Soukous Guitar Transcription - Kimbangu - Audition part 1 of 5

Luxembourg Koko Kimbangu Solo Pentatonic (I guess)

Transcription and re-play of his audition with Werrason. You can watch this at 720p so that the sheet is easy to read.
If you think that there is a different, better way to play this I encourage you to share your point of view with a video or a transcription.

Looking for someone honoring this great guitar tradition from Congo on youtube I could only find short videos advertising some instructional DVD (maybe an excellent one but that's not the point) or some occasional showoff of more or less sharp skills, not helpful at all, with the sole exception of some excellent video from the user Sparrowdudu. That is why I decided to post some transcription and I hope to see some more honest efforts to share the admiration for these great guitarists.

Kimbangu is good and is improving and his video is a good opportunity to hear the guitar not overwhelmed by the rest of the band and see his approach on the fretboard and also his picking style, which makes the difference in driving the rhythm and the sound.

Audition with Werrason available here: http://youtu.be/XoaESVlNcrI

If you are interested and have the patience there is more in this "barbershop session" here: http://youtu.be/tOfM-zex4ok

Transcription: part 1 of 5

The original speed is around 110-115 bpm

I struggled a little bit with the speed ending up using more alternate picking than he does and that, believe it or not, changes the sound for worse. This is a good reminder of the kind of energy you need to play for serious dancing crowds.

Any comment, constructive feedback and suggestion is appreciated.
You can also check out my website guitaresoukous.com

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Congo
• guitar
• soukous
• sebene
• werrason
• Kimbangu
• Luxembourg
• groove
• malewa
• transcription
• sheet
• ndombolo

[GeesharpGTP]

hey you the truth i m learning this too any advice?

[GuitOp81]

@GeesharpGTP practice very slow and build up speed gradually, be patient, some of these things are simple when broken down but tricky to play live at that speed. Singing the main line with your voice helps a lot. You may also want to start from something simple or deal with one little part at a time.

[guitarnoma]

Thank you so much for this. Ive been trying to figure out the notes for this. How did you transcribe it?

[GuitOp81]

@guitarnoma @guitarnoma You're welcome. I did this by playing it over and over with VLC, first at regular speed and then slowing it down (VLC allows to reduce the speed without changing the pitch).

[GuitOp81]

@guitarnoma @guitarnoma Audacity, another free software, allows that as well. You can look for this video here on youtube "AUDACITY mp3 loop & slow"

For longer transcriptions I like to use Transcribe, which is quite good.