singemonkey
Does anyone play traditional Zulu guitar style? Care to post a lesson?
This is definitely my favourite South African style - it used to bring tears to my eyes when I was living in London. I've occasionally tried to half-heartedly work out the odd Johnny Clegg lick, but I don't really know anything about playing it. Is it played in standard tuning, for a start? It sounds like it's all in pentatonic major. Can anyone confirm that?
[deleted]
Half the power of this music lies in the basswork, too. For every Johnny, there's a Concord in the background.
Some years ago I played with a band at Doctor Khumalo's benefit concert in Durban, and we were slotted in between Phuzekhemisi and Lundi. Phuzekhemisi (this was at a stadium, with an awesome and very loud rig, mind you) blew my freakin' socks off, almost literally. The drums and bass laid down this thick, funky groove with that fantastic guitar going all over the top of it. It's one thing to listen to it on disc; another thing completely to feel it coursing through you at a live show. Their approach to bass is just as...alien and difficult to replicate.
singemonkey
It seems like something that, if you like it, you should be able to replicate when you find yourself in front of foreigners holding a guitar. I wonder if anyone on the forum has ever played it. It would be great to find a lesson. Any idea about the standard tuning thing?
PeteM
I used to play Maskandi style of guitar with our gardener and his friends when I was a kid. Tuning was what they made of it - sometimes just just 4 strings, some times only 3 - usually because they had snapped and they didn't have money for more - but that didn't stop them from playing. A piece of wood with a loop of string served as a capo. They didn't have bass then and played a droning bass note with the riff sitting on top.
Do I play maskandi? Not really - I learned a few licks which I have long ago forgotten and now play a sort of quasi/bad interpretation. You have to live the rhythm to be able to play it authentically or be a white Zulu like Johnny Clegg.
[deleted]
singemonkey wrote:
I wonder if anyone on the forum has ever played it. It would be great to find a lesson. Any idea about the standard tuning thing?
Haha, indeed - I answered precisely none of your questions... ? I'll ask around, in addition to whatever you dredge up here. How about that?
MikeM
Yea if someone does find out more about it, I'd love to read a short lesson on it. One thing that makes me proudly South African
NorioDS
Me too! Me too! I would love nothing more than to be able to add this sort of flavour to my music. I fell in love with it a long time ago but never quite "got" how to play it, despite help from Rene and others around here.
singemonkey
PeteM wrote:
I used to play Maskandi style of guitar with our gardener and his friends when I was a kid. Tuning was what they made of it - They didn't have bass then and played a droning bass note with the riff sitting on top.
This is what I'm wondering. And how did people keep their licks together unless each person at least knew their own tuning? What was the approach when people shared guitars?
As I understand it from Johnny Clegg doccies, these guys would get together in groups and play without bass in a kind of competition. The guys who were really hot must have had a system.
PeteM
singemonkey wrote:
PeteM wrote:
I used to play Maskandi style of guitar with our gardener and his friends when I was a kid. Tuning was what they made of it - They didn't have bass then and played a droning bass note with the riff sitting on top.
This is what I'm wondering. And how did people keep their licks together unless each person at least knew their own tuning? What was the approach when people shared guitars?
As I understand it from Johnny Clegg doccies, these guys would get together in groups and play without bass in a kind of competition. The guys who were really hot must have had a system.
They didn't share guitars - you played your own, but if you did use someone's you had to learn quickly where to put your fingers. Although most of the tuning was open on a major chord.
We used to sit around in a circle and have turns at playing - feeding off what one of the other guys had done. If you played something strange or foreign, then the guys would roll around on the floor laughing, and then they would try to play what you had just played and they would roll around all over again. If you cracked something really good then it became seriously competitive stuff. Good memories - had forgotten about that.
singemonkey
That sounds way cool, Pete. ?
MikeM
Awesome. Gave me goosebumps, more than once.
[deleted]
Fascinating... I enjoyed that!
We should ask Johnny Clegg to write a book about it... and then throw some lessons in there too...
This stuff needs to be around and grow before that hop, hip and rap take over... :'(
Attila
I tried to work out a "zulu ish" riff and found the best thing to use is a thumb pic as its all about the bass lines.
A while ago I was at Toms when they were down town, and a young student looking guy walked up to me, said nothing, took the acoustic out of my hands ( because I was making a geraas) and played a few bars of "zulu" music. gave it back to me, smiled and walked away......
I was trying to say to him in broken english,...."teach me that !!!" , but the words did not come out right, I think it sounded more like, "you cheekey little shit" ? I regret not striking up a conversation with him
I got to tell you it IS the most beautiful music....really speaks to my soul
Found this
A Maskanda, a mainly guitar-based urban Zulu music form that has evolved from a solo style to incorporate concertina and violin as well as bass and drums, got its name as a slang derivation of the Afrikaans word musikant (musician). The tunings vary from guitarist to guitarist; many invent their own and become fiercely protective of them. As I've learned from such friends as Syd Kitchen (www.sydkitchen.com) and Madala Keneni, there are some widely shared tunings.
The most common drops the first treble E string down to D. One variation on this replaces the D fourth string with a nylon first string and tunes it in unison to the D first string. This is known as "double first" tuning, pronounced dabul fersi. While growing up in Natal, South Africa, I learned a tuning that I still use: the high E is dropped to D, then a wooden homemade capo, with a notch cut out at the end so that it stops all the strings except the low E, is placed on the second fret.
The maskanda guitar technique involves the thumb and index fingerthe thumb plays double-time staccato bass runs, while the index finger picks out a countermelody. I recall the first time I "got it"; when my thumb (with a thumbpick) played independently from the other fingers, something seemed to separate in my head. No wonder I took to making guitars with the aim of making the separation of notes, overtones, and harmonics very evident. For prime examples of maskanda, check out the music of Phuzekhemisi and Mfaz Omnyama. —Marc Maingard
singemonkey
Wow. Thanks for this great information. Sadly, I haven't watched the vid yet because I've been checking gfsa at work recently.
Amazing stuff about the partial capo. Really good to begin understanding the tunings and techniques. We just need to find someone now who can work up a video lesson ?
-jeff
Hi,
I've jammed with Madala Kunene a fair bit, and he uses at least four different tunings depending on what he's playing.
He uses a drop D tuning as previously described, an open D tuning like a Hawaiian slack key or hard-core Delta blues guy might use, and standard tuning. He has a fourth tuning that he hasn't shown me, it's of his own invention and he protects it fiercely, and actually, I have enough respect for him that when he's left guitars at my house tuned that way I've never even written it down -- it sort of feels like stealing, actually.
I've never seen him use a wood capo or anything like that, and he plays with his fingers although his thumbnail is massively strong as are the rest of his fingernails.
My best advice is to get a couple of his CD's, experiment with drop-d and open D, and you should be able to find some of the licks pretty easily. Also look on the web for slack key guitar videos; Madala plays a lot of stuff that sounds almost exactly like Keola Beamer -- check it out:
The challenge, though, is that it's really all about feel, and the maskandi feel is pretty unique. I struggle with it, and I don't think I'll ever really get it cause I'm not Zulu and at best it sort of an impersonation of something that I love too much to do badly.
Hope this helps,
~j
Tokai-SA
[copyrighted material removed by AR]
PeteM
Nice stuff Tokai, but to me it is West African music and not the very distinctive Maskandi or Zulu street guitar music. I tried to find a good reference on Youtube but to no avail. Will keep searching.
Attila
guys
I see johnny Clegg in the Morningside area quite often I will have a chat with him to see about some material.
also check out
Spector Ngwazi in action its predominatly the thum base line and fore finger picking, drop D tuning: E A D G B D
Tommy Emmanuel aka Toni Enamel to the okes in Cape Town, also plays like this but has a claw like picking/strumming action with all fingers while the thumb picks an A-D E- D base line - not Maskanda style of course
There is another white zulu in the making called David Jenking
http://www.youtube.com/user/DlNdlovu
Peace
