Guidebook West African Guitar Styles - Introduction 

 
Hi, I'm Zoumana Diarra from Mali in West Africa. Welcome to the West African Guitar Styles 
Guidebook. West Africa is where the blues was born. Blues guitar players like Taj Mahal, Corey 
Harris, and Ry Cooder have gone to West Africa to study music, playing and recording with local 
musicians like Ali Farka Toure. 

West African melodies and rhythms are a huge influence on all pop, rock, folk, and jazz music. But, 
West African guitar is so much more, as you'll see in this course. Africa is a huge continent with 
many different styles of music and a very rich musical history, so here we're going to study eleven 
essential styles and grooves from different West African Countries: We'll look at the Bambara, 
African rhumba, minuit, gumbe, highlife, Manding, soukous, njaro, Mali blues, gwe gwe, and a guitar 
playing method taken from the kora. 

Most of these styles can be played with your fingers or with a pick, each one having several 
melodies. When played together, you get intricate grooves that can be very complex. Each melodic 
pattern in West African music can be played by different instruments like the ngoni, kora, balafon, or 
guitar. 

Here, we'll study these patterns on guitar, each style coming with a backing track and tabs. I hope 
you enjoy this collection of styles!

Note: G​ riots​ are a kind of troubadour, a traveling musician or singer who knows the history of a local 
tribe or family and makes sure that stories are told, retold, and kept for posterity. The traditional 
instruments of a Griot are kora, balafon, djembe, and ngoni. Zoumana is a Griot - a profession 
handed down from father to son. Even today, there are still Griots in Africa. Next to the traditional 
instruments, guitars now have an important place in the music a Griot plays. The basis of African 
music is fingerstyle playing. Most West African players don't know what chords are, introduced to 
this music through influences from Cuba in the 1920's. Because these styles are based on strong 
melodies, most patterns can also be played with a pick. 
 
African Rhumba  
 
Let's look at the first part of the African rhumba. The African rhumba is inspired by West African 
musicians from the French colonies who traveled to Cuba in the fifties. Musicians were paid by the 
local government to modernize their playing, bringing in modern instruments like the guitar. Before 
they went to Cuba, African musicians played melodies - they didn't know what a chord was.Soukous 
originated from the African rhumba, of which two famous players are Dr. Nico and Rochereau. 
 
Bambara 
 
The Bambara is the original blues music. This example is a minor pentatonic guitar style from Segou 
in Mali. Major pentatonic blues originated in Sikasso, Mali.The first guitars in West Africa had one 
string, and the music played on this guitar was strictly pentatonic: they always played in the same 
key. Later, the Bambara was played on the ngoni. This is a six-string guitar for hunters with five 
strings tuned pentatonic. A Bambara does not have chords, only melodies. 
 
Gwe Gwe 
 
Gwe gwe is a traditional rhythm from the Bete people from Ivory Coast. Like many other rhythms, it 
later developed into a guitar style. One of the most famous guitar players in this style was Amédée 
Pierre. In the 80's, Ernesto Djedje became the founder of the more modern gwe gwe guitar style. 
 
 
Methode Kora 
 
This style is based on melodies played on the kora. There are two types of kora melodies: major and 
Lydian. The three parts are normally played by the kora, ngoni, and balafon. Melodies are often 
played in octave style. 
 
Gumbe 
 
Gumbe comes from Guinea-Bissau. It's a combination of several music traditions with a modern 
sound. It sounds like a samba, but is more polyrhythmic. 
 
Highlife  
 
Highlife is traditional music from Ghana with many elements. Modern highlife has European and jazz 
influences. There are many kinds of highlife: This one is called Joromi. It has a dominant seven 
chord, which is exceptional. Ghanese highlife music was first played in the 1920's; a mix from 
traditional church music, military marching music, and traditional music from neighboring countries 
like Liberia and Sierra Leone. After World War II, it embraced more European and jazz influences. 
 
Mali Blues 
 
There are different types of blues in Mali. This type comes from Wassoulou and is major pentatonic. 
The groove is formed by combining multiple parts. Ali Farka Toure is one of the musicians that 
played this style. 
 
Manding 
  
This style was originally played on the kora, ngoni, and balafon. On the guitar, the basic part is an 
octave pattern, called dubbelgam, originally played on the kora. The second part was played on the 
ngoni, and the third part on the balafon. Here we play all the parts on the guitar. All melodies have a 
name, which was given to it based on the first song that ever used it. 
 
Music is almost like a dialect in West Africa: If the language changes, the music changes with it. 
After World War II and the return of African enlisted soldiers, the guitar became the symbol of 
neo-traditional music. Two important proponents of Manding are Salif Keita and the Railband du 
Bamako. 
 
Minuit 
 
The minuit is the basis of all guitar music in West Africa. It is diatonic music with three chords: 
C-F-G. It has a syncopated picking pattern with a fun melody that people thought would bring in 
spirits. 
 
Njaro 
 
Njaro is an old style from the Sahara Desert. It comes from traditional singing and can sound very 
dreamy. This music is also traditionally played on the ngoni. 
 
Soukous 
 
Soukous is a rhythmic pattern used for dancing, a mix of African Cuban rhumba and traditional 
music from the Congo. "Soukous" literally means "to shake".It's a very open style with a lot of room 
for improvisation. It's very popular among guitarists It is characterized by intense guitar parts, 
repeating melodic patterns, and sensitive harmonies. A famous guitarist in this style is Franco of OK 
Jazz, renowned for his finger picking.