, it starts to come through. African guitar playing is so wonderful and interesting.

Jack
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  #11  
Old 05-15-2015, 02:19 AM
JonPR JonPR is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by stanron View Post
This was back in the sixties. He was ten, maybe twenty years older than me. He could have been learning guitar back in the thirties or forties. He called it Highlife, not me. What I can recall was alternating thumb and the most amazing syncopation. Quite distinct from, say, Travis picking.
Right. I agree it's a version of highlife, I shouldn't get too nit-picky about pigeon-holes!
It's striking how similar African guitar styles are across the continent - the only real division I can spot is between the Islamic north and the centre/south, with the former more "modal" (one chord drones, often minor) and the latter more based on I-IV-V, usually major. (Disregarding questions of rhythm, vocals and other instrumentation.)
I guess the Africans themselves are aware of finer distinctions than we might be...
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